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Sopade (Social Democratic Party of Germany inexile (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands im Exil), also writtenSoPaDe orSOPADE,German pronunciation:[ˌzopaˈdeː]) was the name of theboard of directors (Vorstand) of theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in exile duringNational Socialism in Germany. It operated inPrague from 1933 to 1938, from 1938 to 1940 inParis, and, until 1945, inLondon. The entire group of employees and followers were also sometimes called this.
After the occupation of the trade union houses by theNazis on 2 May 1933, the party executive committee decided that some particularly endangered members of the board would immediately have to flee from the grasp of the Nazis.Otto Wels,Paul Hertz,Friedrich Stampfer,Erich Ollenhauer, and others were assigned to build up a foreign party structure in Prague.
The Sopade broke with the remaining party executive committee in Berlin in mid-May 1933, two weeks afterPaul Löbe agreed toHitler's peace resolution, which was interpreted as the SPD sanctioning fascist foreign policy. After the final Nazi prohibition of the SPD on 22 June 1933, there was no longer a divide between the home and foreign SPD.
Under pressure from the intra-party opposition groupsNeu Beginnen andRevolutionäre Sozialisten Deutschlands, in 1934 the Sopade published thePrague Manifesto, penned byRudolf Hilferding. This document called for the revolutionary overthrow of the Hitler regime.
With the cooperation of Hilferding, the Sopade publishedGermany Reports through a secret correspondence system. These dealt with the situation inNazi Germany. The reports were published under two titles: "Germany Report of the Sopade" from April/May 1934 to December 1936, "Germany Reports of the Social-Democratic Party of Germany (Sopade)" from January 1937 until April 1940. TheReports were published by order of the executive committee in exile of the SPD, edited byErich Rinner, until March 1938 in Prague, from May 1938 inParis.
In 1945, the Allied occupants in the Western zones initially allowed four parties to be established, including the re-establishment of the SPD.