General German Workers' Association
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The General German Workers' Association (, ADAV) was a German political party founded on 23 May 1863 in
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
,
Kingdom of Saxony The Kingdom of Saxony () was a German monarchy in Central Europe between 1806 and 1918, the successor of the Electorate of Saxony. It joined the Confederation of the Rhine after the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, later joining the German ...
by Ferdinand Lassalle. It was the first organized mass working-class party in 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 (, SDAP) was a Marxist socialist political party in the North German Confederation during unification. Founded in Eisenach in 1869, the SDAP endured through the early years of the German Empire. ...
(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 ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...
(SPD), which presently remains in existence and dates its origins to the founding of the ADAV. Its
Austria Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
n part would become the
SPÖ The Social Democratic Party of Austria ( , SPÖ) is a social democratic political party in Austria. Founded in 1889 as the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (, SDAPÖ) and later known as the Socialist Party of Austria () from 1945 unt ...
. The ADAV was the first German Labour Party, formed in
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
before the establishment of the
German Empire The German Empire (),; ; World Book, Inc. ''The World Book dictionary, Volume 1''. World Book, Inc., 2003. p. 572. States that Deutsches Reich translates as "German Realm" and was a former official name of Germany. also referred to as Imperia ...
. It was active in the
German Confederation The German Confederation ( ) 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, which had been dissolved ...
, which included the
Austrian Empire The Austrian Empire, officially known as the Empire of Austria, was a Multinational state, multinational European Great Powers, great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the Habsburg monarchy, realms of the Habsburgs. Duri ...
.


Organizational history


Establishment

The ADAV was founded in Leipzig by Ferdinand Lassalle 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 German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
,
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
,
Elberfeld Elberfeld is a municipal subdivision of the Germany, 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 ...
,
Frankfurt am Main Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...
,
Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...
, Harburg,
Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
,
Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...
,
Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...
and
Solingen Solingen (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 25 km east of Düsseldorf along the northern edge of the Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr. After Wuppertal, it is the second-largest city in the Bergisches Land, and a member of ...
. The ADAV sought to advance the interests of the
working class The working class is a subset of employees who are compensated with wage or salary-based contracts, whose exact membership varies from definition to definition. Members of the working class rely primarily upon earnings from wage labour. Most c ...
and to work for the establishment of
socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...
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. During the 17th and 18th centuries (and earlier), duels were mostly single combats fought with swords (the rapier and later the small sword), but beginning in ...
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 Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...
and
Friedrich Engels Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''.
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...
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; 1864–1876), often called the First International, was a political international which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, social democratic, communist, and anarchist g ...
(First International), which they helped manage, but the gathering did not discuss affiliation, further disaffecting Marx from the group. Wilhelm Liebknecht was a member until 1865, but as the ADAV tried to cooperate with
Otto von Bismarck Otto, Prince of Bismarck, Count of Bismarck-Schönhausen, Duke of Lauenburg (; born ''Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck''; 1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) was a German statesman and diplomat who oversaw the unification of Germany and served as ...
's government, for example on the question of
women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the women's rights, right of women to Suffrage, vote in elections. Several instances occurred in recent centuries where women were selectively given, then stripped of, the right to vote. In Sweden, conditional women's suffra ...
, Liebknecht became disillusioned with the association. He had been writing for ''Der Sozial-Demokrat,'' but as a result of disagreement with the newspaper's
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
-friendly rhetoric he quit the organization to establish the Saxon People's Party along with
August Bebel Ferdinand August Bebel (; 22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist activist and politician. He was one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Bebel, a woodworker by trade, co-founded the Sa ...
. In 1869, Liebknecht became a co-founder of the SDAP in
Eisenach Eisenach () is a Town#Germany, town in Thuringia, Germany with 42,000 inhabitants, west of Erfurt, southeast of Kassel and northeast of Frankfurt. It is the main urban centre of western Thuringia, and bordering northeastern Hesse, Hessian re ...
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 ( German: ''das Gothaer Programm''), also called the Gotha Programme, 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. ...
, 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 Sophie Gräfin von Hatzfeldt, born Gräfin von Hatzfeldt-Schönstein zu Trachenberg (10 August 1805 in Żmigród, Trachenberg (Lower Silesia) – 25 January 1881 in Wiesbaden) was active in the German working-class movement and partner and con ...
and Friedrich Wilhelm Emil Försterling in June 1867. Despite success when Försterling gained the Reichstag seat for the Chemnitz Reichstag constituency in the August 1867 election, the party passed out of existence after Försterling resigned his seat in April 1870 and died in 1872.


Presidents

* Ferdinand Lassalle (23 May 1863 – 31 August 1864) * Otto Dammer (1 September – 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 (1 July 1871 – 25 May 1875)


References

{{Authority control Communism in Germany Defunct social democratic parties in Germany Political parties established in 1863 Political parties of the German Empire 1875 disestablishments in Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany Ferdinand Lassalle 1863 establishments in the German Confederation Political parties disestablished in 1875 Political parties of Prussia