Red Banners, Books, and Beer Mugs: The Mental World of German Social Democrats, 1863–1914

Abstract

Founded in 1863, the German Social Democratic Party (SPD; Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) became the strongest political outfit in Imperial Germany prior to World War I. It was also a cultural mass movement in which its members immersed themselves from cradle to grave. Until the ascension of National Socialism in 1933, the German labor movement was the numerically strongest and best-organized specimen of its kind globally.Thus, it was an object of intense historical research until 1990. Researchers mainly analyzed theoretical discussions between the different wings of the party, its programs, and its relation to state and government. The Australian historian Andrew G. Bonnell chooses a different approach. He focuses not on the party elite or its main theorists but on its rank-and-file membership. He shows how the party successfully mobilized its base by addressing real-life issues of workers, on the one hand, and offering a transformative perspective for overcoming a classed society (i.e., capitalism), on the other.The lucidly written book is based on extensive archival research in Germany, including the Archive of Social Democracy of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Bonn. Bonnell does not present a chronological history of the socialist movement; rather, he explores its mobilization efforts by focusing on specific topics. This innovative structure sheds light on many aspects of German social democracy that have hitherto largely been neglected.As German labor history in general has been marginalized in historiography in the last decades and is only slowly making a comeback, it is refreshing to read a book about social democracy in Imperial Germany. Yet Bonnell's study is more than labor history, not least because the research perspective on the Kaiserreich has changed in the last years: from viewing it as a reactionary, oppressive, and class-based system that paved the way for Nazism to stressing its lively middle class, organizational life, and progressive aspects. Bonnell makes a counterpoint by writing labor history from the perspective of Social Democratic workers and rank-and-file party members: “Returning the focus to the working class and the organised labour movement, and their confrontation with an authoritarian state structure, can restore the balance in how we look at Imperial Germany, and correct some of the more rose-coloured depictions of recent times” (3).The first chapter deals with the personality cult around Ferdinand Lassalle, the founder of the General German Workers’ Association (Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein; ADAV), one of the SPD's precursor organizations. After his death in a duel in 1864, a veritable cult evolved around Lasalle. He became a legendary figure; people wrote songs and poems about him. Although the party moved away from his idea of a people's state (Volksstaat), moving in a Marxist direction, he remained a stylized reference point, especially during hard times, such as in the period of the antisocialist laws, 1878–90. This cult around Lassalle not only reflected a need for a religious-like ideology but also established cultural rituals that helped the party survive state repression. It also laid the foundation for a shared party tradition when it turned into a mass movement in the late nineteenth century.Bonnell also explores the tension between the party's proclaimed socialist internationalism and the emerging nationalism after the German unification in 1871. The national question remained one of the most controversial subjects in the German labor movement throughout its history. Other subjects of note include the view on manual labor among Social Democrats, daily issues such as the price of bread and the politics of subsistence, the status of Social Democrats in the German army, and the role and reception of the works of Karl Marx, as well as the relation between socialism as a long-term goal and republicanism as a concrete political goal.Bonnell addresses SPD's cultural activities by describing their variety and broadness, ranging from festivals and singing clubs to Skat tournaments, while also underlining their importance to sustaining adherence to the party and gaining new followers. The party's cultural foothold played an invaluable role in mobilizing its membership.In his conclusion, Bonnell identifies several factors that led to the transformation of the German SPD into a mass socialist party before 1914. With the emergence of industrial capitalism, the potential base of the party grew. Affected by exploitation and growing inequality, many workers saw the need to organize collectively and think about a different social order, a new society. The very high literacy rate among urban workers led to a broad spectrum of socialist newspapers, magazines, and networks that “enabled the dissemination of core concepts of class and the need for united collective organisation to democratise the Imperial German state as well as to change the existing economic system” (198). The repression of socialists, along with their exclusion from political life, also helped to strengthen a collective consciousness. The party furthermore managed to combine the struggle for the improvement of daily conditions with a long-term perspective of overcoming capitalism.Andrew Bonnell's book offers an interesting new perspective on German social democracy before World War I. By analyzing different sources, such as secret police protocols, he paints a convincing picture of the hopes and worries of the rank-and-file party membership. He thereby draws attention to the discrepancy between the theoretical debates and political proclamations of the party leadership, on the one hand, and the outlook of the Social Democratic workers, on the other.Hopefully, the book will help to stimulate interest in the early phase of German social democracy. In any case, the author shows how much research still can be done and identifies new directions for histories of the labor movement. As he convincingly demonstrates, labor history is not a strictly separate field of research but can serve as a lens for broader historical developments.