Between Efficiency and ‘Prussianism’: Stereotypes and the Perception of the the German Social Democrats by the British Labour Party, 1900–1920

Abstract

Following the landslide victory of the Labour Party on 1 May of 1997, there was widespread interest amongst German Social Democrats in the achievements of Tony Blair. In the media there was much speculation about the search for a German Tony capable of ousting chancellor Kohl after seventeen years.¹ The Labour Party was portrayed as a modern and up-to-date Social Democratic Party. The recent SPD election campaign for the Hamburg senate explicitly copied a Labour Party poster adorned with the slogan: ‘Law and Order is a Labour issue’. Leading Social Democrats were keen to be identified with the youthful party leader from across the Channel. So much so that for days on end Oskar Lafontaine, party chairman of the SPD, and Gerhard Schroeder, candidate in waiting for the chancellorship, proudly talked about their personal invivation by their ‘friend Tony’ to attend the victory celebrations of the Labour Party in London. However, when they got in touch with Labour Party headquarters they were in for a surprise: they found out that the whole thing was a hoax. No one from the Labour Party had ever invited them.