Editing Social Democratic Party of Germany

{{Infobox political party|name=Social Democratic Party of Germany|native_name=Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands|logo=SPD-Logo 2022 (rot).svg|founded=27 May 1875|general_secretary=[[Kevin Kühnert]]|leader1_title=Co-leaders|leader1_name=[[Saskia Esken]]<br>[[Lars Klingbeil]]|merger=[[General German Workers' Association|ADAV]]<br>[[Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany|SDAP]]|newspaper=Vorwärts|student_wing=Juso-Hochschulgruppen|youth_wing=Young Socialists in the SPD|womens_wing=Association of Social Democratic Women|wing1_title=LGBT+ wing|wing1=SPDqueer|political_orientation=[[Social democracy]]<br>[[Neoliberalism]]<br>[[Imperialism]]}}

The '''Social Democratic Party of Germany''' ('''SPD'''), originally called the '''Socialist Workers' Party of Germany''', is a [[Social democracy|social democratic]] party in [[Federal Republic of Germany|Germany]] that was originally a [[Marxism|Marxist]] party but over time slipped into [[revisionism]] and [[opportunism]] before eventually abandoning Marxism officially. It currently holds the most seats in the [[Bundestag]] as a part of the ruling coalition and is the party of the current German Chancellor, [[Olaf Scholz]].

== History ==

=== Founding ===
The SPD originated in a congress in Eisenach occurring in 1869 where the [[Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany]] (SDAP) was formed from a merger of the [[Assembly of German Worker Associations]] (VDAV) and leftists in the [[General German Workers' Association]] (ADAV). The SDAP leaders, [[August Bebel]] and [[Wilhelm Liebknecht]], sought a counter-weight to the [[Ferdinand Lassalle|Lassallean]] ADAV that supported [[Otto von Bismarck]]'s policy of unifying [[German Empire (1871–1918)|Germany]] "from above" relying on [[Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918)|Prussian]] militarism and instead followed the lead of Marx and Engels in struggling for the revolutionary unification of Germany "from below." <ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=E. A. Volina|year=1979|title=The Great Soviet Encyclopedia|title-url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Social+Democratic+Party+of+Germany|chapter=Social Democratic Party of Germany}}</ref>

Following Bismarck's unification of Germany a congress was held at Gotha in 1875 at which the SDAP merged with VDAV to form the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany which would be renamed to the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1890. The party program adopted at the congress, the Gotha Program, contained many concessions to the [[Idealism|idealist]] Lassalleans, particularly concerning the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]], which would lead Marx and Engels to criticise the program in their [[Critique of the Gotha Program|''Critique of the Gotha Program'']].<ref name=":0" />

=== Modern history ===
From 1998 to 2005 the SPD were the ruling party in coalition with the [[Alliance 90/The Greens|Greens]] under Chancellor [[Gerhard Schröder]], who passed unpopular [[Neoliberalism|neoliberal]] reforms. Their decline in popularity led to them becoming the junior partner in a coalition with [[Angela Merkel]]'s right wing [[Christian Democratic Union of Germany]] (CDU) and continued its decline. For the next decade the SPD became indistinguishable from the [[Conservatism|conservative]] parties losing different respective sections of voters to [[The Left (Germany)|Die Linke]], the Greens and [[Alternative for Germany]] (AfD).<ref name=":1">{{Web citation|author=Loren Balhorn|newspaper=Jacobin|title=The SPD Needs More Than Just New Leaders|date=2019-12-03|url=https://jacobin.com/2019/12/spd-germany-election-social-democratic-party-eskabo|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231202132046/https://jacobin.com/2019/12/spd-germany-election-social-democratic-party-eskabo|archive-date=2023-12-02}}</ref>

After crashing to just 15% of the vote in the 2019 European Parliament elections, leader [[Andrea Nahles]] resigned and not long after the party made some minor reforms changing from a one-person leader to a two-person leader and allowing election of leaders by the party membership. In the ensuing election the neoliberal Olaf Scholz and [[Klara Geywitz]] ran against social democrats [[Saskia Esken]] and [[Norbert Walter-Borjans]], with the social democrats winning with 53% of the vote.<ref name=":1" /> Although the party made some moves back to social democracy, the party still maintains a strong neoliberal presence with Olaf Scholz becoming Chancellor in 2021 at the head of a coalition with the Greens and the [[Liberalism|liberal]] Free Democratic Party (FDP).<ref>{{Web citation|author=Nes Schwerdtner|newspaper=Jacobin|title=Germany’s New Government Is in Thrall to Neoliberal Hawks|date=12.08.2021-12-08|url=https://jacobin.com/2021/12/elections-spd-fdp-cdu-scholz-lindner-merkel|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240302232204/https://jacobin.com/2021/12/elections-spd-fdp-cdu-scholz-lindner-merkel|archive-date=2024-03-02}}</ref>

== References ==
<references />
[[Category:Social democratic parties]]
[[Category:Political parties]]
[[Category:German political parties]]
@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 === Founding ===
-The SPD originated in a congress in Eisenach occurring in 1869 where the [[Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany]] (SDAP) was formed from a merger of the [[Assembly of German Worker Associations]] (VDAV) and leftists in the [[General German Workers' Association]] (ADAV). The SDAP leaders, [[August Bebel]] and [[Wilhelm Liebknecht]], sought a counter-weight to the [[Ferdinand Lassalle|Lassallean]] ADAV that supported [[Otto von Bismarck]]'s policy of unifying [[German Empire (1871–1918)|Germany]] "from above" relying on [[Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918)|Prussian]] militarism and instead followed the lead of [[Karl Marx]] and [[Friedrich Engels]] in struggling for the revolutionary unification of Germany "from below." <ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=E. A. Volina|year=1979|title=The Great Soviet Encyclopedia|title-url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Social+Democratic+Party+of+Germany|chapter=Social Democratic Party of Germany}}</ref>
+The SPD originated in a congress in Eisenach occurring in 1869 where the [[Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany]] (SDAP) was formed from a merger of the [[Assembly of German Worker Associations]] (VDAV) and leftists in the [[General German Workers' Association]] (ADAV). The SDAP leaders, [[August Bebel]] and [[Wilhelm Liebknecht]], sought a counter-weight to the [[Ferdinand Lassalle|Lassallean]] ADAV that supported [[Otto von Bismarck]]'s policy of unifying [[German Empire (1871–1918)|Germany]] "from above" relying on [[Kingdom of Prussia (1701–1918)|Prussian]] militarism and instead followed the lead of Marx and Engels in struggling for the revolutionary unification of Germany "from below." <ref name=":0">{{Citation|author=E. A. Volina|year=1979|title=The Great Soviet Encyclopedia|title-url=https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Social+Democratic+Party+of+Germany|chapter=Social Democratic Party of Germany}}</ref>
 Following Bismarck's unification of Germany a congress was held at Gotha in 1875 at which the SDAP merged with VDAV to form the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany which would be renamed to the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1890. The party program adopted at the congress, the Gotha Program, contained many concessions to the [[Idealism|idealist]] Lassalleans, particularly concerning the [[dictatorship of the proletariat]], which would lead Marx and Engels to criticise the program in their [[Critique of the Gotha Program|''Critique of the Gotha Program'']].<ref name=":0" />
-=== Socialist history ===
-The influence of the SPD grew rapidly, gaining roughly 500,000 votes in the [[Reichstag]] 1877 elections. Following this success, in 1878 the [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]]-[[junker]] government imposed anti-socialist laws, which caused the SPD to be banned until 1890 with the masses, this would be called the "hectic period" by [[Vladimir Lenin]]. During this period the party newspaper, ''[[Vorwdrts]]'', was also made illegal so it was replaced with the ''[[Der Sozialdemokrat]]'' until ''Vordwdrts'' was later unbanned along with the SPD.<ref name=":0" />
-Marx and Engels aided the SPD greatly and thanks to them the party successfully overcame the opportunism of [[Karl Höchberg]] as well as the incorrect tracts of [[Johann Most]] and [[Wilhelm Hasselmann]]. During this time period the SPD was one of the foremost parties in leading the international [[proletariat]] in the [[class struggle]] and took an active role in establishing the [[Second International]] in 1889. When the party was unbanned in 1890 it gained 35 seats in the Reichstag, and in 1898 they only grew gaining a total of 56 seats, representing a quarter of all votes.<ref name=":0" />
-Engels continued to work with the party as it grew in influence, aiding the party leaders in countering rightist elements such as [[Georg von Vollmar]], as well as [[Anarchism|anarchist]] groups. In 1891 a new congress was held in which the party met at Erfurt and agreed the Erfurt Programme, an improvement over the Gotha Programme given its more radical content. However, the programme still did not demand a dictatorship of the proletariat and this as well as other opportunist concessions led Engels to critique the program in ''[[A Critique of the Draft Social-Democratic Program of 1891]]''.<ref name=":0" />
-=== Turn to opportunism ===
-As the 20th century began, the party experienced an upsurge in revisionism and opportunism brought on primarily by [[Eduard Bernstein]]. At this time the party has three main currents, the opportunists including Bernstein and [[Carl Legien]], the centrists, and the radicals led by [[Karl Liebknecht]] and [[Rosa Luxemburg]].<ref name=":0" />
 === Modern history ===