Anti-Socialist Laws
Despite its relatively moderate stance, the SAPD organization was deemed subversive and officially banned by the German Empire under the Anti-Socialist Laws of 1878. Under proscription, the party's members continued to organize successfully. After the ban was lifted in 1890, they rechristened themselves as the Social Democratic Party of Germany ("Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands", SPD) and surged at the polls. By the 1912 elections, the SPD (a direct descendant of the small SDAP) had become the largest party in Germany.