The
Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany, in
German Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, SDAP, was a
German left-wing political party founded on August 7/August 9, 1869 in
Eisenach,
Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach by, among others,
Wilhelm Liebknecht and
August Bebel. They were members of Bebel's and Liebknecht's
Association of German Workers' Associations (
Verband Deutscher Arbeitervereine) and of
Ferdinand Lassalle's
General German Workers' Association. Bebel became the first chairman of the Social Democratic Workers' Party.
The party included some former members of the
General German Workers' Association (ADAV) of
Ferdinand Lassalle who had died five years earlier. They were known as the
Eisenacher after the town where the party was founded, and their programme was the
Eisenacher Programm. Bebel and Liebknecht were influenced by
Karl Marx and
Friedrich Engels and considered their party "a section of the
International Workingmen's Association", sharing its aspirations. The party, which was based mainly in
Saxony, demanded the
democratisation of the state and of German society.
The party's organ, which was at first called
Demokratisches Wochenblatt (
Democratic Weekly Paper), later
Der Volksstaat (
The People's State), was published three times a week.
In
1875 SDAP and ADAV finally merged to form the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAPD), which in turn became today's
SPD.
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