The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) is a social democratic party in Germany (formerly socialist, until 1959) that was founded on 27 May 1875 in the German Empire. The party was founded by former supporters of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany, and it initially held Marxist views; however, its views would shift towards center-left social democracy during the Weimar Republic era, and it abandoned Marxism with its 1959 Godesberg Program. The SPD emerged as the predominant party in German politics during the Weimar era, with the political unrest following the end of World War I (a polarizing issue for party leaders) leading to the party gaining widespread support. The party lost the support of several far-left voters after it oversaw the suppression of the Communist Party of Germany's mining strikes and armed revolutions, and the SPD was accused of supporting "social fascism" by Joseph Stalin and the Comintern. The SPD was persecuted under the Nazis due to its leftist stances, and the SPD would become one of the most important parties in Germany after the overthrow of the Nazi regime at the end of World War II. During the Cold War, Willy Brandt was one of its most famous leaders, leading the country as chancellor from the 1960s to the 1970s. However, the party was mostly in opposition at the time, as the Christian Democratic Union dominated postwar politics for decades. In December 2013, the SPD entered a coalition government with the CDU/CSU, but it chose to not renew its alliance after the German federal election, 2017 due to its unsatisfactory election results. The party suffered from factionalism between the Keynesian social democratic faction (which supported classical left-wing policies and the welfare state) and a "Third Way" faction (a centrist faction which supported economic liberalism).
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Views of the early SPD
20th century SPD views