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Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany
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Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (German: Mehrheitssozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, MSPD) was the name officially used by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) between April 1917 and September 1922. The name differentiated it from the Independent Social Democratic Party (Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, USPD), which split from the SPD as a result of the party majority's support of the government during the First World War.
Governments led by the MSPD steered Germany through the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the first years of the Weimar Republic. They followed a moderate course towards a parliamentary system and often used military force against the radical left groups that wanted a soviet style government. The MSPD introduced important social reforms such as the eight-hour workday and early forms of unemployment and health insurance. The party won more votes than any other in the first two national elections.
The breakaway USPD was considerably weakened after the Spartacus League, its revolutionary wing, joined with other communist groups to form the Communist Party of Germany in January 1919. In 1922 the majority of the remaining USPD members united with the MSPD, and the party returned to its original SPD name.
Significant disputes over the direction of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) began with the revisionist debate triggered by Eduard Bernstein. He and his supporters sought to achieve socialism not through revolution, the original goal of the SPD, but through reforms and democratic majorities legitimised in general elections. The reformist wing of the party – or "revisionist" in the party's internal parlance at the time – gradually gained acceptance within the SPD. By the time of the repeal of the Bismarckian Anti-Socialist Laws in 1890, the majority of the party in its practical politics had come to accept and support parliamentarism. After the death in 1913 of party chairman August Bebel, who had stood as a figure who could integrate the party's two wings, Friedrich Ebert was elected to the leadership of the party. His was a clearly moderate voice that continued to champion the reformist course.
Internal party differences between the anti-reformists and reformists were exacerbated by the outbreak of the First World War, in particular the issue of Burgfriedenspolitik, an agreement among the parties in the Reichstag that subordinated party interests to war policy and national interest. The trade unions refrained from striking, all parties supported war credits and agreed not to criticize the government and its handling of the war. The majority of the SPD Reichstag party membership under the leadership of Ebert and Hugo Haase, who later moved to the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), supported Burgfriedenspolitik and the war policy of the German Empire.
At the end of 1914, Karl Liebknecht of the SPD was the first member of the Reichstag to vote against war credits. He was expelled from the party in 1916 for his opposition to its leadership. The SPD's left-wing revolutionary International Group, which was founded by Rosa Luxemburg and renamed the Spartacus Group in 1916 and the Spartacus League in 1918, had also agitated against the war from the outset.
Over time, the deadlocked course of the war, with tens of thousands of fallen soldiers and growing hardship among the German population, led to increasing doubts about its justifications among both the general population and in the ranks of the Social Democrats. By 1915/1916, members of the Marxist wing and moderate leftists and reformists such as Hugo Haase and Eduard Bernstein opposed the war. In 1917 the anti-war faction within the party had grown to 45 members. In March the majority of the SPD parliamentary membership, led by Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann, voted to expel the opponents of the war. At a conference from 6–8 April 1917 in Gotha, the former members founded the USPD, with the Spartacus group around Luxemburg, Liebknecht and Clara Zetkin as its left wing. To distinguish itself from the USPD, the remaining part of the SPD was renamed the Majority SPD, or MSPD.
Karl Kautsky, the long-time editor of the journal Die Neue Zeit, and leading theorists of the reform wing also moved to the USPD. In the remaining Majority SPD, the former left-wing anti-revisionists of the Lensch-Cunow-Haenisch group, who were close to the German-Russian journalist Alexander Parvus, influenced the theoretical debates instead of Kautsky and Bernstein from 1915 onwards. Their aim was to utilise the hoped-for German victory in the First World War to implement a socialist order in Europe and liberate the peoples of Eastern Europe from the "yoke of tsarism".
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Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (German: Mehrheitssozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, MSPD) was the name officially used by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) between April 1917 and September 1922. The name differentiated it from the Independent Social Democratic Party (Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, USPD), which split from the SPD as a result of the party majority's support of the government during the First World War.
Governments led by the MSPD steered Germany through the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the first years of the Weimar Republic. They followed a moderate course towards a parliamentary system and often used military force against the radical left groups that wanted a soviet style government. The MSPD introduced important social reforms such as the eight-hour workday and early forms of unemployment and health insurance. The party won more votes than any other in the first two national elections.
The breakaway USPD was considerably weakened after the Spartacus League, its revolutionary wing, joined with other communist groups to form the Communist Party of Germany in January 1919. In 1922 the majority of the remaining USPD members united with the MSPD, and the party returned to its original SPD name.
Significant disputes over the direction of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) began with the revisionist debate triggered by Eduard Bernstein. He and his supporters sought to achieve socialism not through revolution, the original goal of the SPD, but through reforms and democratic majorities legitimised in general elections. The reformist wing of the party – or "revisionist" in the party's internal parlance at the time – gradually gained acceptance within the SPD. By the time of the repeal of the Bismarckian Anti-Socialist Laws in 1890, the majority of the party in its practical politics had come to accept and support parliamentarism. After the death in 1913 of party chairman August Bebel, who had stood as a figure who could integrate the party's two wings, Friedrich Ebert was elected to the leadership of the party. His was a clearly moderate voice that continued to champion the reformist course.
Internal party differences between the anti-reformists and reformists were exacerbated by the outbreak of the First World War, in particular the issue of Burgfriedenspolitik, an agreement among the parties in the Reichstag that subordinated party interests to war policy and national interest. The trade unions refrained from striking, all parties supported war credits and agreed not to criticize the government and its handling of the war. The majority of the SPD Reichstag party membership under the leadership of Ebert and Hugo Haase, who later moved to the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), supported Burgfriedenspolitik and the war policy of the German Empire.
At the end of 1914, Karl Liebknecht of the SPD was the first member of the Reichstag to vote against war credits. He was expelled from the party in 1916 for his opposition to its leadership. The SPD's left-wing revolutionary International Group, which was founded by Rosa Luxemburg and renamed the Spartacus Group in 1916 and the Spartacus League in 1918, had also agitated against the war from the outset.
Over time, the deadlocked course of the war, with tens of thousands of fallen soldiers and growing hardship among the German population, led to increasing doubts about its justifications among both the general population and in the ranks of the Social Democrats. By 1915/1916, members of the Marxist wing and moderate leftists and reformists such as Hugo Haase and Eduard Bernstein opposed the war. In 1917 the anti-war faction within the party had grown to 45 members. In March the majority of the SPD parliamentary membership, led by Ebert and Philipp Scheidemann, voted to expel the opponents of the war. At a conference from 6–8 April 1917 in Gotha, the former members founded the USPD, with the Spartacus group around Luxemburg, Liebknecht and Clara Zetkin as its left wing. To distinguish itself from the USPD, the remaining part of the SPD was renamed the Majority SPD, or MSPD.
Karl Kautsky, the long-time editor of the journal Die Neue Zeit, and leading theorists of the reform wing also moved to the USPD. In the remaining Majority SPD, the former left-wing anti-revisionists of the Lensch-Cunow-Haenisch group, who were close to the German-Russian journalist Alexander Parvus, influenced the theoretical debates instead of Kautsky and Bernstein from 1915 onwards. Their aim was to utilise the hoped-for German victory in the First World War to implement a socialist order in Europe and liberate the peoples of Eastern Europe from the "yoke of tsarism".
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