The German Labour Party of Poland (german: Deutsche Arbeitspartei Polen, abbreviated DAP) was a German

social democratic Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...

party in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. DAP was founded in Łodz on 19 January 1922 at the office of the ''Vereins deutschsprecheder Meister und Arbeiter''. The party gathered former members of

SDKPiL The Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania ( pl, Socjaldemokracja Królestwa Polskiego i Litwy, SDKPiL), , LKLSD), originally the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP), was a Marxist political party founded in 1893 an ...

in Łodz and Middle Poland. The founders of DAP, and Artur Kronig, had refused to join the rest of the SDKPiL in forming the

Communist Workers Party of Poland The interwar Communist Party of Poland ( pl, Komunistyczna Partia Polski, KPP) was a communist party active in Poland during the Second Polish Republic. It resulted from a December 1918 merger of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland ...

. DAP was the first German socialist party in independent Poland. DAP won three seats in the Sejm in the

1922 Polish legislative election Parliamentary elections were held in Poland on 5 November 1922, with Senate elections held a week later on 12 November.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1491 The elections were governed by the March ...

. Zerbe was elected on the state-wide list. Kronig was elected from the Łodz City constituency. , leader of the rightist trend inside DAP, was elected from the Łodz County constituency with the support of Jewish voters. The main press organ of DAP was the weekly ''Arbeit'' (published 1920-1923) and from 1924 onwards the daily newspaper ''Lodzer Volkszeitung''. DAP fielded its own list for the 1923 Łodz City Council election, albeit whilst maintaining alliance with the

Polish Socialist Party The Polish Socialist Party ( pl, Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS) is a socialist political party in Poland. It was one of the most important parties in Poland from its inception in 1892 until its merger with the communist Polish Workers' P ...

(PPS) and the

General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland The General Jewish Labour Bund in Poland ( yi, אַלגעמײַנער ײדישער אַרבעטער בּונד אין פוילן, translit=Algemeyner Yidisher Arbeter-bund in Poyln, pl, Ogólno-Żydowski Związek Robotniczy "Bund" w Polsce) was ...

. The DAP list obtained 11,421 votes and won five seats in the City Council, far more than the German bourgeois nationalist BDP (which obtained 5,581 votes and 2 seats). The collaboration with PPS and Bund left to the departure of the Utta-led faction. Utta joined the German nationalist-conservative camp. On 9 August 1925 DAP merged with the

German Social Democratic Party 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 ...

(DSPP), forming the

German Socialist Labour Party in Poland The German Socialist Labour Party of Poland (german: Deutsche Sozialistische Arbeitspartei Polens, abbreviated DSAP, pl, Niemiecka Socjalistyczna Partia Pracy w Polsce) was a political party organizing German Social Democrats in interbellum Poland ...

(DSAP). The merger was however only nominal, in reality DSPP and DAP continued to exist as separate parties until October 1929. On 6–7 October 1929 DSAP became a consolidated united political party.

References

{{Polish political parties Defunct socialist parties in Poland German political parties in Poland Labour parties