Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
Encyclopedia
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
during the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of left wing members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
(SPD). The organization attempted to chart a middle course between electorally oriented revisionism
Revisionism
Revisionism may refer to:*Historical revisionism, the critical re-examination of presumed historical facts and existing historiography** The "revisionists" school of thought in Soviet and Communist studies, as opposed to the Cold War "traditionalists" school....
on the one hand and bolshevism on the other. The organization was terminated in 1931 through merger with the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany
Socialist Workers' Party of Germany
The Socialist Workers' Party of Germany was a political party in Germany. It was formed by a left-wing party with around 20,000 members which split off from the SPD in the autumn of 1931. In 1931 the remnants of USPD merged into the party, and in 1932 some Communist Party dissenters joined the...
(SAPD).
Formation
The history of the USPD began on December 21, 1915, members of the SPDSocial Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
fraction in the Reichstag
Reichstag (German Empire)
The Reichstag was the parliament of the North German Confederation , and of the German Reich ....
, the German parliament, voted against the authorization of further credits to finance World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, an incident that emphasized existing tensions between the party's leadership and the left-wing pacifist
Pacifism
Pacifism is the opposition to war and violence. The term "pacifism" was coined by the French peace campaignerÉmile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress inGlasgow in 1901.- Definition :...
s surrounding Hugo Haase
Hugo Haase
Hugo Haase was a German politician, jurist and pacifist.-Biography:Haase was born in Allenstein , Province of Prussia, the son of Jewish shoemaker and small businessman, Nathan Haase, and Pauline née Anker. He studied law in Königsberg and established himself as a lawyer...
and ultimately led to the expulsion of the group from the SPD fraction on March 24, 1916.
To be able to continue their parliamentary work, the group formed the Sozialdemokratische Arbeitsgemeinschaft (SAG, "Social Democratic Working Group"); concerns from the SPD leadership and Friedrich Ebert
Friedrich Ebert
Friedrich Ebert was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany .When Ebert was elected as the leader of the SPD after the death of August Bebel, the party members of the SPD were deeply divided because of the party's support for World War I. Ebert supported the Burgfrieden and...
that the SAG was intent on dividing the SPD then led to the expulsion of the SAG members from the SPD on January 18, 1917. Three months later, on April 6, 1917, the USPD was founded at a conference in Gotha
Gotha (town)
Gotha is a town in Thuringia, within the central core of Germany. It is the capital of the district of Gotha.- History :The town has existed at least since the 8th century, when it was mentioned in a document signed by Charlemagne as Villa Gotaha . Its importance derives from having been chosen in...
, with Hugo Haase
Hugo Haase
Hugo Haase was a German politician, jurist and pacifist.-Biography:Haase was born in Allenstein , Province of Prussia, the son of Jewish shoemaker and small businessman, Nathan Haase, and Pauline née Anker. He studied law in Königsberg and established himself as a lawyer...
as the party's first chairman; the Spartakusbund also merged into the newly founded party, but retained relative autonomy. To avoid confusion, the existing SPD was typically called MSPD (Mehrheits-SPD, "majority-SPD") from then on.
Following the Januarstreik in January 1918, a strike demanding an end to the war and better food provisioning that was organized by revolutionaries affiliated with the USPD and officially supported by the party, the USPD quickly rose to about 120,000 members; despite harsh criticism of the SPD for becoming part of the government of the newly formed German republic during the Oktoberreform, the USPD reached a settlement with the SPD as the Novemberrevolution
German Revolution
The German Revolution was the politically-driven civil conflict in Germany at the end of World War I, which resulted in the replacement of Germany's imperial government with a republic...
began, and even became part of the government in the form of the Rat der Volksbeauftragten ("council of people's deputies"), which was formed on November 10, 1918 and mutually led by Friedrich Ebert
Friedrich Ebert
Friedrich Ebert was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany .When Ebert was elected as the leader of the SPD after the death of August Bebel, the party members of the SPD were deeply divided because of the party's support for World War I. Ebert supported the Burgfrieden and...
and Hugo Haase
Hugo Haase
Hugo Haase was a German politician, jurist and pacifist.-Biography:Haase was born in Allenstein , Province of Prussia, the son of Jewish shoemaker and small businessman, Nathan Haase, and Pauline née Anker. He studied law in Königsberg and established himself as a lawyer...
following the German Revolution
German Revolution
The German Revolution was the politically-driven civil conflict in Germany at the end of World War I, which resulted in the replacement of Germany's imperial government with a republic...
.
The agreement did not last long, though, for on December 29, 1918, Haase, Wilhelm Dittmann and Emil Barth
Emil Barth
Emil Barth was a German Social Democratic metal worker who became a key figure in the German Revolution of 1918....
left the council again to protest the SPD's actions during the soldier mutiny in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
on November 23, 1918. At the same time, the Spartakusbund, led by Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
and Karl Liebknecht
Karl Liebknecht
was a German socialist and a co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. He is best known for his opposition to World War I in the Reichstag and his role in the Spartacist uprising of 1919...
, separated from the USPD again as well to merge with other left wing groups and form the KPD
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, "Communist Party of Germany").
Development
During the elections for the national assemblyWeimar National Assembly
The Weimar National Assembly governed Germany from February 6, 1919 to June 6, 1920 and drew up the new constitution which governed Germany from 1919 to 1933, technically remaining in effect even until the end of Nazi rule in 1945...
on January 19, 1919, from which the SPD emerged as the strongest party with 37.9 % of the votes, the USPD only managed to attract 7.6 %; nevertheless, the party's strong support for the introduction of a system of councils (Räterepublik) instead of a parliamentary democracy attracted many former SPD members, and in spring 1920, the USPD had grown to more than 750,000 members, managing to increase their share of votes to 17.9 % during the parliamentary elections on June 6, 1920 and becoming one of the largest fractions in the new Reichstag
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
, second only to the SPD (21.7 %).
Debate Over Joining the Communist International
In 1920, four delegates from the USPD attended the 2nd World Congress of the Comintern2nd World Congress of the Comintern
The 2nd World Congress of the Comintern was a gathering of approximately 220 voting and non-voting representatives of Communist and revolutionary socialist political parties from around the world, held in Petrograd and Moscow from July 19 to August 7, 1920...
, Ernst Däumig
Ernst Däumig
Ernst Däumig was a German politician and was the co-chairman of both the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and Communist Party of Germany .-Early Years:...
, Arthur Crispien
Arthur Crispien
Arthur Crispien was a German Social Democratic politician.- Biography :Crispien was born in Königsberg to August and Franziska Crispien. He worked as a house and stage painter in Königsberg and joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1894...
, Walter Stoecker and Wilhelm Dittmann to discuss participating in the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
. Whilst Däumig and Stoecker agreed with the International's 21 conditions of entry, Crispien and Dittmann opposed them, leading to a controversial debate over joining the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
to brake out in the USPD; many members felt that the necessary requirements for joining would lead to a loss of the party's independence and a perceived "dictate from Moscow", while others, especially younger members such as Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann was the leader of the Communist Party of Germany during much of the Weimar Republic. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot in Buchenwald on Adolf Hitler's orders in 1944...
, argued that only the joining of the Comintern would allow the party to implement its socialist ideals.
Ultimately, the proposition to join the Comintern was approved at a party convention in Halle
Halle, Saxony-Anhalt
Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
in October 1920 by 237 votes to 156, with various international speakers including Julius Martov
Julius Martov
Julius Martov or L. Martov was born in Constantinople in 1873...
, Jean Longuet
Jean Longuet
Jean-Laurent-Frederick Longuet was a French socialist and Karl Marx's grandson.Son of Charles and Jenny Longuet. French lawyer and Socialist who in the First World War held a pacifist position but invariably voted for war credits. Founder and editor of the newspaper Le Populaire...
and Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Zinoviev
Grigory Yevseevich Zinoviev , born Ovsei-Gershon Aronovich Radomyslsky Apfelbaum , was a Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet Communist politician...
. The USPD split up in the process, with both groups seeing themselves as the rightful USPD and the other one as being outcast. On December 4, 1920, the left wing of the USPD, with about 400,000 members, merged into the KPD
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
, forming the VKPD (Vereinigte Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, "United Communist Party of Germany"), while the other half of the party, with about 340,000 members and including three quarters of the 81 Reichstag members, continued under the name USPD; led by Georg Ledebour and Arthur Crispien
Arthur Crispien
Arthur Crispien was a German Social Democratic politician.- Biography :Crispien was born in Königsberg to August and Franziska Crispien. He worked as a house and stage painter in Königsberg and joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1894...
, they advocated a parliamentary democracy. The USPD was instrumental in the creation of the 2½ International in 1921.
Move to merger
Over time, the political differences between SPD and USPD dwindled, and following the assassination of foreign minister Walther RathenauWalther Rathenau
Walther Rathenau was a German Jewish industrialist, politician, writer, and statesman who served as Foreign Minister of Germany during the Weimar Republic...
by right wing extremists in June 1922, the two parties' fractions in the Reichstag formed a common working group on July 14, 1922; two months later, on September 24, the parties officially merged again after a joint party convention in Nürnberg, adopting the name Vereinigte Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (VSPD, "United Social Democratic Party of Germany"), which was shortened again to SPD in 1924.
The USPD was continued as an independent party by Georg Ledebour and Theodor Liebknecht
Theodor Liebknecht
Theodor Liebknecht was a German socialist politician.-Biography:Born in Leipzig in 1870 as the son of Wilhelm Liebknecht and the brother of Karl Liebknecht, Theodor Liebknecht studied law and worked as a lawyer in Berlin from 1899 on, becoming politically active after his brother's murder in...
, who refused to work with the SPD, but it never attained any significance again and merged into the Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschland (SAPD, Socialist Workers' Party of Germany
Socialist Workers' Party of Germany
The Socialist Workers' Party of Germany was a political party in Germany. It was formed by a left-wing party with around 20,000 members which split off from the SPD in the autumn of 1931. In 1931 the remnants of USPD merged into the party, and in 1932 some Communist Party dissenters joined the...
) in 1931.
The party got 20,275 votes in the 1928 Reichtag election, but won no seats.
Important USPD members
See also List of Independent Social Democratic Party politicians- Emil BarthEmil BarthEmil Barth was a German Social Democratic metal worker who became a key figure in the German Revolution of 1918....
- Eduard BernsteinEduard BernsteinEduard Bernstein was a German social democratic theoretician and politician, a member of the SPD, and the founder of evolutionary socialism and revisionism.- Life :...
- Arthur CrispienArthur CrispienArthur Crispien was a German Social Democratic politician.- Biography :Crispien was born in Königsberg to August and Franziska Crispien. He worked as a house and stage painter in Königsberg and joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1894...
- Ernst DäumigErnst DäumigErnst Däumig was a German politician and was the co-chairman of both the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany and Communist Party of Germany .-Early Years:...
- Wilhelm Dittmann
- Hugo EberleinHugo EberleinHugo Eberlein was a German Communist politician. He took part of the founding congress of the Communist Party of Germany , and then in the First Congress of the Comintern , where he held important posts until 1928, the result of his involvement with the Conciliator faction...
- Kurt EisnerKurt EisnerKurt Eisner was a Bavarian politician and journalist. As a German socialist journalist and statesman, he organized the Socialist Revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy in Bavaria in November 1918....
- Hugo HaaseHugo HaaseHugo Haase was a German politician, jurist and pacifist.-Biography:Haase was born in Allenstein , Province of Prussia, the son of Jewish shoemaker and small businessman, Nathan Haase, and Pauline née Anker. He studied law in Königsberg and established himself as a lawyer...
- Karl KautskyKarl KautskyKarl Johann Kautsky was a Czech-German philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theoretician. Kautsky was recognized as among the most authoritative promulgators of Orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels in 1895 until the coming of World War I in 1914 and was called by some the "Pope of...
- Karl KorschKarl Korsch-Biography:Korsch was born in Tostedt, near Hamburg, to Carl August Korsch, a secretary at the cantonal court and his wife Therese. In 1898 the family moved to Meiningen, Thuringia and Korsch senior attained the position of a managing clerk in a bank...
- Georg Ledebour
- Paul LeviPaul LeviPaul Levi was a German Jewish Communist political leader. He was the head of the Communist Party of Germany following the assassination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in 1919.-Early years:...
- Karl LiebknechtKarl Liebknechtwas a German socialist and a co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. He is best known for his opposition to World War I in the Reichstag and his role in the Spartacist uprising of 1919...
- Theodor LiebknechtTheodor LiebknechtTheodor Liebknecht was a German socialist politician.-Biography:Born in Leipzig in 1870 as the son of Wilhelm Liebknecht and the brother of Karl Liebknecht, Theodor Liebknecht studied law and worked as a lawyer in Berlin from 1899 on, becoming politically active after his brother's murder in...
- Kurt LöwensteinKurt LöwensteinKurt Löwenstein was a German USPD/SPD politician, Socialist reform pedagogue and one of the founders of Socialist Youth of Germany - Falcons.-Family and education:...
- Rosa LuxemburgRosa LuxemburgRosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
- Ernst NiekischErnst NiekischErnst Niekisch was a German politician. Initially associated with mainstream left-wing politics he later became a Prominent exponent of National Bolshevism.-Bavaria:...
- Toni Sender
- Ernst ThälmannErnst ThälmannErnst Thälmann was the leader of the Communist Party of Germany during much of the Weimar Republic. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot in Buchenwald on Adolf Hitler's orders in 1944...
- Kurt TucholskyKurt TucholskyKurt Tucholsky was a German-Jewish journalist, satirist and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser, Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel. Born in Berlin-Moabit, he moved to Paris in 1924 and then to Sweden in 1930.Tucholsky was one of the most important journalists of...
- Clara ZetkinClara ZetkinClara Zetkin was a German Marxist theorist, activist, and fighter for women's rights. In 1910, she organized the first International Women's Day....