It was May 22nd: The Socialist Congress of Gotha

On May 22, 1875, representatives of the two main German workers' movements met in Gotha, Thuringia, with the aim of unifying socialist forces against the powerful Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. For several days, delegates from the Marxist-inspired Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP) and those from the General German Workers' Association (ADAV), the successor to Ferdinand Lassalle, debated a common program. This merger gave birth to the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAP), the future SPD, and marked a decisive turning point in the history of the European workers' movement.

The Union of German Socialists

Since the unification of the German Empire in 1871, workers' movements have been gaining momentum in a country transformed by industrialization. Two major trends emerged. On one side, the ADAV, founded in 1863 by Ferdinand Lassalle, advocated a reformist socialism, favoring the acquisition of social rights through legal means and with state support. On the other, the SDAP, created in 1869 by August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht, embraced the revolutionary ideas of Karl Marx and championed the emancipation of the proletariat through class struggle.

In Gotha, the Lassalleans arrived in a position of strength with more delegates. Wilhelm Liebknecht finally agreed to a compromise merger in order to present a united front against Bismarck, who viewed the spread of socialism with great suspicion. The new program adopted called for universal suffrage, freedom of association, reduced working hours, the prohibition of child labor, and better protection for workers. It also included provisions for the development of state-supported production cooperatives.

The anger of Karl Marx

This compromise immediately provoked the indignation of Karl Marx. Living in London, the German theorist considered that the adopted program betrayed the revolutionary principles of Marxism. He particularly criticized the German socialists for placing too much trust in the bourgeois state and for adopting several ideas inherited from Ferdinand Lassalle.

In a famous text written shortly after the congress, the Criticism of the Gotha programMarx vehemently attacks what he considers dangerous ideological concessions. He defends, on the contrary, the necessity of a radical transformation of society through the dictatorship of the proletariat before the advent of communism. The text was not published until after his death, but it became a major reference point in Marxism.

The birth of modern social democracy

Despite criticism, the Gotha Congress opened a new path for German socialism. The SAP gradually became an unavoidable political force despite the anti-socialist laws imposed by Bismarck from 1878 onwards. In 1891, at the Erfurt Congress, the party adopted the name Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

Over the decades, the SPD gradually moved away from revolutionary Marxism, adopting a reformist and parliamentary line. After the Second World War, this evolution culminated in the Bad Godesberg Congress in 1959, where the party officially renounced class struggle and embraced the market economy. The Gotha Congress thus stands as one of the founding acts of modern European social democracy.