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The Social Democratic Party of Germany (German: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, [zoˈtsi̯aːldemoˌkʁaːtɪʃə paʁˌtaɪ ˈdɔʏtʃlants]; SPD, German pronunciation: [ɛspeːˈdeː] ⓘ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
- SPD
- Social democracy
- 27 May 1875; 148 years ago
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- Overview
- History
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Germany’s oldest political party and one of the country’s two main parties (the other being the Christian Democratic Union). It advocates the modernization of the economy to meet the demands of globalization, but it also stresses the need to address the social needs of workers and society’s disadvantaged.
The Social Democratic Party (SPD) traces its origins to the merger in 1875 of the General German Workers’ Union, led by Ferdinand Lassalle, and the Social Democratic Workers’ Party, headed by August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht. In 1890 it adopted its current name, the Social Democratic Party of Germany. The party’s early history was characterized by frequent and intense internal conflicts between so-called revisionists and orthodox Marxists and by persecution by the German government and its chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. The revisionists, led at various times by Lassalle and Eduard Bernstein, argued that social and economic justice could be achieved for the working class through democratic elections and institutions and without a violent class struggle and revolution. The orthodox Marxists insisted that free elections and civil rights would not create a truly socialist society and that the ruling class would never cede power without a fight. Indeed, German elites of the late 19th century considered the very existence of a socialist party a threat to the security and stability of the newly unified Reich, and from 1878 to 1890 the party was officially outlawed.
Despite laws prohibiting the party from holding meetings and distributing literature, the SPD attracted growing support and was able to continue to contest elections, and by 1912 it was the largest party in the Reichstag (“Imperial Diet”), receiving more than one-third of the national vote. However, its vote in favour of war credits in 1914 and Germany’s disastrous fate in World War I led to an internal split, with the centrists under Karl Kautsky forming the Independent Social Democratic Party and the left under Rosa Luxemburg and Liebknecht forming the Spartacus League, which in December 1918 became the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).
The right wing of the SPD, under Friedrich Ebert, joined with liberals and conservatives to crush the Soviet-style uprisings in Germany in 1918–20. Following World War I, the SPD played a central role in the formation of the Weimar Republic and in its brief and tragic history. In the general election of 1919 the SPD received 37.9 percent of the vote (while the Independent Social Democrats received another 7.6 percent), but the party’s failure to win favourable terms from the Allies at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919 (terms embodied in the Treaty of Versailles) and the country’s severe economic problems led to a drop in support. Nevertheless, together with the Roman Catholic and liberal parties, it was part of several coalition governments, but it was forced to expend much effort on its competition with the KPD for the support of the working class. In 1924 the SPD, which had by then reunited with the Independents, won only one-fifth of the vote. Although its core support among blue-collar workers remained relatively stable, the SPD lost support among white-collar workers and small businessmen, many of whom switched their allegiance to the conservatives and later to the Nazi Party. By 1933 the SPD held only 120 of 647 seats in the Reichstag to the Nazis’ 288 and the Communists’ 81.
The SPD was outlawed soon after the Nazis came to power in 1933. However, in 1945, with the fall of Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich, the SPD was revived. It was the only surviving party from the Weimar period with an unblemished record of opposition to Hitler; unlike other Weimar parties, the SPD had maintained exile organizations in Britain and the United States during the Third Reich. In addition, an underground organization had operated within Germany and managed to survive fairly intact. Thus, when democratic elections resumed in occupied Germany after the war, the SPD had a large advantage over its rivals, and it was expected to become the country’s governing party.
The SPD did indeed do very well in most Land- (state-) level elections held between 1946 and 1948. However, in West Germany’s first national election, held in 1949, the SPD was narrowly defeated by the newly formed Christian Democrats, who were able to put together a majority coalition with several smaller centre-right parties. The 1949 loss was followed by decisive defeats in 1953 and 1957.
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The foundation of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (German: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) can be traced back to the 1860s, and it has represented the centre-left in German politics for much of the 20th and 21st centuries.
06:30. The Social Democrats (SPD), Germany's oldest party, claim to be the world's oldest democratic party, as well. The SPD was born in an era when workers began to rebel against the...
17. Mai 2021 · SPD. Social Democratic Party of Germany. Established: October 1890. Members: 419,340. MPs in the Bundestag in the period 2017-2021: 152 of 709 MPs in total. Historic figures: Willy Brandt, Federal Chancellor from 1969 to 1974. Helmut Schmidt, Federal Chancellor from 1974 to 1982. Gerhard Schröder, Federal Chancellor from 1998 to 2005.
26. Sept. 2021 · Germany's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have claimed victory in the federal election, telling the party of outgoing Chancellor Angela Merkel it should no longer be in power. SPD...
