Socialist Workers' Party of Germany
The party was founded on 23 May 1863 by Ferdinand Lassalle under the name "Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein" (ADAV, General German Workers' Association). In 1869, August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht founded the "Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei" (SDAP, Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany), which merged with the ADAV at a conference held in Gotha in 1875, taking the name "Socialist Workers' Party of Germany" (SAPD). At this conference, the party developed the Gotha Program, which Karl Marx criticized in his "Critique of the Gotha Program". Through the Anti-Socialist Laws, Otto von Bismarck had the party outlawed for its pro-revolution, anti-monarchy sentiments in 1878; but in 1890 it was legalized again. That year - in its Halle convention - it changed its name to "Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands" (SPD), as it is known to this day.