Reich Association against Social Democracy

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The Reich Association against Social Democracy was a German agitation association in the period before the First World War .

history

The association was founded on May 9, 1904 in Berlin by members of the German Conservative , Free Conservative and National Liberal Party . Eduard von Liebert , governor of German East Africa until 1901 , was elected chairman. It was mostly referred to by SPD politicians as the “Reichslügenverband”.

The aim of the Reichsverband was to unite all non- social-democratic Germans. Ideologically, he was similar to the Pan-German League and the German Navy League , on militarism oriented. The Reichsverband regularly published the propaganda manual for non - social democratic voters analogous to the manual for social democratic voters published by the SPD party executive .

In the 1912 Reichstag elections , the Social Democratic Party of Germany won 34.8% of the vote and more than doubled its seats in the Reichstag . As a result, the Reich Association lost many members.

A few weeks after the outbreak of the First World War, on August 29, 1914, the Reich Association ceased all of its activities as a result of the truce policy . This was intended to maintain internal peace within the German Reich for the duration of the war , and the board also hoped that after the war ended, it would no longer be necessary to fight social democracy.

literature

  • Axel Grießmer, mass associations and mass parties in the Wilhelmine Empire. On the change in electoral culture 1903–1912 , Düsseldorf 2000. ISBN 3-7700-5228-5