View source for Biography:August Bebel

{{short description|German social democrat politician (1840–1913)}}
{{Infobox officeholder
| name                = August Bebel
| image               = August Bebel c1900.jpg
| caption             = Bebel, {{c.|1900}}
| office              = Chairman of the {{avoid wrap|Social Democratic Party of Germany}}
| term_start          = 21 November 1892
| term_end            = 13 August 1913
| predecessor         = {{ubl|Paul Singer|Alwin Gerisch}}
| successor           = {{ubl|Hugo Haase|Friedrich Ebert}}
| constituency        = 
| majority            = 
| office2             = Member of the Reichstag<br />{{nobold|(German Empire)}}
| term_start2         = 21 March 1871
| term_end2           = 13 August 1913
| constituency2       = 
| office3             = {{nobold|(North German Confederation)}}
| term_start3         = 10 September 1867
| term_end3           = 10 December 1870
| constituency3       = 
| birth_name          = Ferdinand August Bebel
| birth_date          = {{birth date|1840|2|22|df=y}}
| birth_place         = Deutz (Cologne), Rhine Province, Kingdom of Prussia
| death_date          = {{death date and age|1913|8|13|1840|2|22|df=y}}
| death_place         = Passug, Churwalden, Switzerland
| party               = {{plainlist|
* SVP (1867–1869)
* SDAP (1869–1875)
* SAPD (1875–1890)
* SDP (from 1890)
}}
| relations           = 
| residence           = 
| alma_mater          = 
| profession          = [[Engineering:Turning|Turner]]
| religion            = 
| signature           = 
| website             = 
| footnotes           = 
| otherparty          = First International
}}
'''Ferdinand August Bebel''' ({{IPA-de|aʊ̯ˈɡʊst ˈfɛʁdinant ˈbeːbl̩}}; 22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist politician, writer, and orator. He is best remembered as one of the founders of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP) in 1869, which in 1875 merged with the General German Workers' Association into the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAPD). During the repression under the terms of the Anti-Socialist Laws, Bebel became the leading figure of the [[Philosophy:Social democracy|social democratic]] movement in Germany and from 1892 until his death served as chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

==Biography==

===Early years===
Ferdinand August Bebel, known as August, was born on 22 February 1840, in Deutz, Germany, now a part of Cologne. He was the son of a [[Place:Prussia|Prussia]]n noncommissioned officer in the Prussian infantry, initially from Ostrowo in the Province of Posen, and was born in military barracks.<ref name=americana>{{Cite Americana|wstitle=Bebel, Ferdinand August}}</ref> The father died in 1844.

As a young man, Bebel apprenticed as a carpenter and joiner in Leipzig.<ref name="People">"August Bebel, German Socialist Leader, Dies in Switzerland," ''The Weekly People'' [New York], vol. 23, no. 21 (23 August 1913), pp. 1–2.</ref> Like most German workmen at that time, he travelled extensively in search of work and he thereby obtained a first-hand knowledge of the difficulties facing the working people of the day.

At [[Place:Salzburg|Salzburg]], where he lived for some time, he joined a Roman Catholic workmen's club. When in Tyrol in 1859 he volunteered for service in the war against Italy, but was rejected; and in his own country he was rejected likewise as physically unfit for the army.<ref name=americana/>

In 1860 he settled in Leipzig as a master turner, making horn buttons.<ref name=americana/> He joined various labour organisations.<ref name=colliers>{{Cite Collier's|wstitle=Bebel, Ferdinand August}}</ref> Although initially an opponent of socialism, Bebel gradually was won over to socialist ideas through pamphlets of Ferdinand Lassalle, which popularized the ideas of [[Biography:Karl Marx|Karl Marx]].<ref name="Lenin297">Lenin, Vladimir, "August Bebel," ''Severnaia Pravada,'' 6 August 1913. Reprinted in Lenin, Vladimir, ''Collected Works: Volume 19.'' Moscow: Progress Publishers, 1963; p. 297.</ref> In 1865 he came under the influence of Wilhelm Liebknecht and was thereafter committed fully to the socialist cause.<ref name="People" /> In 1866 he joined the First International.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bebel's Reminiscences|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/bebel/1911/reminiscences/ch10.htm|access-date=9 October 2020|website=www.marxists.org}}</ref>

===Political career===

{{Marxism}}
Following the death of Lassalle, Bebel was among the group of Socialists that refused to follow new party leader Johann Baptist von Schweitzer at the Eisenach Conference of 1867, an action which gave rise to the name "Eisenachers" for this Marxist faction.<ref name="People" /> Together with Liebknecht, he founded the  ''Sächsische Volkspartei'' ("Saxon People's Party"). Bebel was also President of the Union of German Workers' Associations from 1867 and a member of the First International.<ref>Pozdnyakov, Andrei, "August Bebel," ''Karl Marx, Frederick Engels Collected Works: Volume 44.'' New York: International Publishers, 1989; p. 684.</ref>

Bebel was elected to the [[Place:North German Confederation|North German]] Reichstag as a member from Saxony in that same year.<ref name="People" />

In 1869 he helped found the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP), which later merged with another organisation in 1875 to form the {{ill|Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (1875)|de|Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands (1875)|lt=Socialist Workers' Party of Germany}} (SAPD), which in turn became the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1890.

Bebel's great organizing talent and oratorical power quickly made him one of the leaders of the socialists and their chief spokesman in parliament. He remained a member of the North German Parliament, and later of its counterpart for the [[Place:German Empire|German Empire]], the Reichstag, until his death, except for the interval of 1881–83.<ref name=eb1911/> He represented successively the districts of Glauchau, Meerane, [[Place:Dresden|Dresden]], Strassburg, and [[Place:Hamburg|Hamburg]].<ref name=nie/> Later in his life, he acted as chairman of the SPD. Representing as he did Marxian principles, he was bitterly opposed by certain factions of his party.<ref name=colliers/>

In 1870 he spoke in parliament against the continuance of the war with France.<ref name=americana/> Bebel and Liebknecht were the only members who did not vote the extraordinary subsidy required for the war with France.<ref name="People" /> Bebel was one of only two socialists elected to the Reichstag in 1871, and he used his position to protest against the annexation of [[Place:Alsace-Lorraine|Alsace-Lorraine]] and to express his full sympathy with the Paris Commune. German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck afterwards said that this speech of Bebel's was a "ray of light" showing him that socialism was an enemy to be fought against and crushed.<ref name=eb1911/> Falsely accused of being in league with the French and part of a conspiracy to free French [[Social:Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]] held in Germany and to lead them in an attack from the rear, Bebel and Liebknecht were arrested for high treason, but no prosecution was possible for lack of evidence.<ref name="People" />

Not wanting to release such important opponents of the war effort, old charges of preaching dangerous doctrines and plotting against the state were levied against Bebel and Liebknecht in 1872.<ref name="People" />  The pair were convicted and sentenced to two years in ''{{ill|Festungshaft|de}}'' (imprisonment in a fortress), which was spent at the famous Königstein Fortress. For insulting the German emperor, Bebel was additionally sentenced to nine months' ordinary imprisonment.<ref name=eb1911/> This incarceration served to increase Bebel's prestige among his party associates and the sympathetic public at large.<ref name=nie>{{Cite NIE|wstitle=Bebel, Ferdinand August|year=1905}}</ref>

In 1874 Bebel took a partner and founded a small button factory, for which he acted as salesman, but in 1889 he gave up his business to devote himself wholly to politics.<ref name=americana/>  In 1868 he became connected with the staff of the ''Volksstaat'' ("The People's State") at Leipzig, and in 1891 with that of the ''Vorwärts'' ("Forward") at [[Place:Berlin|Berlin]].<ref name="nie"/>

After his release from prison, he helped to organise, at the congress of Gotha, the united party of Social Democrats, which had been formed during his imprisonment. After the passing of the Socialist Law he continued to show great activity in the debates of the Reichstag, and was also elected a member of the Saxon parliament; when the state of siege was proclaimed in Leipzig he was expelled from the city, and in 1886 condemned to nine months' imprisonment for taking part in a secret society.<ref name=eb1911>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Bebel, Ferdinand August |volume=3 |page=601 |first=James Wycliffe |last=Headlam }}</ref>
[[File:August Bebel c1910.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.1|August Bebel, c. 1910]]
In party meetings of 1890 and 1891, Bebel's policies were severely attacked, first by the extremists, the "young" Socialists from Berlin, who wished to abandon parliamentary action; against these Bebel won a complete victory. On the other side he was involved in a quarrel with Volmar and his school, who desired to put aside from immediate consideration the complete attainment of the socialist ideal, and proposed that the party should aim at bringing about, not a complete overthrow of society, but a gradual amelioration. This conflict of tendencies continued, and Bebel came to be regarded as the chief exponent of the traditional views of the orthodox Marxist party. Though a strong opponent of militarism, he publicly stated that foreign nations attacking Germany must not expect the help or the neutrality of the Social Democrats.<ref name=eb1911/> Already in 1911 amid the rising tensions between the European powers, Bebel publicly predicted an upcoming [[Social:World War I|great war]] with millions of soldiers confronting each other<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Das Nahen des Weltkriegs |trans-title=The Dawning of the World War |first=Gerd |last=Krumeich |magazine=Damals |language=de |pages=7–22 |year=2013 |volume=Special volume}}</ref> followed by a [[Finance:Great Depression|great collapse]], "mass bankruptcy, mass misery, mass unemployment and great famine".<ref>Evans, Stephen (8 January 2014) [https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25635311 Berlin 1914: A city of ambition and self-doubt], ''BBC News'', Berlin</ref>

In 1899, at the Hanover Congress of the SPD, Bebel delivered a speech condemning [[Biography:Eduard Bernstein|Eduard Bernstein]]'s [[Social:Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionism]]. His resolution, ''Attacks on the Fundamental Views and Tactics of the Party'', garnered the support of the vast majority of the Congress, including Bernstein's supporters.<ref name="witbd">{{cite web |url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1901/witbd/i.htm |title=What Is To Be Done? — I. Dogmatism And "Freedom of Criticism" |author=Lenin, Vladimir |date=1902 |website=Marxists Internet Archive}}</ref>

===Class, race, religion and sex===
Bebel particularly distinguished himself by his denunciation of the maltreatment of soldiers by officers and still more frequently by non-commissioned officers. His efforts in this matter had received great encouragement when Albert, King of Saxony issued an edict dealing with the maltreatment of soldiers in the Saxon contingent, thus cutting the ground from under the feet of the Imperial Government, which had persistently attempted to deny or to explain away the cases put forward by Bebel.<ref>{{Cite EB1922|wstitle=Bebel, Ferdinand August |volume=30 |page=424}}</ref>

Speaking before the ''Reichstag'',  Bebel criticised the war to crush the [[Religion:Boxer Rebellion|Boxer Rebellion]] in {{wipe|China}} in 1900, saying:

{{quote|No, this is no crusade, no holy war; it is a very ordinary war of conquest ... A campaign of revenge as barbaric as has never been seen in the last centuries, and not often at all in history ... not even with the Huns, not even with the Vandals ... That is no match for what the German and other troops of foreign powers, together with the Japanese troops, have done in China.<ref>Mombaurer, Annika "Wilhelm II, Waldersee, and the Boxer Rebellion" pages 91–118 from The Kaiser edited by Annika Mombaurer, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003 page 97.</ref>}}

Bebel is also famed for his outrage at the news of German mistreatment of indigenous people in German South-West Africa, the Herero nation in particular. In 1904 following a violent uprising by the Herero people against German officials, soldiers, and settlers, Imperial German Army General Lothar von Trotha launched the Herero and Namaqua Genocide to crush the revolt by waging a "war of extermination" against the Herero. In response, Bebel and the German Social Democratic Party became the only party in the Reichstag to oppose increased colonial expenditures,<ref name="Deas2009">{{cite thesis |type=MA thesis  |institution=Brandeis University |url=https://bir.brandeis.edu/bitstream/handle/10192/23234/adeas_mathesis_0509.pdf.txt |first= Andrew |last=Deas |date=April 2009 |title=Germany's Introspective Wars. Colonial and Domestic Conflict in the German Press. Discourse on Race. 1904–1907 |page=45 |access-date=2 May 2014}}</ref> and in a speech in March 1904 Bebel classified the policy in German South-West Africa as "not only barbaric, but bestial". This caused some sections of the contemporary German press to scathingly classify Bebel as "Der hereroische Bebel" (Bebel the Hereroic") (''Coburger Zeitung'', 17 January 1904).<ref name="Deas2009" /> Bebel was not deterred; he later followed this up with strongly worded warnings against the rising tide of theories of [[Racial hierarchy|racial hierarchy]] and racial purity, causing the 1907 general election to the Reichstag in 1907 to go down in history as the "Hottentot Election".<ref>Smith, Helmut Walser; ‘''The Talk of Genocide’'', the Rhetoric of Miscegenation: Notes on Debates in the German Reichstag Concerning Southwest Africa, 1904–1914, in The Imperialist Imagination: German Colonialism and its Legacy, (Sara Friedrichsmeyer etc. eds. 1998), p 107–23, 116, 111–12 & 118.</ref>

Bebel's book, ''Women and Socialism'' was translated into English by [[Biography:Daniel De Leon|Daniel De Leon]] of the Socialist Labor Party of America as ''Woman under Socialism''.<ref>Bebel, August.  [https://books.google.com/books?id=_4QEAAAAYAAJ ''Woman under Socialism''], translation by Daniel DeLeon.  New York: New York Labor News Company, 1904.</ref> It figured prominently in the Connolly-DeLeon controversy after [[Biography:James Connolly|James Connolly]], then a member of the SLP, denounced it as a "quasi-prurient" book that would repel potential recruits to the socialist movement.<ref>James Connolly & Daniel DeLeon: [http://www.marxists.org/archive/connolly/1904/condel/index.htm ''The Connolly-DeLeon controversy'']. Cork Workers' Club, Cork 1976.</ref> The book contained an attack on the institution of marriage which identified Bebel with the most extreme forms of socialism.<ref name=eb1911/> In the preface to DeLeon's translation, ''Woman Under Socialism'', DeLeon distanced himself from Bebel on this point, holding that monogamy was the most desirable form of social organisation.<ref>DeLeon, Daniel (1904).  "Translator's Preface" to ''Woman Under Socialism'' by August Bebel.  New York Labor News Company, p. vi.</ref>

In 1898 he voiced his support for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the Reichstag.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Huneke|first=Samuel Clowes|date=17 April 2019|title=Gay Liberation Behind the Iron Curtain|url=http://bostonreview.net/gender-sexuality/samuel-clowes-huneke-gay-liberation-behind-iron-curtain|access-date=9 October 2020|website=Boston Review|language=en}}</ref>

Bebel said that religion is a "private matter", claiming that the SPD should be neutral on the question of religion, while in actuality advocating secularism.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Clericalism and the Socialist Attitude Thereto by August Bebel 1903|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/bebel/1903/11/clericalism.htm|access-date=9 October 2020|website=www.marxists.org}}</ref> Bebel considered himself both a patriot and an internationalist believing them to not be antagonistic but instead supplemental.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Socialism and Internationalism by August Bebel 1905|url=https://www.marxists.org/archive/bebel/1905/08/internationalism.htm|access-date=9 October 2020|website=www.marxists.org}}</ref>

[[File:Zürich Friedhof Sihlfeld Bebel 2.JPG|thumb|Bebel's tombstone at Sihlfeld cemetery, Zurich]]

===Death and legacy===
August Bebel died on 13 August 1913 of a heart attack during a visit to a sanatorium in Passugg, Switzerland. He was 73 years old at the time of his death. His body was buried in [[Place:Zürich|Zürich]].

At the time of his death Bebel was eulogized by Russian Marxist leader [[Biography:Vladimir Lenin|Vladimir Lenin]] as a "model workers' leader", who had proven himself able to "break his own road" from being an ordinary worker into becoming a political leader in the struggle for a "better social system".<ref>Lenin, Vladimir, "August Bebel," ''Collected Works'': Vol. 19, pp. 300–301.</ref>

The well-known saying "Anti-Semitism is the socialism of fools" ("''Der Antisemitismus ist der Sozialismus der dummen Kerle''") is frequently attributed to Bebel, but probably originated with the Austrian democrat Ferdinand Kronawetter; it was in general use among German Social Democrats by the 1890s.<ref>Richard J. Evans, ''The Coming of the Third Reich'' (Penguin Group, 2005: {{ISBN|0-14-303469-3}}), p. 496.</ref>

Along with [[Biography:Karl Marx|Karl Marx]], [[Biography:Friedrich Engels|Friedrich Engels]] and Ferdinand Lassalle, Bebel was among the socialist icons included in ''bas relief'' portraits on the facade of The Forward building, erected in 1912 as the headquarters of the New York Yiddish-language socialist newspaper.

Bebel's legacy was adopted by the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), which named a square and several streets after him. Stamps bearing his likeness were also issued.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Schmidt |first1=Jurgen |title=August Bebel Social Democracy and the Founding of the Labour Movement |date=2018 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |pages=158–9}}</ref>

==English language works==
* [https://archive.org/details/womaninpastpres00bebegoog ''Women in the Past, Present, and Future.''] London: Reeves, 1885. US Edition: San Francisco: G. Benham, 1897.
* [https://archive.org/details/assassinationsso00bebeuoft ''Assassinations and Socialism: From a Speech by August Bebel, Delivered at Berlin, November 2, 1898.''] New York: New York Labor News Co., n.d. [c. 1899].
* ''Beber.'' New York: International Publishers, 1901.
* ''Socialism and the German Kaiser: Two Speeches.'' With Georg Heinrich von Vollmar. London: Clarion Press, 1903.
* [https://archive.org/details/WomanUnderSocialism ''Women Under Socialism.''] New York: New York Labor News Co., 1904. New translation: ''Women and Socialism.'' New York: Socialist Literature Co., 1910.
* ''Trade Unions and Political Parties.'' Milwaukee: Social-Democratic Publishing Co., 1906.
* [https://archive.org/details/bebelsreminisce00untegoog ''Bebel's Reminiscences.''] New York: Socialist Literature Co., 1911.
* ''The Intellectual Ability of Women.'' New York: Cooperative Press, n.d. [c. 1912].
* [https://archive.org/details/cu31924032592077 ''My Life.''] London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1912.
* ''Speeches of August Bebel.'' New York: International Publishers, 1928.
* ''[https://archive.org/details/societyfuturebebel Society of the Future]''. Moscow: Progress Publishers. 1976 (an abridged translation of the last part of Bebel's ''Women and Socialism'').

==See also==
*Bebelplatz, public square in [[Place:Berlin|Berlin]] named after August Bebel

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=4288| name=August Bebel}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=August Bebel}}
*[http://www.feministezine.com/feminist/modern/August-Bebel.html Biography of August Bebel]. Retrieved 31 May 2007.
*[http://www.marxists.org/archive/bebel/index.htm August Bebel Internet Archive], Marxists Internet Archive, www.marxists.org/ Retrieved 31 August 2010.
*{{Cite NSRW|wstitle=Bebel, Ferdinand August |short=x}}
* Ulrich Rippert: ''[http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2013/08/28/bebe-a28.html August Bebel and the political awakening of the working class]'', wsws.org Retrieved 28 August 2013.
* Archive of [https://search.socialhistory.org/Record/ARCH00029 August Bebel Papers] at the International Institute of Social History
* {{PM20|FID=pe/001244}}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Bebel, August}}
[[Category:Marxist theorists]]

{{Sourceattribution|August Bebel}}