Jürgen Schmidt - August Bebel social democracy and the founding of the labour movement = August Bebel

JRGEN SCHMIDT is a Research Associate in History at the International Research Center Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History (re:work) at the Humboldt University, Berlin and at The Institute for the History and Future of Work. He was previously a Research Fellow at the Social Science Research Centre (WZB), Berlin and holds a PhD from the Free University, Berlin. He is the author of Brder, Brger und Genossen. Die deutsche Arbeiterbewegung zwischen Klassenbewegung und Brgergesellschaft 18301870; Arbeiter in der Moderne. Arbeitsbedingungen, Lebenswelten, Organisationen and Zivilgesellschaft. Brgerschaftliches Engagement von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart.

Jrgen Schmidt's outstanding biography of August Bebel brings to life the man dubbed the emperor of the German working class. His remarkable influence on the pathway of the German Social Democratic Party in Imperial Germany is contextualized with wonderful clarity and great attention to detail. The account of a remarkable life of one of Germany's most important politicians is always nuanced and differentiated and manages to assemble a comprehensive account of a leading European socialist, feminist, trade unionist, labour intellectual and organizer.

Stefan Berger, Professor for History & Director of the Institute for Social
Movements, University of Bochum

August Bebel was one of the great democratic peoples tribunes of Europe's long nineteenth-century and one of the founders of the modern labour movement. The alternative Kaiser of the German workers, he led the democratic opposition to Bismarck and the governments of Kaiser Wilhelm II, until his death on the eve of World War I. He led German Social Democracy from a small federation of artisans associations to Europe's first million-strong mass party.

Despite this, Bebels life story is not as well-known as it should be among English-speaking students of German history. Jrgen Schmidt's book should change this. It draws on the authors well-established expertise in this field and is up-to-date with the latest scholarship while remaining readable for the non-specialist. It is written in a lively and accessible manner. This is a Bebel biography for the twenty-first century, unencumbered by the doctrinal arguments that dogged some of the older literature in this field during the Cold War, ably contextualized, and with an eye to Bebel's relevance for an understanding of the trajectory of German democracy down to the present. Schmidt provides a fresh and lucidly written examination of Bebel's personality and his role as a party leader and politician that speaks directly to our contemporary concerns about the business of politics.

Andrew G. Bonnell, Associate Professor in History,
University of Queensland

This remarkably concise and readable account introduces readers to August Bebel and the Social Democratic movement he led. Jrgen Schmidt draws upon his previous studies of Germanys working-class milieu to shed light on the life and times of a man who remains an enigma more than one hundred years after his death.

James Retallack, Professor of History and German Studies,
University of Toronto

Published in 2019 by

I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd

London New York

www.ibtauris.com

Copyright 2019 Rotpunktverlag, Zurich

English translation copyright 2019 Christine Brocks

Slightly revised and enlarged translation

The right Jrgen Schmidt to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Translated and printed with the support of International Research Center Work and Human Lifecycle in Global History (re:work)

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Every attempt has been made to gain permission for the use of the images in this book. Any omissions will be rectified in future editions.

References to websites were correct at the time of writing.

ISBN: 978 1 78831 445 9

eISBN: 978 1 78672 517 2

ePDF: 978 1 78673 517 1

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library

A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available

Fr meinen Vater
Werner Schmidt
in dankbarer Erinnerung

Contents

List of Plates

Deutschordenshof in Wetzlar, Bebel's school (Stdtische Sammlungen Wetzlar).

Bebel's journeyman's piece and signet ring (Deutsches Historisches Museum Berlin).

One of the earliest photos of Bebel (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, FA 026047).

August Bebel's family, with his wife Julie and his daughter Frieda (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, FA 026066).

House search during the years of the Anti-Socialist Laws (187890) (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, FB 002461).

Louise Kautsky (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, 6/FOTA063989).

Wilhelm Liebknecht (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stftung, Bonn, FA 020580).

Jean Jaurs (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stftung, Bonn, FA 007050).

Bebel's bestseller Die Frau und der Sozialismus (Woman and Socialism) (Rotpunktverlag Zrich).

Remembrance plate of the Gotha unification party conference in 1875 (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, FB 002571).

August Bebel with his familiy, friends and party comrades in a Zurich beer garden (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, 6/CARD000166).

Social Democratic Party school in Berlin, 1908 (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, FA 037472).

August Bebel as pioneer of free suffrage in Prussia (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, FA 006995).

Eduard Bernstein and Karl Kautsky, around 1900 (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, FA 005504).

Paul Singer, August Bebel and Wilhelm Pfannkuch in a hackney coach (Wikimedia Commons).

August Bebel at the Reichstag (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, FA 108638).

Bebel's villa in Ksnacht at Lake Zurich (Rotpunktverlag, Zrich).

August Bebel in his last years (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, FA 004050).

August Bebel's funeral on 17 August 1913 (AdsD, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, FB 002583).

List of Abbreviations