Socialist League (Germany)

For other groups with this name, see Socialist League (disambiguation).

The Socialist League (German: Sozialistischer Bund) was initiated as a political movement by Gustav Landauer in May of 1908, and was aimed at "uniting all humans who are serious about realizing socialism". Its original strategy was to achieve socialism through the formation of worker cooperatives and intentional communities. Martin Buber and Erich Muhsam were early members of Landauer's group, which eventually grew to include about 800 members.[1] During the fall of the Bavarian Soviet Republic in the spring of 1919, Landauer was killed and the movement was thrown into disarray.

It reappeared later as a splinter group of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany led by Georg Ledebour.[2] The party got 26,418 votes in the May 1924 Reichtag election.[3]

In the 1928 elections, the party called on its sympathizers to vote for the Communist Party of Germany.[2]

The Socialist League was one of the groups that merged into the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAPD) in 1931.[4]

References

  1. Gabriel Kuhn with Siegbert Wolf (2010). "Revolution and Other Writings: A Political Reader". PM Press. p. 31.
  2. 1 2 Labour and Socialist International. Kongress-Protokolle der Sozialistischen Arbeiter-Internationale - B. 3.1 Brüssel 1928. Glashütten im Taunus: D. Auvermann, 1974. p. IV. 41
  3. Die Wahl der Parlamente und anderer Staatsorgane Hbd. 1. Bd. 1. Europa. Berlin: De Gruyter, 1969. p. 361
  4. Maehl, William Harvey. The German Socialist Party: Champion of the First Republic, 1918-1933. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society, v. 169. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1986. p. 181
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