Founded in 1863, the German Social Democratic Party (SPD; Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands) became the strongest political outfit in Imperial Germany prior to World War I. It was also a cultural mass movement in which its members immersed themselves from cradle to grave. Until the ascension of National Socialism in 1933, the German labor movement was the numerically strongest and best-organized specimen of its kind globally.
Thus, it was an object of intense historical research until 1990. Researchers mainly analyzed theoretical discussions between the different wings of the party, its programs, and its relation to state and government. The Australian historian Andrew G. Bonnell chooses a different approach. He focuses not on the party elite or its main theorists but on its rank-and-file membership. He shows how the party successfully mobilized its base by addressing real-life issues of workers, on the one hand, and offering a transformative perspective for overcoming a...
