Berlin program

The so-called Berlin program , actually the basic program of the Social Democratic Party of Germany , was the party program of the SPD from 1989 to 2007. It was adopted on December 20, 1989 at the program party conference of the SPD in Berlin and replaced the Godesberg program that had been in effect since 1959 .

The Berlin program is considered to be a post-materialist and ecologically oriented program that was primarily shaped by the new social movements of the 1980s.

It was replaced by the Hamburg program in October 2007 .

Emergence

In the 1980s, the SPD was mainly characterized by internal party tensions. Large parts of the party had already criticized the course of the SPD Chancellor Helmut Schmidt at the end of the 1970s , especially his support for the NATO double decision . After the collapse of the social-liberal coalition and Helmut Kohl's assumption of chancellorship by means of a constructive vote of no confidence in September 1982, the SPD had to form the opposition in the Bundestag again after 13 years.

At the 1984 party congress in Essen, a program commission was set up under party chairman Willy Brandt , which was supposed to work out a new program that would take social and technical changes into account. The program commission met for a “long-term convention” in the Irsee monastery in the Allgäu, where it worked out the “Irsee draft program” in several meetings, which was presented to the public in 1986. The 107-page draft program was shaped by the demand for a move away from growth thinking towards more ecology and sustainability, technology control and “feminine virtues”. However, during the discussion at the SPD's 1986 Nuremberg party congress, it found little approval and was criticized as being hostile to modernization. The then Saarland Prime Minister and SPD state chairman of the Saarland, Oskar Lafontaine , then presented a new programmatic concept with "Progress 90" and in 1987 replaced Willy Brandt as chairman of the program commission. The work of the program commission was marked by conflicts in the following period and had a disastrous external impact. In March 1989 a new draft program was finally available.

Due to the fall of the Berlin Wall and the tumultuous events in the GDR, the program party conference was relocated from Bremen to Berlin and took place from December 18 to 20, 1989. The discussion of the program at the party congress took a back seat in the face of the unity issue, speeches by Willy Brandt and Günter Grass propagated German reunification , while Oskar Lafontaine expressed concerns. Thus the program was passed, but hardly attracted any attention, especially since on the same day Federal Chancellor Helmut Kohl made a highly regarded appearance in Dresden, where a huge crowd celebrated him with black, red and gold flags.

content

The Berlin program focuses on ecology, a sustainable industrial society, equal rights for women, shortening working hours and peace policy. In the introduction it says: “We Social Democrats, women and men, fight for a peaceful world and a viable nature, for a humane, socially just society. We want to preserve what is worth preserving, avert life-threatening risks and encourage us to make progress. We want peace ”. In addition, program points of a democratic socialism are presented, which Peter von Oertzen in particular helped shape:

"The bourgeois revolutions of modern times have conjured up freedom, equality and fraternity more than realized them. That is why the labor movement has protested the ideals of these revolutions: A solidary society with equal freedom for all people. It is their basic historical experience that repairs to capitalism are not enough. A new order of economy and society is necessary. "

reception

This return to socially critical principles was, however, dismissed by critics as rhetoric of old 68ers irrelevant to party development, alongside which the SPD had shifted to the right . The program went largely unnoticed and neglected.

Web links

Complete text of the Berlin program including the changes to the Leipzig party congress of April 17, 1998 (PDF file; 211 kB)

Individual evidence

^ Richard Faber : Socialism in the past and present . Königshausen & Neumann, 1994, ISBN 978-3-88479-731-0 ( google.com [accessed March 31, 2016]).
^ Tobias Dürr, Franz Walter : Solidarity community and fragmented society: parties, milieus and associations in comparison: Festschrift for the 60th birthday of Peter Lösche . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-99787-6 ( google.com [accessed March 31, 2016]).

[1] Richard Faber : Socialism in the past and present . Königshausen & Neumann, 1994, ISBN 978-3-88479-731-0 ( google.com [accessed March 31, 2016]).

[2] Tobias Dürr, Franz Walter : Solidarity community and fragmented society: parties, milieus and associations in comparison: Festschrift for the 60th birthday of Peter Lösche . Springer-Verlag, 2013, ISBN 978-3-322-99787-6 ( google.com [accessed March 31, 2016]).