Germany

Abstract

The SPD (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) is the oldest political party in Germany and the second largest in terms of membership. However, by 2011 its membership had declined to below 500,000 — for the first time since 1906. One of the two great ‘people’s parties’ (Volkspartei) in the German Republic, along with the Christliche Demokratische Union (CDU), SPD is the main force of national government. Re-founded in 1945 under the name ‘social Democrats,’ it has existed since the two workers’ groups were amalgamated into the SAP (Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei) in 1875. Led by figures of revolutionary socialism close to Karl Marx, such as Ferdinand Lassalle, August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht, SAP has participated in all parliamentary elections since the 1870s. It took the name of SPD in 1890 and became the first German party in 1912. During the WWI, the vote of war credits by part of the parliamentary group triggered massive exclusions and the foundation of dissident parties including the Spartacus League, the future German Communist Party (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands — KPD), especially behind Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. In 1919, SPD founded the Weimar Republic with the Liberals and Catholics, whose Social Democratic leader, Friedrich Ebert, was elected as first President, over the rubble and the repression of the communist revolution that led to Wilhelm II’s abdication. SPD experienced a rapid decline faced with competition from the Communist Party in the 1920s and was ousted from power. Banned by the Nazis in 1933, it reconstructed in exile — in Prague, then in Paris and London — while many of its members were imprisoned or sent to Nazi death camps. In 1945, SPD was re-founded in the occupied areas of the West, while the Social Democrats in the East were forced to join the single party (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands — SED).