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The SPD is a member party of the Socialist International.

Members of the party who are younger than 35 are organized in the Jusos.

1 History

The party considers itself to be founded on May 23, 1863, by Ferdinand Lassalle under the name Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein (ADAV, General German Worker's Association). In 1869, August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht founded the Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei (SDAP, Social Democratic Worker Party), which merged with the ADAV in 1875. Otto von Bismarck had the party outlawed for its pro-revolution, anti-monarchy sentiments; but in 1892 it was legalized again.

SPD election poster, 1932. Translation: "Against Papen, Hitler, ThälmannErnst Thalmann ( April 16, 1886 August 18, 1944) was the leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during much of the Weimar Republic. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot on Hitl; List 2, Social Democrats" After World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of, the Social Democratic Party and the newly founded Communist Party of GermanyThe Communist Party of Germany (in German, Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands KPD was formed in December of 1918 from the Spartacist League, which originated as a small factional grouping within the Social Democratic Party (SPD) opposed to the First World (which consisted mostly of SPD defectors) became bitter rivals, not least because of the legacy of the German RevolutionThe German Revolution describes a series of events that occurred in 1918- 1919, culminating in the overthrow of the Kaiser and the establishment of a democratic republic. Like the Russian February Revolution, no single political party led the rebellion, a (see Weimar RepublicThe period of German history from 1919 to 1933 is known as the Weimar Republic (in German Weimarer Republik ). It is named after the city of Weimar, where a national assembly convened to produce a new constitution after Germany's defeat in World War I.). The leader of the Prussian government in Berlin, socialist Otto BraunOtto Braun ( 28 January 1872 14 December 1955) was a German Social Democratic politician, who was Prime Minister of Prussia. Originally from Konigsberg in East Prussia, Braun became a leader of the Social Democratic Party there, and was elected to the Pru was ousted by military coup on July 20, 1932 and the party was banned by the Nazis in 1933. It takes a certain pride in being the only party that voted against the 1933 Enabling ActThe Enabling Act (in German: Ermachtigungsgesetz was passed by the Reichstag on March 23, 1933. It was the second major step after the Reichstag Fire Decree through which the Nazis legally established Nazi Germany by giving the Chancellor (then Adolf Hitl.

The SPD was recreated after World War II. In West Germany, it was initially in the opposition, but led the federal government under Chancellors Willy Brandt and Helmut Schmidt from 1969 until 1982. In its 1959 Godesberg Program the SPD abandoned the concept of a class party and Marxist principles while continuing to stress social welfare programs. Although the SPD originally opposed West Germany's 1955 entry into NATO, it now strongly supports German ties with the alliance.

In the Russian sector which later became East Germany (GDR), the Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party of Germany were forced to merge to form the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED). During the fall of Communist rule in 1989, the SPD was re-established as a separate party in East Germany and then merged with its West German counterpart.