Saxon People's Party
The Saxon People's Party was a left-liberal and radical democratic party with socialist approaches in the North German Confederation, which had 1866-1869 only three years stock before it ( SDAP ) went up in 1869, founded the Social Democratic Workers' Party.
The Saxon People's Party was founded on 19 August 1866 crucial involvement of Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel in Chemnitz. It provided a political alliance between anti-Prussian bourgeois-liberal forces and members of the Socialist Workers' Education Associations in Saxony; they considered to be one, though relatively small and short-lived precursor of the later party SPD.
In the preamble of the program of the Saxon People's Party, it undertook, " [ ... ] the enemies of German freedom and unity in all circumstances and to combat all areas [ ... ] ." She called for " [ ... ] the unrestricted self-determination of the German people [ ... ] ", the promotion of " [ ... ] general prosperity [ ... ] " and "[ ... ] the emancipation of labor and the working of any pressure and every fetter [ ... ] ".
History of the party / Historical Context
Immediately after Prussia's victory over Austria in the German War and the founding of the North German Confederation on August 18, 1866 put this party represents an alliance of convenience between radical democrats, Marxists and commoners, which was common goal of halting the Prussian hegemony in the new confederation of states with each other. This goal she shared with the South German liberals, who had gathered in the German People's Party, a spin-off of the German Progressive Party. The difference between the southern German and Saxon "liberals" however was the socialist component, which had a significantly greater weighting in the Saxon People's Party with the claim of representing the interests of the labor movement.
In contrast to Prussia, and the local social democratic competition party, the General German Workers' Association ( ADAV ) the Saxon People's Party favored a more federalist -oriented " Greater German solution ", ie, a German unification, including Austria with more rights for the individual countries, while in Prussia mostly a " small German solution " was preferred (without Austria ), to ensure political dominance of Prussia into a German nation-state.
The victory of Prussia over Austria, and the establishment of the North German Confederation, which replaced the existing since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 the German Federal Government and the German principalities north of the Main close to Prussia band, a first step of the conservative Prussian Prime Minister and North German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck was to enforce the smaller German solution, and thus to secure the monarchical principle under the sovereignty of the Prussian Hohenzollern. Bismarck was a unification basically opposite always reserved, but he was realistic enough to realize that he could not suppress the liberal nation-state and ideas to life.
For the Saxon People's Party, the Bismarckian policy stood for anti-democratic reaction, militarism and police state. In the elections to the North German Reichstag Saxon People's Party won three seats in 1867. In addition to the more liberal Reinhold Schraps Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel, who stood for the Socialist- Marxist wing of the party, as deputies in the new parliament moved into Berlin, where they were opposed, together with the left-liberal German People's Party against the Prussian government policy. But the party was too weak from the beginning, their wings to inconsistent and the political facts to clearly to their goals regarding the national question can still prevail. In contrast, the social question and the political representation of interests of the working class gained more and more weight in the party. The bourgeois wing crumbled.
Subsequent history: Development of SPD
After three years of existence, the Saxon People's Party was finally dissolved and replaced by a new party in the rose their marxist left wing: The Socialist Workers Party ( SDAP ) was on 7/8 Founded in August 1869 under the leadership of Bebel and Liebknecht in Eisenach as a national party. Both retained, now for this new socialist party, its parliamentary mandate.
After the founding of the German Empire as a result of the Prussian Empire North German victory over France in the Franco-German war in 1871, the rivalry between SDAP and ADAV was unnecessary. Both parties united in Gotha in 1875 to form the Socialist Workers Party ( SAP). From it eventually went to repeal the existing 1878-1890 repressive socialist laws and after a name change in 1890, the Social Democratic Party of Germany ( SPD) produced, which has since been renamed, despite many changes to the program to date under this name.