Torsten Kupfer, Geheime Zirkel und Parteivereine: Die Organisation der deutschen Sozialdemokratie zwischen Sozialistengesetz und Jarhhundertwende. Essen: Klartext Verlag, 2003. 278 pp. Documents, diagrams, tables, bibliography, geographic index. EUR 39.00 (paper), ISBN 3-89861-028-4.
Andreas Wolfrum, Die Sozialdemokratie im Herzogtum Sachsen-Altenburg zwischen 1848 und 1920. Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2003. 339 pp. Bibliography, index. EUR 34.80 (paper), ISBN 3-412-17802-0.
Reviewed by: Gary Roth, Rutgers University at Newark.
Published by: H-German (March, 2005)
Social Democracy from Below and Above
Torsten Kupfer's book, Geheime Zirkel und Parteivereine: Die Organisation der deutschen Sozialdemokratie zwischen Sozialistengesetz und Jahrhundertwende, is a substantial contribution to our knowledge of the history of German social democracy. The organizational transformations of the Social Democratic Party set in motion through the imposition of the Anti-Socialist Laws in 1878 had effects which far outlasted the repeal of those laws in 1890. At the time it was banned, the Social Democratic Party already represented a tenth of the electorate; when it was re-legalized a dozen years later, its representation had doubled. This period is of particular interest, then, not only because of the interplay of state repression and the growth of the socialist movement, but also because of the process through which the Social Democratic Party became a mass organization.
Following the 1878 ban, the Social Democratic Party reestablished itself through a combination of illegal and legal organizations, the Geheime Zirkel and Parteivereine of Kupfer's title. Since the repressive laws did not outlaw all activities, the socialists made full use of the inconsistencies. Socialist groups may not have been able to refer to themselves as such, but they were nonetheless permitted by law to form election committees, distribute electioneering materials, hold campaign speeches and rallies, and reprint speeches made by parliamentary representatives. Party organizations, in the meantime, disguised themselves as social welfare and recreational societies, such as glee clubs, athletic associations, and hiking groups. As Kupfer explains, belonging to a disguised club was the equivalent of belonging to the party itself, and since the party and the socialist unions functioned as extensions of one another, often with the same personnel playing leading roles in each type of organization, the socialist movement was able to maintain its cohesiveness despite the repression. These activities were closely monitored by the police authorities, who would send observers to meetings, and by paid police spies, but nonetheless the socialists were the most successful political party, measured in the growth of votes, within the country.
The repeal of the Anti-Socialist Laws in 1890, however, did not end the repressive actions on the part of the public and private authorities, and Kupfer draws much attention to this fact. Ongoing harassment of socialist newspapers and editors continued, with fines and short and medium-length jail sentences, all of which had the intended effect of moderating the press. Party and union activists were harassed at work, which represented a financial liability to their respective organizations. Employers and civil servants cooperated actively in the circulation of black lists, and the police often ignored right-wing violence against the Social Democrats. In some localities, pressure was put on restaurant and pub owners not to rent rooms to the Social Democrats for meetings, and even though the socialists organized boycotts against uncooperative businesses, this strategy was only effective when proprietors did sufficient business with them.
Consequently, the illegal (or inner) organizations continued to function even after the repeal of the Anti-Socialist Laws, and it is the fate of the inner organizations that Kupfer traces with great success. In part, they maintained themselves as insurance against the re-imposition of repressive laws and against the ongoing repression, which, even though it was less systematic than before, was still quite pervasive. With legalization, however, the party began a long, drawn-out process of reconstitution, whereby its delegate system was tailored to the nation's electoral districts. This internal reshuffling weakened the inner organizations, whose members in any case were no longer representative of the new members flooding into the party. Whereas the older members were more likely to be craft workers, the newer members were more firmly a part of the industrial workforce. These new members reacted badly to the exclusivity of the inner organizations, whose members in any case were undergoing a shift towards a more passive and less radical perspective as they aged. Kupfer quite interestingly, although perhaps overly schematically, relates the revolt of the so-called "Jungen" to these multiple transformations.
Kupfer's contribution can be understood as part of the ongoing evolution of research into the history of German social democracy, in which his book provides a new, more comprehensive synthesis while also pushing into new areas of discovery. His extensive use of police surveillance reports supplements the extensive records kept by the socialist party and trade unions themselves. Kupfer's study is also attuned to the differences from region to region, where the intensity of repression and discrimination varied. If, on the one hand, Kupfer confirms much of what is already known about German social democracy, he nonetheless provides an intimate look at the internal structure and dynamics which propelled the party during these years. It is unfortunate that the documents, tables, and diagrams which accompany the text, and which actually fill more pages than the narrative itself, are not integrated into the book, so that it could serve as a work of social history rather than a scholarly report on an aspect of the phenomena in question. This criticism aside, however, Kupfer has given us a fresh look at German social democracy, and in doing so, he has filled in the story in many helpful ways.
Andreas Wolfrum's Die Sozialdemokratie im Herzogtum Sachsen-Altenburg zwischen 1848 und 1920 also provides a unique window into the history of German social democracy. For his regional study of an area of the former East Germany, Wolfrum has obtained access to records which previously needed governmental approval. The history of the Duchy of Sachsen-Altenburg is particularly complicated. Sachsen-Altenburg was just one of several principalities within the province of Thuringia, which itself was dominated by Prussia once Germany was unified in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Complicating matters even further, Sachsen-Altenburg was physically divided into east and west sections: agriculture dominated in one, industry and the crafts in the other. As Wolfrum shows, there is a need to approach this history from multiple vantage points. The first part of Wolfrum's book is devoted to these kinds of considerations, and one learns much about the economic, political, and governmental structures of Sachsen-Altenburg. The book includes special sections on the territorial peculiarities of the region, agriculture and industrial crafts, population density and urbanization, and occupational formations. Particularly interesting are sections on the constitutional and legal make-up of the duchy, as well as a fascinating discourse on the administrative mechanisms of this region. Wolfrum has taken the time to ask just what it was that the provincial government and Duke of Sachsen-Altenburg did during the Kaiserreich.
Although Sachsen-Altenburg was one of the leading areas organized by the social democrats, Wolfrum mostly confirms that local social democratic organizations were preoccupied with the same issues as the national party. Local issues were not particularly unique, to a great extent because the Social Democrats were all-but-excluded from participation in governmental affairs until the turn of the century, when a slight liberalization process took hold. Nonetheless, the Social Democrats pursued some issues continuously over the course of many, many frustrating decades. The unification of Thuringia into a single state is one of them. That the Social Democrats conflated democracy with socialism explains their perseverance even in the near absence of any measure of success vis-à-vis the political system.
Wolfrum pursues many themes and in the end provides a comprehensive view of social democracy on the local level--its political ideology, history, local leaders, mobilizing causes, and membership. Each theme in the book, however, runs parallel to the others, such that one traverses the entire time period under consideration, from 1848-1920, repeatedly. Little attempt is made to integrate the various levels with one another. This approach tends to undermine the justification for a regionally based study, since the local issues frequently need to be referenced to the national themes in order to provide clarity. The many interesting examples are never systematically probed through all the possible levels introduced into the book. Should the author take this next step in his future work, he will no doubt produce a work of major significance.
Citation: Gary Roth. "Review of Torsten Kupfer, Geheime Zirkel und Parteivereine: Die Organisation der deutschen Sozialdemokratie zwischen Sozialistengesetz und Jarhhundertwende," H-German, H-Net Reviews, March, 2005. URL: http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.cgi?path=260231117653513.
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