The first harbingers of Social Democratic movement, which opposed neo-absolutism, censorship and feudalism and demanded political co-determination, appeared in 1848. TheSocial Democratic Workers’ Party of Austria was founded in Neudörfl in Burgenland on 4 April 1874 but was split into a moderate and radical group. Victor Adler finally managed to unite the different ideologies within the Social Democratic movement at the Hainfeld party congress in 1888/89. At the top of its political agenda were the demands for legal recognition of the eight-hour day and the introduction of universal, direct and equal suffrage, which was ultimately sanctioned – at least for men – in 1907.

• Michaela Scharf