The General German Workers' Association (german: Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiter-Verein, ADAV) was a German political party founded on 23 May 1863 in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

Kingdom of Saxony The Kingdom of Saxony (german: Königreich Sachsen), lasting from 1806 to 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. The kingdom was formed from the Electorate of Saxon ...

Ferdinand Lassalle Ferdinand Lassalle (; 11 April 1825 – 31 August 1864) was a Prussian-German jurist, philosopher, socialist and political activist best remembered as the initiator of the social democratic movement in Germany. "Lassalle was the first man in Ger ...

. It was the first organized mass working-class party in European history. The organization existed by this name until 1875, when it combined with the

Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany The Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, SDAP) was a Marxist socialist political party in the North German Confederation during unification. Founded in Eisenach in 1869, the SDAP e ...

(SDAP) to form the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany. This unified organization was renamed soon thereafter the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

(SPD), which presently remains in existence and dates its origins to the founding of the ADAV. Its

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

n part would become the

SPÖ The Social Democratic Party of Austria (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Österreichs , SPÖ), founded and known as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (german: link=no, Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Österreichs, SDAPÖ) unti ...

. The ADAV was the first German Labour Party, formed in

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

prior to the establishment of the

German Empire The German Empire (),Herbert Tuttle wrote in September 1881 that the term "Reich" does not literally connote an empire as has been commonly assumed by English-speaking people. The term literally denotes an empire – particularly a hereditary ...

. It was active in the

German Confederation The German Confederation (german: Deutscher Bund, ) was an association of 39 predominantly German-speaking sovereign states in Central Europe. It was created by the Congress of Vienna in 1815 as a replacement of the former Holy Roman Empire, w ...

, which included the

Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...

Organizational history

Establishment

Bundesarchiv Bild 183-R66693, Ferdinand Lassalle

The ADAV was founded in Leipzig by

and twelve delegates from some of the most important cities in Germany, namely

Barmen Barmen is a former industrial metropolis of the region of Bergisches Land, Germany, which merged with four other towns in 1929 to form the city of Wuppertal. Barmen, together with the neighbouring town of Elberfeld founded the first electric ...

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the German city of Wuppertal; it was an independent town until 1929. History The first official mentioning of the geographic area on the banks of today's Wupper River as "''elverfelde''" was in a docu ...

Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Harburg,

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

and

Solingen Solingen (; li, Solich) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located some 25 km east of Düsseldorf along the northern edge of the region called Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr area, and, with a 2009 population of 161,366, ...

. The ADAV sought to advance the interests of the

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

and to work for the establishment of

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

by the use of electoral politics.Tom Goyens (2007). '' Beer and Revolution: The German Anarchist Movement in New York City, 1880–1914''. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. p. 65. Lassalle acted as president from 23 May 1863 until his death in a

duel A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two people, with matched weapons, in accordance with agreed-upon Code duello, rules. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the r ...

on 31 August 1864. The unofficial organ of the ADAV was the newspaper ''Der Sozial-Demokrat'' (''The Social Democrat''), launching publication in Berlin on 15 December 1864. The publication initially won promises of editorial contributions from the radical exiles

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

and

Frederick Engels Friedrich Engels ( ,"Engels"
''

on 27 December 1864.Sazonov. Footnotes to ''Marx-Engels Collected Works: Volume 42''. p. 599, fn. 82. Marx and his associates had hoped that this gathering would cause the organization to join the newly established

International Workingmen's Association The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organisation which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist groups and trad ...

(First International), which they helped manage, but the gathering did not discuss affiliation, further disaffecting Marx from the group.

Wilhelm Liebknecht Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht (; 29 March 1826 – 7 August 1900) was a German socialist and one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (, ; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898), born Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman and diplomat. From his origins in the upper class of J ...

's government, for example on the question of

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

, Liebknecht became disillusioned with the association. He had been writing for ''Der Sozial-Demokrat,'' but as a result of disagreement with the newspaper's

-friendly rhetoric he quit the organization to establish the

Saxon People's Party The Saxon People's Party (german: Sächsische Volkspartei) was a left-liberal and radical democratic party with socialist leanings in Germany, founded by Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel on 19 August 1866 in Chemnitz, and integrated into the n ...

along with

August Bebel Ferdinand August Bebel (22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist politician, writer, and orator. He is best remembered as one of the founders of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP) in 1869, which in 1875 mer ...

. In 1869, Liebknecht became a co-founder of the SDAP in

Eisenach Eisenach () is a town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, located west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia and bordering northeastern Hessian regions, situat ...

as a branch of the International Workingmen's Association. Liebknecht was to meet again with his old ADAV colleagues as the lack of support for the ADAV caused them to join forces with Liebknecht's SDAP in 1875.

Merger and legacy

Together with the SDAP, the ADAV formed the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany at the Socialist Unity Conference in

Gotha Gotha () is the fifth-largest city in Thuringia, Germany, west of Erfurt and east of Eisenach with a population of 44,000. The city is the capital of the district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine Wettins from 1640 until the ...

. The manifesto of the new organization was the

Gotha Program The Gotha Program was the party platform adopted by the nascent Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) at its initial party congress, held in the town of Gotha in 1875. The program called for universal suffrage, freedom of association, lim ...

, which urged " universal, equal, direct suffrage". In 1890, the party was renamed the Social Democratic Party of Germany and it still exists under this name. The SDP now dates its origins to the founding of the ADAV and celebrated its 150th anniversary in the spring of 2013.Peter Schwarz (23 May 2013)
"The SPD Celebrates its 150th Anniversary"
World Socialist Web Site.

Lasallean General German Workers' Association

The Lasallean General German Workers' Association (LADAV) was a short-lived splinter party founded by Sophie von Hatzfeldt and Friedrich Wilhelm Emil Försterling in June 1867. Despite success when Försterling gained the Reichstag seat for the

Chemnitz Reichstag constituency The Chemnitz Reichstag constituency was constituency No. 16 in the Kingdom of Saxony which returned a deputy to the German Reichstag. It was based upon what was the town of Chemnitz. Following the North German Confederation Treaty the Kingdom of ...

in the August 1867 election, the party passed out of existence after Försterling resigned his seat in April 1870 and died in 1872.

Footnotes

Presidents

(23 May 1863 – 31 August 1864) * Otto Dammer (1 September 1864 – 2 November 1864) * Bernhard Becker (2 November 1864 – 21 November 1869) * Friedrich Wilhelm Fritzsche (21–30 November 1865) * Hugo Hillmann (30 November – 31 December 1865) * Carl Wilhelm Tölcke (1 January – 18 June 1866 * August Perl (18 June 1866 – 19 May 1867) * Johann Baptist von Schweitzer (20 May 1867 – 30 June 1871) * Fritz Mende (24 June – 4 July 1869) *

Wilhelm Hasenclever Wilhelm Hasenclever (19 April 1837 – 3 July 1889) was a German politician. He was originally a tanner by trade but later became a journalist and author. However, he is most known for his political work in the predecessors of the Social Democ ...

(1 July 1871 – 25 May 1875) {{Authority control Defunct socialist parties in Germany Political parties established in 1863 Social democratic parties in Germany Political parties of the German Empire 1875 disestablishments in Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany Ferdinand Lassalle 1863 establishments in Germany Political parties disestablished in 1875