Wilhelm L. Guttsman. The German Social Democratic Party, 1875-1933.

Contents

Introduction: Models and methods

1 – Industrialisation and the entry of the German working class into politics

Industrialisation and protest

The rise of working-class organisations

The belated industrial revolution

Towards a united working-class party

Early organisation and political representation

2 – The role of the working-class party in the pseudo-democratic state

The class struggle and the people’s state

The weapon of the franchise

The constitutional system of the empire and the emergent SPD

The state versus the SPD

Lawful action by the outlawed

Parliamentary tactics and popular control

Towards democratic Marxism: the Erfurt programme of 1891

3 – The political mobilisation of the German working class and the SPD

Electoral trends and the socialist vote to 1912

Social structure and socialist voting

Class, region and vote

Social groups marginal to the working class and support for the SPD

The penumbra of socialist support before the war

The socialist voting trend to 1914

Political mobilisation and the divided working class under Weimar

On the road to a people’s party?

4 – Social milieu, political control and the grass roots of social democracy

The struggle against the socialist hydra

A semi-fettered party

The socialist milieu

The Social Democratic Party organisation

The party membership

The embourgeoisement of the workers’ party

5 – The elective fatherland: Socialist subculture from ghetto to republic

Agitation for persuasion and solidarity

Labour’s high days and holidays

The problem of political education and its solution before 1914

The emergence of a centralised system of party education

The Social Democratic movement and education and culture under Weimar

Socialist Kultur and its organisation

The Social Democratic subculture and socialist commitment

Sub-culture, high culture and counter-culture

6 – The structure of a democratic party in action: Mass membership, leadership and bureaucracy

The evolution of the organisational structure and the democratic process

The structure of the SPD under Weimar

Local party democracy

Power and participation

Functionaries, officers and leaders

Leadership and bureaucracy

Career patterns and embourgoisement

Leaders and followers

7 – A revolutionary but not a revolution-making party?

Theory and tactics from Erfurt to Weimar

The ‘old, proven and victorious’ tactics after 1890

German trade unionism and the road to pragmatic politics

The mass-strike debate of 1905

Goal versus movement: strategical theories and practice before 1914

The socialist party in the democratic state: 1918-32

Conclusions