The German Social Democratic Party, 1875-1933: From Ghetto to Government

375 Pages·2021·38.933 MB·English

by  W. L. Guttsman

ROUTLEDGE LIBRARY EDITIONS:
GERMAN HISTORY
Volume 17
THE GERMAN SOCIAL
DEMOCRATIC PARTY,
1875–1933

THE GERMAN SOCIAL
DEMOCRATIC PARTY,
1875–1933
From Ghetto to Government
W. L. GUTTSMAN
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The German Social
Democratic Party,
1875-1933
From Ghetto to Government
W. L. GUTTSMAN
London
GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN
Boston Sydney
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© George Allen & Unwin (Publishers) Ltd, 1981
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Guttsman, Wilhelm Leo
The German Social Democratic Party, 1875c1933.
I. Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands
History
I. Title
329.9' 43 JN3946.S83 80-41388
ISBN 0-04-943024-6
Set in 10 on II point Times by Red Lion Setters, London
anc\ printed in Great Britain
by Biliing and Sons Ltd., Guildford, London and Worcester
Contents
Introduction: Models and methods 1
1 Industrialisation and the entry of the German working
class into politics 14
Industrialisation and protest 14
The rise of working-class organisations 15
The belated industrial revolution 21
Towards a united working-class party 27
Early organisation and political representation 34
2 The role of the working-class party in the pseudo-
democratic state 42
The class struggle and the people's state 43
The weapon of the franchise 48
The constitutional system of the empire and the emergent SPD 51
The state versus the SPD 57
Lawful action by the outlawed 61
Parliamentary tactics and popular control 66
Towards democratic Marxism: the Erfurt programme of 1891 71
3 The political mobilisation of the German working class
and the SPD 78
Electoral trends and the socialist vote to 1912 78
Social structure and socialist voting 82
Class, region and vote 87
Social groups marginal to the working class and support for
the SPD 100
The penumbra of socialist support before the war 108
The socialist voting trend to 1914 110
Political mobilisation and the divided working class under
Weimar 113
On the road to a people's party? 122
4 Social milieu, political control and the grass roots of
social democracy 130
The struggle against the socialist hydra 133
A semi-fettered party 138
The socialist milieu 141
The Social Democratic Party organisation 149
The party membership 152
The embourgeoisement of the workers' party 159
5 The elective fatherland: Socialist subculture from ghetto
to republic 167
Agitation for persuasion and solidarity 169
viii The German Social Democratic Party, 1875-1933
Labour's high days and holidays 174
The problem of political education and its solution before
1914 177
The emergence of a centralised system of party education 182
The Social Democratic movement and education and culture
under Weimar 188
Socialist Kultur and its organisation 194
The Social Democratic subculture and socialist commitment 200
Sub-culture, high culture and counter-culture 207
6 The structure of a democratic party in action: Mass
membership, leadership and bureaucracy 219
The evolution of the organisational structure and the
democratic process 222
The structure of the SPD under Weimar 227
Local party democracy 230
Power and participation 234
Functionaries, officers and leaders 240
Leadership and bureaucracy 245
Career patterns and embourgoisement 251
Leaders and followers 259
7 A revolutionary but not a revolution-making party?
Theory and tactics from Erfurt to Weimar 271
The 'old, proven and victorious' tactics after 1890 272
German trade unionism and the road to pragmatic politics 279
The mass-strike debate of 1905 285
Goal versus movement: strategical theories and practice before
1914 287
The socialist party in the democratic state: 1918-32 306
8 Conclusions 328
Abbreviations 337
Sources 338
Index 357
In memory of my parents, Walter Johann Guttsmann, born in Berlin
on 8 May 1880, and Helene Guttsmann, born in Strehlen, Silesia,
on 5 August 1887, who perished in a Nazicamp in Poland sometime
in 1941.