The Socialist League (german: Sozialistischer Bund) was initiated as a political movement by

Gustav Landauer Gustav Landauer (7 April 1870 – 2 May 1919) was one of the leading theorists on anarchism in Germany at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. He was an advocate of social anarchism and an avowed pacifist. In 1919, he ...

in May 1908 and aimed at "uniting all humans who are serious about realizing socialism." Its original strategy was to achieve socialism through the formation of

worker cooperatives A worker cooperative is a cooperative owned and self-managed by its workers. This control may mean a firm where every worker-owner participates in decision-making in a democratic fashion, or it may refer to one in which management is elected by ...

and

intentional communities An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

Martin Buber Martin Buber ( he, מרטין בובר; german: Martin Buber; yi, מארטין בובער; February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965) was an Austrian Jewish and Israeli philosopher best known for his philosophy of dialogue, a form of existentialism c ...

Erich Mühsam Erich Mühsam (6 April 1878 – 10 July 1934) was a German-Jewish antimilitarist anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic, for which ...

, and

Margarethe Faas-Hardegger Margarethe Faas-Hardegger (20 February 1882 in Bern – 23 September 1963 in Minusio) was a Swiss women's rights activist, trade unionist and the leading figure of the Swiss women workers' movement at the beginning of the 20th century. Her leade ...

were early members of Landauer's group, which eventually grew to include about 800 members. During the fall of the

Bavarian Soviet Republic The Bavarian Soviet Republic, or Munich Soviet Republic (german: Räterepublik Baiern, Münchner Räterepublik),Hollander, Neil (2013) ''Elusive Dove: The Search for Peace During World War I''. McFarland. p.283, note 269. was a short-lived unre ...

in the spring of 1919, Landauer was killed, and the movement was thrown into disarray. It reappeared later as a splinter group of the

Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was establish ...

led by

Georg Ledebour Georg Ledebour (7 March 1850, Hanover – 31 March 1947) was a German socialist journalist and politician. He served as a stretcher bearer in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. He worked as a journalist on several newspapers after 1875. He joined ...

. The party got 26,418 votes in the May 1924 Reichstag election. In the 1928 elections, the party called on its sympathizers to vote for the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...

Labour and Socialist International The Labour and Socialist International (LSI; german: Sozialistische Arbeiter-Internationale, label=German, SAI) was an international organization of socialist and labour parties, active between 1923 and 1940. The group was established through a me ...

.
Kongress-Protokolle der Sozialistischen Arbeiter-Internationale - B. 3.1 Brüssel 1928
'. Glashütten im Taunus: D. Auvermann, 1974. p. IV. 41 The Socialist League was one of the groups that merged into the

Socialist Workers' Party of Germany The Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, SAPD) was a centrist Marxist political party in Germany. It was formed as a left-wing party with around 20,000 members which split off from the SPD in ...

(SAPD) in 1931.Maehl, William Harvey.
The German Socialist Party: Champion of the First Republic, 1918-1933
'. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, v. 169. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1986. p. 181

References

{{Authority control Defunct socialist parties in Germany