August Bebel

Ferdinand August Bebel (22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist activist and politician. He is best known as one of the founders of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP) in 1869, which in 1875 merged with the General German Workers' Association to form what would become the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). As a leader of the German workers' movement for over four decades, Bebel served as a member of parliament in both the North German Confederation and the German Empire, becoming the movement's leading parliamentary voice. Born into poverty in Prussia, Bebel was orphaned at a young age and apprenticed as a woodturner. His experiences as a traveling journeyman exposed him to the hardships of the working class and led him to socialist politics in the 1860s. Alongside Wilhelm Liebknecht, he became a central figure in the German socialist movement, opposing the nationalist and state-oriented socialism of Ferdinand Lassalle in favor of a more orthodox Marxist, internationalist position. During the Franco-Prussian War, he gained notoriety for his opposition to the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, which led to his conviction for high treason in 1872. During the era of the Anti-Socialist Laws (1878–1890), when the SPD was outlawed, Bebel became the party's central figure, guiding it through years of persecution from both within Germany and from exile in Switzerland. He was instrumental in maintaining party unity, purging anarchist influences, and establishing the party's official newspaper, Der Sozialdemokrat. After the repeal of the laws in 1890, Bebel oversaw the SPD's transformation into a mass party, helping to draft its influential Erfurt Program in 1891. In his later years, he defended the party's orthodox Marxist principles against the revisionist theories of Eduard Bernstein while simultaneously pursuing a pragmatic, reformist course in the Reichstag. His work, particularly his influential 1879 book Woman and Socialism, established him as a leading figure in the socialist movement's advocacy for women's rights.