August Bebel

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(b. Deutz, 22 Feb. 1840; d. Zurich, 13 Aug. 1913) German; leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) 1868 – 1913 There were 50,000 mourners at the funeral of Bebel in Zurich, a remarkable number considering the place and the fact that he had never held official office in Germany. Yet he was the internationally admired leader of Germany's biggest political party, the SPD, and had been an active socialist for fifty years. In 1867 he was the first workers' representative to be elected to the North German parliament. He was a member of the Reichstag from 1883 until his death. He had served the movement in other ways too, having been jailed on two occasions for his political activities. From 1892 on he was one of the two chairmen of the SPD. In the controversy over "revisionism" in the SPD Bebel steered a middle course between Bernstein and the militant Marxists.

Bebel was not a theorist but wrote a widely read book expressing advanced views on the place of women in society. He had seen his mother struggle against poverty and die of consumption when he was 13. Both Bebel's father and his stepfather also died young of consumption. He was lucky enough to be able to stay at school to 14 and then complete a four-year apprenticeship as a master thresher. His involvement in working-class politics began when he joined a workers' education association in 1861. After bitter controversy he was able to overcome the divisions in the workers' movement and found, with Wilhelm Liebknecht in 1869, the Social Democratic Workers' Party.

Bebel was an internationalist who had played a decisive part in founding the Second International in 1889. At his last national election in 1912 the SPD gained 34.8 per cent of the vote, the largest of any party. The party had one million members. Whether, had he lived, Bebel could have steered the SPD to oppose the war in 1914 is debatable. By agreeing to support "defence of the homeland" it disappointed the hopes of millions in Europe and beyond.

Bebel, August (Cologne, 1840-1913, Passugg, Switzerland), a prominent German socialist leader, was a founder member of the Social Democratic Party in 1869 (see SPD). He entered the Reichstag in 1867, representing first a country constituency, then Dresden, and finally Hamburg; he was twice imprisoned. He wrote numerous political books of which the best known is Die Frau und der Sozialismus (1883).

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August Bebel

August Bebel in 1898

August Ferdinand Bebel (February 22, 1840 – August 13, 1913) was a German social democrat and one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Quotes 3 See also 4 Footnotes 5 External links

Biography

Bebel was born in Deutz, now a part of Cologne; he founded the Sächsische Volkspartei ("Saxon People's Party") in 1867 together with Wilhelm Liebknecht, and the SDAP (Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei, Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany) in 1869, which merged with the ADAV (Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein, "General German Workers' Association") in 1875 to form the SAPD (Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, "Socialist Workers' Party of Germany"), which renamed itself SPD in 1890.

In 1872, Bebel was convicted in a political lawsuit, the so-called Leipziger Hochverratsprozess, and sentenced to two years in Festungshaft ("imprisonment in a fortress", a variant of a jail sentence that was not considered dishonouring), which he spent at the famous Königstein Fortress. Later in his life, he acted as chairman of the SPD and member of the Reichstag. Bebel's book, Women and Socialism was translated into English by Daniel DeLeon of the Socialist Labor Party of America as Woman under Socialism.^[1] It figured prominently in the Connolly-DeLeon controversy after James Connolly, then a member of the SLP, denounced it as a "quasi-prurient" book that would repel potential recruits to the socialist movement.^[2]

After living in Berlin-Schöneberg for many years, where a commemorative plaque commemorates him at Hauptstraße 97; he died on August 13, 1913 during a visit to a sanatorium in Switzerland and was buried in Zürich.

His basic laws of a socialist society are:

1. Enlistment of all able-bodied people, irrespective of sex, to work^[3]
2. Abolition of Private Ownership of Land^[4]
3. Withering Away of the State^[5]

Quotes

• "The masses demand that something be done … today."
• "Anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools."
• "... the Imperial Chancellor can rest assured that German Social Democracy is a sort of preparatory school for militarism", said to Bismarck in 1892.^{[citation needed]}
• "Christianity is the enemy of liberty and civilization."
• "In time of war, the loudest patriots are the greatest profiteers."

See also

• Bebelplatz, public square in Berlin named after August Bebel

Footnotes

1. ^ August Bebel: Women and Socialism, Translation by Meta L. Stern (Hebe), Socialist Literature Co., New York 1910.
2. ^ James Connolly & Daniel DeLeon: The Connolly-DeLeon controversy. Cork Workers' Club, Cork 1976.
3. ^ August Bebel: Society of the Future, Progress Publishers, Moscow 1971, Chap. 1.
4. ^ Ibid., Chap. 2.
5. ^ Ibid., Chap. 3.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: August Bebel

• Biography of August Bebel, retrieved on May 31st 2007.
• August Bebel Archive at Marxists.org
• Works by August Bebel at Project Gutenberg

v • d • e Chairmen of the Social Democratic Party of Germany SPD (1890–1933) Paul Singer / Alwin Gerisch · August Bebel / Paul Singer · August Bebel / Hugo Haase · Hugo Haase / Friedrich Ebert · Friedrich Ebert · Friedrich Ebert / Philipp Scheidemann · Otto Wels / Herman Müller · Arthur Crispien / Otto Wels / Herman Müller · Arthur Crispien / Otto Wels · Arthur Crispien / Otto Wels / Hans Vogel SPD-in-exile (1933–1945) Otto Wels / Hans Vogel · Hans Vogel SPD (since 1946) Kurt Schumacher · Erich Ollenhauer · Willy Brandt · Hans-Jochen Vogel · Björn Engholm · Rudolf Scharping · Oskar Lafontaine · Gerhard Schröder · Franz Müntefering · Matthias Platzeck · Kurt Beck · Franz Müntefering

Persondata
NAME	Bebel, August
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	German social democrat politician
DATE OF BIRTH	February 22, 1840
PLACE OF BIRTH	Deutz, Germany
DATE OF DEATH	August 13, 1913
PLACE OF DEATH	Switzerland

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