Social democratic working group

Social Democratic Working Group (SAG) , also known as the Haase-Ledebour Group - was a fractional split from 18 members of the Reichstag of the SPD in the Reichstag of Imperial Germany , which was formed during the First World War under the chairmanship of Hugo Haase .

activity

Under the leadership of Hugo Haase , the members of parliament voted against the war credits in the Reichstag on December 21, 1915, thus acting for the first time against the rest of the SPD parliamentary group, which cast its majority in favor of war support. On March 24, 1916, Hugo Haase gave an anti-war speech in the Reichstag , in which he also denounced the government's fault of malnutrition and hunger among parts of the population. Haase's speech was accompanied by protest tumults directed against him (the central SPD organ at the time, “ Vorwärts ”, described them as “... storm scenes as they have probably never been experienced in the Reichstag, just as passionately as shameful and deplorable ...” ) that sometimes no word could be understood. In a vote that took place during this parliamentary session , another vote against was cast , this time against the emergency budget presented by the government , which the other SPD MPs approved by a majority. On the grounds of breach of discipline and loyalty, the 18 MPs were expelled from the parliamentary group in a subsequent SPD parliamentary group meeting.

In April 1917 the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) emerged from the SAG .

It should be noted that the other two opponents of the war under the SPD Reichstag deputies Karl Liebknecht and Otto Rühle , who already voted against war credits on March 20, 1915 and left the SPD parliamentary group in January 1916 (by expulsion or resignation), not the SAG belonged to.

Members

• Eduard Bernstein
• Wilhelm Bock
• Oskar Cohn
• Otto Büchner
• Wilhelm Dittmann (board member)
• Friedrich Geyer
• Hugo Haase (board member)
• Alfred Henke
• Joseph Herzfeld
• Georg Horn
• Fritz Kunert
• Georg Ledebour (board member)
• Theodor Schwartz
• Arthur Stadthagen
• Karl Wilhelm Stolle
• Ewald Vogtherr
• Emanuel Wurm
• Fritz Zubeil

literature

• Dieter Engelmann, Horst Naumann: Hugo Haase. Life path and political legacy of a militant socialist. Edition New Paths, Berlin 1999, ISBN 3-88348-216-1 .
• Eugen Prager : History of the USPD. Berlin 1921, OCLC 162611173 .
• Robert F. Wheeler: USPD and Internationale. Socialist internationalism during the revolution. Ullstein, Frankfurt am Main 1975, ISBN 3-550-07317-8 .

See also

• Truce policy

Individual evidence

1. ^ Negotiations of the German Reichstag, 13th legislative period, 37th session, shorthand
2. ↑ Eugen Prager: History of the USPD . Dogma / Europäische Hochschulverlag Bremen, 2013, ISBN 978-3-95580-629-3 , pp. 93ff.