Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany, *Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands,* or just the SPD for short is a center-left German political party, currently exiled in Czechia and popular among the German population of the Czech Republic.

# **History**

## **Early 20th century**

Despite repression by the German Empire in the early 1900s, the SPD proved itself to be a growing movement and political party, especially in the Reichstag, becoming the strongest party in 1912.

## **Controversy in the Great War**

During the Great War, the SPD became more and more anti-militaristic and developed increasingly sympathies for pacifism, even though at first they began to support the war effort, by 1916 the German population was exhausted and there was an increasing sentiment that life under the Tsar or under the Entente would be better than fighting the war, even as no side was clearly winning. In 1916, a wave of German mutinies and strikes slowed the war effort, and while the SPD remained neutral on the situation, they soon, albeit privately took a side as the strikers and mutineers were severely punished, including over 6 dead from police raids on the strikers. This severed most sympathy the SPD leadership had for the war, now viewing the Kaiser as tyrannical and despotic, and no better than the Tsar. The aftermath of the strikes also re-kindled ties that the radical faction of the SPD had, which averted the party from splitting and as a result, the SPD grew to contain a sizable amount of Marxists and syndicalists present in the party.

## **Squabbles in the German Republic**

When the war was lost and the Kaiser fled, the SPD in the chaos that plagued Germany tried to gain support from the people and began looking to trade unions and the working class to gain sympathy for their cause, and after the Entente was able to suppress domestic unrest enough for a general election to be held, the moderate SPD-aligned Frederich Ebert won by a landslide, even as the working class was struggling to get back on their feet.

While the SPD became more left-wing, the presidency of Ebert only fueled this trend. Ebert was aligned with the Entente out of pragmatism, which already resulted in his support to drop, but after he handled various strikes throughout the year of 1918 very poorly more and more people denounced the republic as the population experienced waves of anti-Republican, pro-syndicalist sympathies.

In July of 1918, the SPD, already very weary of Ebert finally broke ties with the man, calling him a traitor to the working class and a puppet of the Entente. As a result, Ebert founded the Moderate Party of Germany, mostly consisting of moderate social democrats that split with the SPD, but upon the end of the German Revolution the MPG was disbanded.

## **Participation in the German Civil War**

When the general strike in Germany was declared in January of 1919, the SPD remained neutral on the situation, not wanting to see themselves align with the strikers with the possibility of ramifications from Berlin, but soon after the German people, including the SPD became aware at how weak the new government was. As the Entente kept pushing Ebert to suppress the strikes even though he himself realized the danger in doing so, the strikers grew in number. By February, as over 500,000 workers were in strike and martial law was declared across the country, the SPD passed a popular measure, declaring they would support the right to strike and wouldn't take up arms to protect the status quo. As a result, the Republican government banned multiple parties, including the SPD which resulted in multiple arrests, severely weakening the SPD's power, but a short time later Munich was overtaken as revolutionar6 fires would soon engulf all of the republic.

From Spring to Summer the revolutionary tide soon took over all of Southern and Western Germany, and even before the declaration of the Union of Germany most SPD members fled to Bavaria where the revolutionary council tolerated them. In the declaration of the German Union in July, multiple political organizations and parties were banned, but one of the few non-socialist parties that were not banned was the SPD, in part due to their sizable amount of Marxist sympathizers but also because of their aid and loyalty in the revolution. In reality, many in the SPD were paranoid about how radical the revolution was becoming, and it didn't change the fact that the SPD still dreamed of a "true" social democratic government taking over Germany, even if the SPD had socialist sympathies.

## **Treatment in the German Union**

On paper, the German Union's government is apolitical, in reality though this effort was thwarted by the TUC increasingly picking sides in debates, as trade unions and by extent labor unions began supporting various sides, such as the Luxemburgists, Anarchistens or the Unionists. Before they were banned, the SPD held a small faction inside the Congress, known as the Democrats. The Democrats were small in size and number, but it didn't stop them from being alienated from society and the government, as relations between the SPD and the government began to deteriorate over ideological differences.

Nonetheless, the SPD was still a popular political party, especially by those who were neutral in the revolution and didn't want to be outcasted or suffer a worse fate shared by those who didn't support the government's revolutionary ideology.

## **1925 election and exile**

As the SPD felt that their influence was rapidly crumbling at the behest of Berlin, the party aligned with various liberals like the social democrats that were not outlawed but suppressed. As a result, the alignment of the still popular SPD and various small liberal parties and organizations spooked the Union as the SPD still had sizable influence, and the fact that they are running for elections in the TUC and for the position of the chairman led the TUC to act.