page_title: History of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
section_title: Weimar Republic (1918–1933)
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Social Democratic Party of Germany / German Reich / Weimar Republic (1918–1933)
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Wahlen zur Nationalversammlung am 19.1.1919 Wahlpropaganda-Korso der Sozialdemokraten in Berlin
context_page_description: The foundation of the Social Democratic Party of Germany can be traced back to the 1860s, and for much of the 20th and 21st centuries it has represented the centre-left in German politics. Nevertheless from 1891 to 1959 the Party at least theoretically espoused Marxism.
  The SPD has been the ruling party at several points, first under Friedrich Ebert in 1918. The party was outlawed in Nazi Germany but returned to government in 1969 with Willy Brandt. Meanwhile, the East German branch of the SPD was merged with the ruling KPD.
  In the modern Federal Republic of Germany, the SPD are the second largest party after the CDU and are currently in government as a junior coalition partner to Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU. The SPD last held the chancellorship under Gerhard Schröder from 1998 to 2005.
context_section_description: Subsequently, the Social Democratic Party and the newly founded Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which consisted mostly of former members of the SPD, became bitter rivals, not least because of the legacy of the German Revolution. Under Defense Minister of Germany Gustav Noske, the party aided in putting down the Communist and left wing Spartacist uprising throughout Germany in early 1919 with the use of the Freikorps, a morally questionable decision that has remained the source of much controversy amongst historians to this day. While the KPD remained in staunch opposition to the newly established parliamentary system, the SPD became a part of the so-called Weimar Coalition, one of the pillars of the struggling republic, leading several of the short-lived interwar cabinets. The threat of the Communists put the SPD in a difficult position. The party had a choice between becoming more radical (which could weaken the Communists but lose its base among the middle class) or stay moderate, which would damage its base among the working class. Splinter groups formed: In 1928, a small group calling itself Neu Beginnen, in the autumn of 1931, the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany, and in December 1931 the Iron Front.
caption: SPD activists calling for the National Assembly elections in 1919
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