Gerhard Hildebrand

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Gerhard Hildebrand (born 1877), was a controversial German socialist.

Contents

Life

He was active as a journalist and from 1903 as a member of the Social Democratic Party. [1] He was on the revisionist wing of the party, and many of his articles were published in the Sozialistische Monatshefte revisionist magazine. He came to be viewed[ by whom? ] as one of the prominent exponents of social imperialism.

His main work was the book Die Erschütterung der Industrieherrschaft und des Industriesozialismus (The shattering of industrial domination and of industrial socialism), published in 1910, in which he doubted that an economy should be socialised completely. He called for the acquisition of colonies, and for a "West European customs union" [2]

His "heretical views" on nationalism and imperialism led to his expulsion from the party, [3] at the convention in Chemnitz on 16 September 1912. The reason given for his exclusion was heavy violation of the basic principles of the party platform. [4] He was defended by major revisionist Social Democrats like Eduard Bernstein and Wolfgang Heine, but the conventions majority voted against Hildebrand. [5] Hildebrand said, he would stay being a Social Democrat, and went on promoting his ideas. [6]

Hildebrand was denounced by Lenin as an "opportunist". [7]

Works

Articles

See also

References

  1. Arbeiterführer, Parlamentarier, Parteiveteran: die Tagebücher des Sozialdemokraten Hermann Molkenbuhr 1905 bis 1927 , p. 177, at Google Books
  2. Fischer, Fritz War of Illusions Norton (1975), p251
  3. Fletcher, Roger Revisionism and Empire George Allen and Unwin (1984) p62
  4. "Gerhard Hildebrand - Wegen groben ver. stosses gegen die grundsätze des parteiprogramms" [Gerhard Hildebrand - For gross violation of the principles of the party program](PDF) (in German). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-28.
  5. "Willem Hubert Vliegen - Die ministerfrage und die sozialdemokratie in Holland" [Willem Hubert Vliegen - The ministerial question and social democracy in Holland](PDF) (in German). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-09-28.
  6. Warum ich Sozialdemokrat bin und bleibe. in: Sozialistische Monatshefte, 16 = 18(1912), Heft 21, p. 1282–1289
  7. Lenin Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism 1917