The Saxon People's Party (german: Sächsische Volkspartei) was a left-liberal and radical democratic party with
socialist
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 ...
leanings in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, founded by
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).August Bebel on 19 August 1866 in Chemnitz, and integrated into the newly-founded Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) on 8 August 1869. It was an alliance between liberal, anti-
Prussian
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 e ...
Saxony
Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...
. It is considered one of the precursors to the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
In the preamble to the Chemnitz program of the Saxon People's Party, they committed themselves to " ..fighting the enemies of German freedom and unity under all circumstances and in all areas ... It called for " ..the unrestricted right of self-determination of the German people .., the promotion of " ..general prosperity .. and " ..the liberation of work and the workers from any pressure and any bondage ..]".
North German Confederation
The North German Confederation (german: Norddeutscher Bund) was initially a German military alliance established in August 1866 under the leadership of the Kingdom of Prussia, which was transformed in the subsequent year into a confederated st ...
on August 18, 1866, this party represented an alliance of convenience between radical democrats, Marxists and bourgeois, united by the common goal of curbing Prussian dominance in the new confederation of states. It shared this goal with the southern German liberals, who had formed the
German People's Party
The German People's Party (German: , or DVP) was a liberal party during the Weimar Republic that was the successor to the National Liberal Party of the German Empire. A right-liberal, or conservative-liberal political party, it represented politi ...
, a splinter group of the
German Progress Party
The German Progress Party (german: Deutsche Fortschrittspartei, DFP) was the first modern political party in Germany, founded by liberal members of the Prussian House of Representatives () in 1861 in opposition to Minister President Otto von Bism ...
. However the difference between the South German and Saxon "Liberals" was the socialist component, which was significantly more important in the Saxon People's Party with its claim to represent the interests of the workers' movement.
Principles
In contrast to Prussia and the rival social democratic party there, the
General German Workers' Association
The General German Workers' Association (german: Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiter-Verein, ADAV) was a German political party founded on 23 May 1863 in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony by Ferdinand Lassalle. It was the first organized mass working-class ...
(ADAV), the Saxon People's Party favored a "Greater German solution" more strongly oriented towards federalism, i.e., a German unification including Austria with more rights for the individual countries, while in Prussia a "small German solution" (without Austria) was preferred in order to ensure Prussia's political dominance in a German nation-state.
The victory of Prussia over Austria and the founding of the North German Confederation, which replaced the German Confederation that had existed since the Congress of Vienna in 1815 and which tied the German principalities north of the Main line more closely to Prussia, was a first step by the conservative Prussian Prime Minister and North German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck to enforce the Kleindeutsch solution and thus secure the monarchical principle under the sovereignty of the Prussian Hohenzollern. While Bismarck was always reluctant to unify the Reich, he was realistic enough to realize that he could not permanently suppress liberal and nation-state ideas.
For the Saxon People's Party, Bismarck's policies stood for anti-democratic reaction, militarism and the police state. In the elections to the North German Reichstag in 1867, the Saxon People's Party won three seats. Alongside the more liberal Reinhold Schraps, Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel, who represented the party's socialist-Marxist wing, also became deputies in the new Reichstag in Berlin, where they joined the left-liberal German People's Party in opposing the Prussian government's policies. However, from the outset the party was too weak, its wings too disparate and the political situation too clear to be able to push through its goals with regard to the national question.
On the other hand, the social question and the representation of political interests of the working class gained even more weight in the party. The bourgeois wing crumbled away.
Demise and merger into the SDAP
After three years of existence, the Saxon People's Party was finally dissolved and replaced by a new party in which its left-wing Marxist wing was absorbed: the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP) was founded on August 1, 1869 under the leadership of Bebel and Liebknecht 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 national party. Both retained their seats in the Reichstag, now for this new socialist party.
After the founding of the German Reich as an empire as a result of the Prussian-North German victory over France in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871, the rivalry between the SDAP and ADAV was also superfluous. Both parties united 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 Gotha (district), district of Gotha and was also a residence of the Ernestine House of Wet ...
in 1875 to form the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAP). After the abolition of the repressive anti-socialist laws that applied from 1878 to 1890 and a renaming in 1890, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) finally emerged, which has operated under this name to this day, despite many program changes.
See also
*
Reichstag (North German Confederation)
The Reichstag () of the North German Confederation was the federal state's lower house of parliament. The popularly elected Reichstag was responsible for federal legislation together with the Bundesrat, the upper house whose members were appoi ...