You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in German. (December 2022)Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations .(January 2013) |
Socialist Workers' Party of Germany Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands | |
---|---|
Founded | 1931 |
Banned | 1933 |
Merger of | KPD-O (1932) USPD |
Split from | SPD |
Headquarters | Berlin, Weimar Republic |
Newspaper | Sozialistische Arbeiter-Zeitung |
Youth wing | Socialist Youth League of Germany [1] |
Paramilitary | Sozialistischer Schutzbund [2] |
Membership | 25,000 (1931) 15,600 (1933) |
Ideology | Centrist Marxism Democratic socialism |
Political position | Left-wing |
International affiliation | International Revolutionary Marxist Centre |
Colours | Red |
The Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (German : Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, SAPD) was a centrist Marxist political party in Germany. It was formed as 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 Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) merged into the party and in 1932 some Communist Party dissenters also joined the group as well as a part from the Communist Party Opposition. Nevertheless, its membership remained small. From 1933, the group's members worked illegally against Nazism. [3]
In his home town of Lübeck, the young Herbert Karl Frahm, later known as Willy Brandt, joined the SAPD against the advice of his mentor Julius Leber. In his autobiography, Brandt wrote:
In autumn 1931, Nazis and German nationalists, the SA and Der Stahlhelm joined together to form the "Harzburg Front". [...] It was just at this time that the left wing of the social democrats split off, as a result of measures connected to organisation and discipline by the party leaders. A few Reichstag assemblymen, a number of active party groups – above all in Saxony – and not least a large proportion of young Socialists followed the people who were calling for the founding of a Socialist Workers' Party.[ citation needed ]
In 1934, the youth of SAPD took part in the foundation of the International Bureau of Revolutionary Youth Organizations. The congress was held in the Netherlands and broken up by Dutch police. Several SAPD delegates were handed over to German authorities. The congress then re-convened in Lille. Brandt was elected to the Secretariat of the organization and worked in Norway for the Bureau.
The SAPD was affiliated to the International Revolutionary Marxist Centre, but it broke with the main party of that international (the Independent Labour Party) over the question of the united front and popular front.
During the Second World War, some SAPD members emigrated to Great Britain and worked for the party there. Many of those became members of the SPD, therefore the SAPD was not re-founded anew after the Second World War. Willy Brandt eventually became the leader of the SPD, one of West Germany's major political parties of the modern era, being elected Chancellor of Germany in 1969.
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht was a German socialist and one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). His political career was a pioneering project combining Marxist revolutionary theory with practical legal political activity. Under his leadership, the SPD grew from a tiny sect to become Germany's largest political party. He was the father of Karl Liebknecht and Theodor Liebknecht.
Hanno Drechsler was the Lord Mayor of the City of Marburg, Germany between 1970 and 1992, and the instigator of its restoration after urban renewal; he was also an important Social Democratic politician and political scientist.
The Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germanya was a Marxist socialist political party in the North German Confederation during unification.
Wilhelm Hasenclever was a German politician. He was originally a tanner by trade but later became a journalist and author. However, he is most known for his political work in the predecessors of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
The Internationaler Sozialistischer Kampfbund or ISK was a socialist split-off from the SPD during the Weimar Republic and was active in the German Resistance against Nazism.
The Socialist Youth League of Germany was a youth organization in Germany. SJV was the youth wing of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAPD). SJV was founded in 1931. The organization was banned after the Nazi take-over 1933.
Sozialistische Arbeiter-Zeitung was a daily newspaper published in Germany between 1931 and 1933. SAZ was the central organ of the Socialist Workers Party of Germany (SAPD).
Das Volksrecht was a left-wing newspaper published from Offenbach am Main, Weimar Germany between 1925 and 1933. Initially it was an irregular publication of the communist city council group, but in 1928 it became a local mouthpiece of the Right Opposition. It was published on a weekly basis until the National Socialist takeover in 1933.
Sozialistischer Schutzbund was a paramilitary formation in Weimar Germany, linked to the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAPD). SSB was active between 1931 and 1933. The organization mainly acted as guards at election campaign meetings. SSB also guarded offices of the party and the Socialist Youth League of Germany. The SSB wore a uniform with blue shirts, red armbands and dark blue caps. SSB earned a degree of respect for its discipline.
The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of anti-war members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), from the left of the party as well as the centre and the right. The organization attempted to chart a course between electorally oriented reformism on the one hand and Bolshevist revolutionism on the other. After several splits and mergers, the last part of the organization was terminated in 1931 through merger with the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAPD).
Irmgard Enderle was a German politician, trade unionist and journalist.
Kurt Rosenfeld was a German lawyer and politician (SPD). He was a member of the national parliament between 1920 and 1932.
Alma Rosalie (Rosi) Wolfstein was a German socialist politician.
Peter Blachstein was a German journalist who became a politician. During the middle 1930s he spent time in the Hohnstein Concentration Camp, but he was released and participated in the Spanish Civil War on the anti-fascist side. The rest of the Nazi years he spent outside Germany, mostly in Norway and Sweden. Following the restoration of diplomatic relations between West Germany and Yugoslavia, in 1968 he became West Germany's ambassador in Belgrade.
Hilde Ephraim was a German welfare worker who became a resistance activist during the Nazi years. She was murdered because of her involvement in the Socialist Workers' Party and in the Red Aid workers' welfare operation.
August Enderle was a German socialist politician, trades unionist, journalist and author.
Karl Obermann was a German historian. He became the first director of the Historical Institute of the (East) German Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Marta Damkowski was a German resistance fighter against the Nazis and a Social Democratic politician.
Willi Birkelbach CBE was a West German politician (SPD). He was a member of the West German Bundestag between 1949 and 1964. Between 1952 and 1964 he also served as an increasingly prominent Member of the European Parliament.