The
Social Democratic Party of Germany (
Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands —
SPD) is Germany's oldest political party. The party governed at the federal level in a
grand coalitionIn modern Germany a grand coalition is called a coalition between the Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, as they are the two biggest parties.-Weimar Republic:...
with the
Christian Democratic UnionThe Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany....
and the Christian Social Union until conceding defeat in the federal election of September 2009. The party also participates in eight
stateGermany is a Federal Republic consisting of sixteen states, known in German as . Since is also the German word for "country", the term is commonly used colloquially, as it is more specific, though technically incorrect within the corpus of German law.The citizens of the states form the nation...
governments, of which five are governed by SPD minister-presidents. The SPD is a member party of the
Party of European SocialistsThe Party of European Socialists is a European political party comprising thirty-two socialist, social democratic and labour parties from each European Union member state and Norway...
and the
Socialist InternationalThe Socialist International is a worldwide organisation of democratic socialist, social democratic, socialist, and labour political parties. It was formed in 1951.- History :...
.
Party platform
The SPD was established as a
socialistSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
party in 1869. However, the SPD underwent a major shift in policies reflected in the differences between the Heidelberg Program of 1925, which "called for the transformation of the capitalist system of private ownership of the means of production to social ownership" , and the
Godesberg ProgramThe Godesberg Program was the party program outline of the political course of Germany's social-democratic party, the SPD. It was ratified on November 15, 1959, at an SPD party convention in the town of Bad Godesberg, which is today part of Bonn....
of 1959, which aimed to broaden its voter base and move its political position toward the center. After
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, under the leadership of
Kurt SchumacherDr. Kurt Schumacher , was the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1945 to 1952.-Early career:Kurt Schumacher was born in Kulm in West Prussia , the son of a small businessman...
, the SPD re-established itself as a
socialistSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
party, representing the interests of the
working classWorking class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in lower tier jobs as measured by skill, education, and compensation....
and the trade unions. With the
Godesberg ProgramThe Godesberg Program was the party program outline of the political course of Germany's social-democratic party, the SPD. It was ratified on November 15, 1959, at an SPD party convention in the town of Bad Godesberg, which is today part of Bonn....
of 1959, however, the party evolved from a
socialistSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
working classWorking class is a term used in academic sociology and in ordinary conversation to describe, depending on context and speaker, those employed in lower tier jobs as measured by skill, education, and compensation....
party to a
social democraticSocial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
party.
The current
party platformA party platform, also known as a manifesto, is a list of the actions which a political party supports in order to appeal to the general public for the purpose of having said party's candidates voted into office. This often takes the form of a list of support for, or opposition to, controversial...
of the SPD espouses the goal of
social democracySocial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
, which is seen as a vision of a societal arrangement in which freedom and social justice are paramount. According to the party platform,
freedomPolitical freedom is the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual by the use of coercion or aggression.The opposite of a free society is a totalitarian state, which highly restricts political freedom in order to regulate almost every aspect of behavior...
,
justiceJustice is the concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, fairness, or equity.-Concept of justice:Justice... concerns the proper ordering of things and persons within a society. As a concept it has been subject to philosophical, legal, and theological reflection and...
, and social solidarity, form the basis of
social democracySocial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
. The coordinated
social market economyThe social market economy is the main economic model used in West Germany after World War II. It is based on the political philosophy of Ordoliberalism from the Freiburg School...
should be strengthened, and its output should be distributed fairly. The party sees that economic system as necessary in order to ensure the affluence of the entire population. The SPD also tries to protect the society's disadvantaged with a
welfare stateThere are two main interpretations of the idea of a welfare state:* A model in which the state assumes primary responsibility for the welfare of its citizens...
. Concurrently, it advocates a sustainable
fiscal policyIn economics, fiscal policy is the use of government spending and revenue collection to influence the economy.Fiscal policy can be contrasted with the other main type of economic policy, monetary policy, which attempts to stabilize the economy by controlling interest rates and the supply of money....
that doesn't place a burden on future generations while eradicating budget deficits. In
social policySocial policy primarily refers to guidelines and interventions for the changing, maintenance or creation of living conditions that are conducive to human welfare. Thus, social policy is that part of public policy that has to do with social issues...
, the SPD stands for
civil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights and freedoms that protect individuals from unwarranted government action and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression....
in an
open societyThe open society is a concept originally developed by philosopher Henri Bergson. In open societies, government is responsive and tolerant, and political mechanisms are transparent and flexible....
. In
foreign policyA country's foreign policy, also called the international relations policy, is a set of goals outlining how the country will interact with other countries economically, politically, socially and militarily, and to a lesser extent, how the country will interact with non-state actors...
, the SPD aims at ensuring global peace by balancing global interests with democratic means. Thus,
European integrationEuropean integration is the process of political, legal, economic integration of states wholly or partially in Europe...
is one of the main priorities of the SPD.
Internal groupings
The SPD is mostly composed of members belonging to either of the two main wings:
keynesianKeynesian economics is a macroeconomic theory based on the ideas of 20th-century British economist John Maynard Keynes...
, left-wing,
social democratsSocial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
, and the centrist, moderate
social democratsSocial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
belonging to the
Seeheimer KreisThe Seeheimer Kreis is an official, part-intern grouping of the Social Democratic Party of Germany . Know for being right-wing within its party, the group promotes a comparatively value–conservative politic with a relatively liberal economic outfit. The group was founded in September 1974...
. While the moderate,
Seeheimer KreisThe Seeheimer Kreis is an official, part-intern grouping of the Social Democratic Party of Germany . Know for being right-wing within its party, the group promotes a comparatively value–conservative politic with a relatively liberal economic outfit. The group was founded in September 1974...
social democratsSocial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
strongly support the
reformist programsThe Agenda 2010 is a series of reforms planned and executed by the German government which are aimed at reforming the German social system and labour market. The declared aim of Agenda 2010 is to improve economic growth and thus reduce unemployment....
introduced by former Chancellor
Gerhard Schröder' is a German politician, and was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full-time politician, he was a lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor he was Minister-president...
, the
keynesianKeynesian economics is a macroeconomic theory based on the ideas of 20th-century British economist John Maynard Keynes...
, left-wing
social democratsSocial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
continue to defend classically left-wing policies such as the expansion of the
welfare stateThere are two main interpretations of the idea of a welfare state:* A model in which the state assumes primary responsibility for the welfare of its citizens...
. The classically left-wing of the SPD claims that in recent years the welfare state has been curtailed through reform programs such as the
Agenda 2010The Agenda 2010 is a series of reforms planned and executed by the German government which are aimed at reforming the German social system and labour market. The declared aim of Agenda 2010 is to improve economic growth and thus reduce unemployment....
and the more
economically liberalEconomic liberalism is the economic component of classical liberalism. It is the political and economic philosophy that supports and promotes the economic system of capitalism, in the laissez-faire sense...
stance of the SPD, which was endorsed by the moderate
social democratsSocial democracy is a political ideology of the political left and centre-left on the classic political spectrum. Social democracy emerged in the late 19th century from the socialist movement and continues to exert influence worldwide....
.
Social structure
Before World War II, as the main non-revolutionary left-wing party, the Social Democrats fared best among non-Catholic workers as well as intellectuals favoring socially progressive causes and increased economic equality. Led by
Kurt SchumacherDr. Kurt Schumacher , was the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1945 to 1952.-Early career:Kurt Schumacher was born in Kulm in West Prussia , the son of a small businessman...
after World War II, the SPD initially opposed both the
social market economyThe social market economy is the main economic model used in West Germany after World War II. It is based on the political philosophy of Ordoliberalism from the Freiburg School...
and
Konrad AdenauerKonrad Hermann Josef Adenauer , 5 January 1876 – 19 April 1967) was a German statesman.Although his political career spanned sixty years, beginning as early as 1906, he is most noted for his role as the first Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1949–1963 and chairman of the...
's drive towards western integration fiercely, but after Schumacher's death, it accepted the social market economy and Germany's position in the Western alliance in order to appeal to a broader range of voters. It still remains associated with the economic causes of unionized employees and working class voters. In the 1990s, the left and moderate wings of the party drifted apart, culminating in a secession of a significant number of party members, which later joined the socialist party
The LeftThe Left , is a democratic socialist political party in Germany. The Left is the most left-wing party of the five represented in the Bundestag....
(
Die Linke).
Geographic distribution
Geographically, much of the SPD's support nowadays comes from large cities, especially of northern and western Germany and Berlin. The metropolitan area of the
Ruhr AreaThe Ruhr is an urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With 4435 km² and a population of some 5.3 million, it is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany...
, where
coal miningCoal mining is the extraction or removal of coal from the earth by mining. When coal is used for fuel in power generation it is referred to as steaming or thermal coal. Coal that is used to create coke for steel manufacturing is referred to as coking or metallurgical coal...
and
steelSteel is an alloy consisting mostly of iron, with a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most cost-effective alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
production were once the biggest sources of revenues, have provided a significant base for the SPD in the 20th century, and in the state of
BremenThe Free Hanseatic City of Bremen is the smallest of Germany's 16 Federal States . A more informal name, but used in some official contexts, is Land Bremen .-Geography:...
, made up of the cities of
BremenThe City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A port city along the river Weser, about south from its mouth on the North Sea, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area...
and
BremerhavenBremerhaven is the seaport of the free city-state of Bremen, a federal state of Germany. It forms an enclave in the state of Lower Saxony and is located at the mouth of the River Weser on its eastern bank, opposite the town of Nordenham...
, the SPD has governed without interruption since 1949. In southern Germany, the SPD typically garners little support except in the largest cities. One
MunichMunich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. It is located on the River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg...
constituency is currently, and only by a narrow margin, the only SPD-held district in the entire state of
BavariaBavaria , with an area of and almost 12.5 million inhabitants, is located in the southeast of Germany and is the largest state of Germany by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...
. Small town and rural support comes especially from the traditionally Protestant areas of northern Germany and
BrandenburgBrandenburg is one of the sixteen states of Germany. It lies in the east of the country and is one of the new federal states that were re-created in 1990 upon the reunification of the former West Germany and East Germany. The capital is Potsdam...
(with notable exceptions such as Western Pomerania, from where
Angela Merkel' is the current Chancellor of Germany. Merkel, elected to the German Parliament from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, has been the chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union since 10 April 2000, and Chairwoman of the CDU-CSU parliamentary party group from 2002 to 2005...
was handily re-elected in 2005) and a number of university towns. A striking example of the general pattern is the traditionally Catholic
EmslandLandkreis Emsland is a district in Lower Saxony, Germany named after the river Ems. It is bounded by the districts of Leer, Cloppenburg and Osnabrück, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia , the district of Bentheim and the Netherlands .- History :For a long time the region of the Emsland was...
, where the Social Democrats generally gain a low percentage of votes, whereas the Protestant region of
East FrisiaEast Frisia or Eastern Friesland is a coastal region in the northwest of the German federal state of Lower Saxony....
directly to the north is one of their strongest constituencies. Further south, the SPD also enjoys solid support in northern
HesseHesse is a state of Germany with an area of and just over six million inhabitants. The state capital is Wiesbaden. Hesse's largest city is nearby Frankfurt am Main.Hesse contributes the largest share to the Rhine Main Area....
(
Hans EichelHans Eichel , German politician , was Minister of Finance from 1999-2005.-Background:He was brought up in Kassel where he did his Abitur in 1961. He then completed a degree in German, philosophy, political science, history and education at the universities of Marburg and Berlin, graduating in 1970...
was mayor of
KasselKassel Kassel Kassel and of the district (Kreis) of the same name...
, then Hesse's minister president, then finance minister in the
Schröder' is a German politician, and was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full-time politician, he was a lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor he was Minister-president...
administration, while
Brigitte ZypriesBrigitte Zypries is a German politician. She is the current Federal Minister of Justice of Germany. She has been Minister of Justice since 2002. She is member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany ....
serves as Justice Minister), parts of Palatinate (
Kurt BeckKurt Beck is a German politician , serving as the Minister President of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate since 1994 and as President of the Bundesrat in 2000/01. On May 14, 2006, he succeeded Matthias Platzeck as Chairman of the German Social Democratic Party...
was party leader until September 7, 2008), the
SaarlandSaarland is one of the 16 federal states of Germany. The capital is Saarbrücken. It has an area of 2570 km² and 1,045,000 inhabitants. In both area and population, it is the smallest of the German Flächenländer , i.e., those that are not city-states...
(political home of one-time candidate for federal chancellor
Oskar LafontaineOskar Lafontaine is a German politician, former German finance minister, former chairman of the Social Democratic Party and former prime minister of the state of Saarland...
, defected from the SPD in 1999), and southwestern
BadenBaden is a historical state on the east bank of the Rhine River in the southwest of Germany, now the western part of the Baden-Württemberg of Germany....
(
Marion Caspers-MerkMarion Caspers-Merk is a German politician and member of the SPD. She is a member of the Bundestag and Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Health. - External links :* *...
, Gernot Erler).
History
After its establishment in 1869, a milestone was the merging of the General German Workingmens' Society (1863) and the Social Democratic Workers' Party in 1875, under the name
Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei. From 1878 to 1890 the party was banned, but it still gained support in elections. In the last year that the party was banned was the same time when its current name was founded. In the years until World War I, the party remained ideologically radical, although many party officials tended to be moderate in everyday politics. By 1912, the party became the strongest by votes.
Despite the agreement of the Second International to oppose the First World War, the SPD voted in favor of war in 1914. In response to this and the Bolshevik Revolution, members of the far-left of the SPD formed alternative parties, first the USPD (Independent SPD) and later the
Communist Party of GermanyThe 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...
(KPD). After 1918 the SPD played an important role in the political system of the
Weimar RepublicThe Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government, named after Weimar, the place where the constitutional assembly took place. Its official name was still Deutsches Reich , however...
, although it took part in coalition governments only in few years (1918-1921, 1923, 1928-1930).
Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , popularly known as the Nazi Party...
prohibited the party in 1933 under the Enabling Act - some party officials were imprisoned, killed or went into exile. In exile, it used the name SOPADE.
In 1945, the allied occupants in the Western zones initially allowed four parties to be established, which led to the
Christian Democratic UnionThe Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany....
, the
Free Democratic PartyThe Free Democratic Party is a classical liberal, pro-business political party in Germany. International counterparts include the Liberal Democrats of the United Kingdom, Yabloko in Russia and the Democratic Alliance in South Africa. It is a member of the Liberal International...
, the
Communist Party of GermanyThe 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...
, and the SPD being established. In the Soviet Zone of Occupation, the Soviets forced the Social Democrats to form a common party with the Communists (
SEDThe Socialist Unity Party of Germany was the governing party of the German Democratic Republic from its formation on 7 October 1949 until the elections of March 1990. The SED was a Communist political party with a Marxist-Leninist ideology...
). In the Western zones, the authorities re-instated the Nazi ban on the Communist Party. Since 1949, in the Federal Republic of Germany, the SPD has been one of the two major parties, with the other being the
Christian Democratic UnionThe Christian Democratic Union of Germany is a Christian democratic and conservative political party in Germany....
. From 1969 to 1982 and 1998 to 2005 the chancellors were Social Democrats.
See also
- Politics of Germany
Politics of Germany take place in a framework of a federal parliamentary representative democratic republic, whereby the Chancellor is the head of government, and of a plurality multi-party system. Federal legislative power is vested in the parliament and the Bundesrat as the representation of the...
- List of political parties in Germany
- Bundestag
The Bundestag is the parliament of Germany. It was established with Germany's constitution of 1949 and is the successor of the earlier Reichstag...
(Federal Assembly of Germany)
- 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, named after Weimar, the place where the constitutional assembly took place. Its official name was still Deutsches Reich , however...
- Kurt Nehrling
Kurt Nehrling was a Russian informant and member of the Weimar Resistance, also known as the Social Democrats Against Hitler. During his membership in the German resistance, Nehrling was responsible for supplying information to the Russians and was most famously known for hiding banned books...
- Mierscheid Law
The Mierscheid Law is a hypothesis, published in the German magazine Vorwärts on 14 July 1983 and attributed to the fictitious politician Jakob Maria Mierscheid. It forecasts the Social Democratic Party of Germany 's share of the popular vote based on the size of crude steel production in Western...
- German election, March 1933
- Elections in the Free State of Prussia
The Free State of Prussia held elections to the Landtag between 1918 and 1933. Until the 1930s these elections gave a plurality to the SPD, but this was handed to the NSDAP or Nazi party in the 1930s, generally in line with the rest of Germany....
Further reading
- Carl E. Schorske
Carl Emil Schorske is an American cultural historian and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. In 1981 he won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for his book Fin-de-Siècle Vienna: Politics and Culture
, German Social Democracy, 1905–1917: The Development of the Great Schism (Harvard University Press, 1955).
- Vernon L. Lidtke, The Outlawed Party: Social Democracy in Germany, 1878–1890 (Princeton University Press, 1966).
- Abraham J. Berlau The German Social Democratic Party, 1914–1921 (Columbia University Press, 1949).
- Erich Matthias, The Downfall of the Old Social Democratic Party in 1933 pages 51–105 from Republic to Reich The Making of the Nazi Revolution Ten Essays edited by Hajo Holborn
Hajo Holborn was a German-American historian and specialist in modern German history.- Life :...
, (New York: Pantheon Books, 1972).
External links