Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | April 1917; 108 years ago (1917-04) |
| Dissolved | September 1922; 103 years ago (1922-09) (majority) |
| Split from | SPD |
| Merged into | KPD (Majority, 1920)[a] SPD (Faction, 1922)[b] SAPD (minority, 1931)[c] |
| Newspaper | Die Freiheit |
| Membership | 120,000 (January 1918) 750,000 (Spring 1920) |
| Ideology | Centrist Marxism[1] Democratic socialism Pacifism |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| International affiliation | International Working Union of Socialist Parties |
| Colors | Red |
TheIndependent Social Democratic Party of Germany (German:Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands,USPD) was a short-livedpolitical party inGermany during theGerman Empire and theWeimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of anti-war members of theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), from the left of the party as well as the centre and the right. The organization attempted to chart a course between electorally orientedreformism on the one hand andBolshevikrevolutionism on the other.[2] After several splits and mergers, the last part of the organization was terminated in 1931 through merger with theSocialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAPD).
On 21 December 1915, several SPD members in theReichstag, the German parliament, voted against theauthorization of further credits to financeWorld War I, an incident that emphasized existing tensions between the SPD leadership and thepacifists surroundingHugo Haase and ultimately led to the expulsion of the group from the SPD on 24 March 1916.
To be able to continue their parliamentary work, the group formed the Social Democratic Working Group (Sozialdemokratische Arbeitsgemeinschaft, SAG). Concerns from the SPD leadership andFriedrich Ebert that the SAG was intent on dividing the SPD then led to the expulsion of the SAG members from the SPD on 18 January 1917. On 6 April 1917, the USPD was founded at a conference inGotha, with Hugo Haase as the party's first chairman. TheSpartakusbund also merged into the newly founded party, but it retained relative autonomy.[3] To avoid confusion, the existing SPD was typically called theMajority Social Democratic Party of Germany (Mehrheits-SPD or MSPD, majority-SPD) from then on.Luise Zietz was one of the main agitators in favor of a split in the party in 1917.[4] She became a leader in the creation of the USPD's women's movement.[4]
Following theJanuarstreik in January 1918, a strike demanding an end to the war and better food provisioning that was organized by revolutionaries affiliated with the USPD and officially supported by the party, the USPD quickly rose to about 120,000 members. The USPD reached a settlement with the SPD as theGerman Revolution began and even became part of the government in the form of theRat der Volksbeauftragten (Council of the People's Deputies), which was formed on 10 November 1918 and mutually led by Ebert and Haase during the German Revolution.
However, the agreement did not last long as Haase,Wilhelm Dittmann andEmil Barth left the council on 29 December 1918 to protest the SPD's use of military force during thesailors' uprising in Berlin. At the same time, the Spartakusbund, led byRosa Luxemburg andKarl Liebknecht, separated from the USPD in order to merge with other left-wing groups and form theCommunist Party of Germany (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, KPD).
During the elections for theNational Assembly on19 January 1919 from which the SPD emerged as the strongest party with 37.9% of the votes, the USPD only managed to attract 7.6%. Nevertheless, the party's strong support for the introduction of a system of councils (Räterepublik) instead of a parliamentary democracy attracted many former SPD members and in spring 1920 the USPD had grown to more than 750,000 members, managing to increase their share of votes to 17.9% during theparliamentary elections on 6 June 1920 and becoming one of the largest factions in the newReichstag, second only to the SPD (21.7%).During that period, the USPD briefly published a newspaper,Arbeiterpost.[5]
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In 1920, four delegates from the USPD (Ernst Däumig,Arthur Crispien,Walter Stoecker andWilhelm Dittmann) attended the2nd World Congress of the Comintern to discuss participating in theComintern.[6] Whilst Däumig and Stoecker agreed with the International's 21 conditions of entry, Crispien and Dittmann opposed them,[6] leading to a controversial debate over joining the Comintern to break out in the USPD. Many members felt that the necessary requirements for joining would lead to a loss of the party's independence and a perceived dictate from Moscow while others, especially younger members such asErnst Thälmann, argued that Comintern membership would allow the party to implement its socialist ideals.
Ultimately, the proposition to join the Comintern was approved at a party convention inHalle in October 1920 by 237 votes to 156,[7] with various international speakers includingJulius Martov,Jean Longuet andGrigory Zinoviev. The USPD split up in the process, with both groups seeing themselves as the rightful USPD and the other one as being outcast. On 4 December 1920, the left wing of the USPD with about 400,000 members merged into the KPD, forming the United Communist Party of Germany (Vereinigte Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, VKPD) while the moderate arm of the party, with about 340,000 members and three-fourths of its Reichstag deputies, continued under the name USPD. Led byGeorg Ledebour andArthur Crispien, they supportedparliamentary democracy against the Communists' revolutionary aspirations. The remainder of the USPD was instrumental in the creation of the2½ International in 1921.
As the Weimar Republic became relatively more stable, the political distance between the mainstream SPD and the remainder of the USPD dwindled. Following the assassination of foreign ministerWalther Rathenau byfar-right terrorists in June 1922, the two parties formed a singleparliamentary group on 14 July 1922. Two months later on 24 September, the parties formalised their reunification at a joint congress inNuremberg, adopting the name of United Social Democratic Party of Germany (Vereinigte Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, VSPD) which was shortened again to SPD in 1924.
A minority faction led byGeorg Ledebour andTheodor Liebknecht refused reunification and reorganized a much reduced party under the USPD name. In the1928 Reichstag election, the continuity party won 0.06% of the vote, falling far short of winning any seats.[8] The party contested the1930 election with even less success before merging into theSocialist Workers' Party of Germany (Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschland, SAPD) in 1931.
| Year | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1919 | Hugo Haase | 2,317,290 (5th) | 7.62 | 22 / 423 | New |
| 1920 | Arthur Crispien | 5,046,813 (2nd) | 17.90 | 84 / 459 |  62 |
| Majority of USPD reunifies with mainstream SPD | |||||
| May 1924 | Georg Ledebour Theodor Liebknecht | 235,145 (13th) | 0.79 | 0 / 472 |  84 |
| December 1924 | 98,842 (14th) | 0.32 | 0 / 493 |  | |
| 1928 | 20,815 (25th) | 0.06 | 0 / 491 | | |
| 1930 | 11,690 (22nd) | 0.03 | 0 / 577 | | |
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