SPD

SPD, abbreviation of Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, the designation of the German Social Democratic Party since 1890. The various 19th-c. Socialist movements first united in 1863 in Leipzig as Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein under F. Lassalle, whose programme of Socialist reform on a national basis, with the exclusion of Austria (see Kleindeutsch), was adopted. In 1869 the Marxist Socialists A. Bebel and W. Liebknecht formed in Eisenach (Eisenacher Programm) the Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei, which aimed at integration with the international Socialist movements.

In 1875 both parties decided in Gotha (Gothaer Programm) to make common cause in order to strengthen Socialist influence in the Diet (Reichstag) of the Empire. As Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands the party met from 1878, the year of the Socialist Laws, with mounting antagonism and persecution, and its leaders emigrated to Switzerland. The party adopted its present designation on reorganization after Bismarck was dismissed in 1890. In F. Ebert the party provided the first president of the Weimar Republic. It developed into a powerful political force during the early years of the republic and supported Brüning until his dismissal in 1932. It unanimously rejected the Ermächtigungsgesetz of the National Socialist regime; it continued to work as an underground movement directed by its leaders from Prague (until the German invasion in 1938), from Paris (until 1940), and until the end of the 1939-45 War from London. German emigrants working for its principles in the USA include P. Tillich.

After the war the party was reorganized in occupied Germany by K. Schumacher (1895-1952). W. Brandt (1913-92) was the first Social Democratic chancellor (Bundeskanzler) of the Federal Republic (see Bundesrepublik Deutschland). In East Germany the SPD merged with the Communist Party (see KPD and Deutsche Demokratische Republik) to form the SED (Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands) on 21 April 1946.

In Austria (see Österreich) the Socialists first united in 1867, forming the Arbeiterbildungsverein, and in 1888-9 the Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs (SPÖ) under V. Adler. Its influence declined after 1907. After 1918-20 it came to prominence in the Republic of Austria under its leader Karl Renner, and recovered its influence in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The February revolt of 1934 against the government of E. Dollfuß resulted in its prohibition. After the 1939-45 War the SPÖ was once more reorganized by Renner and became a party to the coalition government, having in Renner its first chancellor (Staatskanzler) and president (Bundespräsident).