Socialist Federation (1962)

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The Socialist Bund (SB) emerged in 1962 from the Socialist Support Society of Friends, Patrons and Former Members of the Socialist German Student Union (SFG) and existed until 1969. It claimed to be a collective movement of the New Left in the Federal Republic of Germany, although its members represented a traditional left-wing socialism oriented towards the SPD . The Socialist Support Society was founded in 1961 to support the Socialist German Student Union (SDS) in the conflict with the SPD.

prehistory

In the 1950s, under the influence of older left-wing socialists such as Wolfgang Abendroth , Fritz Lamm , Leo Kofler and Ossip K. Flechtheim , a left wing of the SDS emerged. From 1958 he took part in the fight against atomic death against the rearmament of the Bundeswehr with nuclear weapons, which was then aimed at by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and Defense Minister Franz Josef Strauss . This campaign was largely supported by the SPD, but in 1959 , while preparing for the student congress against nuclear armament , the SDS first conflicts with the parent party. During the event, the dispute escalated. Against the background of the Berlin crisis , the student event had a high symbolic significance. In the opinion of the party representative Helmut Schmidt who was present, the resolution on reunification passed by the Congress with a large majority clearly had communist features; the resolution contained the term "interim confederation". The SPD party executive condemned the resolution sharply and called on the SDS federal executive committee to distance itself.

In the following months there were violent disputes over the resolution in the student union. A middle group around Wolfgang Hindrichs , Michael Mauke , Klaus Meschkat , Monika Mitscherlich (later Seifert) and Jürgen Seifert , with the support of Abendroth, Lamm and Peter von Oertzen, turned against what they believed was excessive criticism of the SPD executive committee. The party- oriented right wing of the SDS split off and founded the Social Democratic University Association (SHB), which was supported by the SPD. The SPD cooperation with the SDS was frozen, there were no more financial donations. Thereupon the SDS tried to rebut the allegations of the party executive and in 1960 decided to expel the concrete employees around Ulrike Meinhof in order to dispel suspicions of eastern infiltration . The SDS also prohibited its members from participating in the Association of Independent Socialists and the German Peace Union , which led to numerous other exclusions. But the SDS did not succeed in regaining the confidence of the SPD. Jürgen Seifert, who has been a member of the five-person SDS federal executive board since autumn 1958, reports that, under the influence of Oertzens, it had already been decided to dissolve the SDS in order to retain SPD membership. "But treated like the last bit of dirt by Herbert Wehner , Helmut Schmidt and others, we behaved 'existentialist'". The SDS was not resolved.

Socialist sponsoring society

The marginalization of the SDS generated resistance from left-wing Social Democrats and intellectuals close to the party. Starting from a Frankfurt circle, the preparatory committee for the establishment of a support group for the Socialist German Student Union was formed in May 1961 and went public with an appeal. It asked for donations for the SDS, which had got into financial difficulties after the retroactive blocking of funds from the Federal Youth Plan. The call also said that otherwise one would not get involved in the clashes between the SPD and SDS. Signatories of the call were among others: Wolfgang Abendroth , Heinz Brakemeier, Heinrich Düker , Helga Einsele , Ossip K. Flechtheim , Fritz Lamm and Heinz Maus . The SFG was founded on October 8, 1961. 260 sponsors came together for the founding meeting following a delegates' conference of the SDS in Frankfurt.

A few days earlier, the SPD party executive had issued a circular warning all party members against participating in the SFG. On November 11, 1961, the decision followed that membership in the SDS or the SFG was incompatible with that of the SPD. In a letter to the SPD chairman Erich Ollenhauer , Abendroth accused the SPD of demanding party loyalty along the lines of democratic centralism .

Because of the threatened exclusion from the party, Willy Boepple , Erich Gerlach , Heinz Langerhans , Peter von Oertzen and others withdrew from the SFG. Abendroth, Lamm, Georg Jungclas and the majority of the members of the SFG saw no scope for further tactical compromises with the SPD and left the SPD or allowed themselves to be expelled from it. The positions on the executive board and board of trustees of the SFG that became vacant due to withdrawals were filled with Adolf Brock , Wolfgang Hindrichs and Johannes Agnoli .

The SFG initially followed Abendroth's line, according to which the trade unions and the SPD were the most important forces in the struggle for a democratic and liberal-socialist transformation of society. The work of the SDS and SFG has to be limited to the development of intellectual tools for the movement as a whole. However, this self-image did not correspond to that of the entire SFG. Its secretaries Heinz Brakemeier and Heinz-Joachim Heydorn tried to develop the SFG into a socialist organization with further goals. At the second general assembly of the SFG, you applied to rename it the Socialist Federation - New Left . In their application it was said that the Socialist League - New Left should, theoretically and practically, create the conditions for the emergence of a new socialist force in the Federal Republic.

There was opposition to these plans even before the Annual General Meeting. Parts of the SFG and SDS, first and foremost Fritz Lamm, feared the establishment of a socialist party, which is doomed to failure with only 320 SFG members.

Socialist League

At its second general meeting on October 5 and 6, 1962, the SFG then decided to change its statutes and thus rename it to the Socialist Federation . The amendment to the statutes was accepted with a large majority, but nevertheless led to a new split: Hindrichs, Jürgen and Monika Seifert, Thomas von der Vring and Brock withdrew from the work of the SB and supported the SDS directly. Lamm remained active for the SB regionally in Stuttgart, but only participated sporadically in its nationwide initiatives.

Abendroth became SB chairman, Brakemeier remained executive secretary. In 1963 he was warned in a letter by Osspi K. Flechtheim not to try to organize actions and mass events in the old style. Abendroth also intervened against the managing director's party founding initiatives and stated that there was little scope for the development of the SB. Some SDS members feared that the former sponsoring society would develop into a party that would never get beyond the status of a political sect.

The SB took part in protests, such as the Spiegel affair in 1962, but was not perceived as an independent organization. There was sharp conflict with the SDS over the use of the term New Left . Thomas von der Vring accused the SB of fraudulent labeling because its members adhered to the traditional social democratic ideologies and rites. The SB's commitment to the New Left is a rhetorical trick, a revision of theory and practice is missing. Thereupon the self-image of the organization was discussed in SB 1963. Abendroth again advised to limit the independent appearance of the SB to those occasions in which the organization can be expected to get the approval and participation of larger groups. He continued to see the primary task of the federal government as a network of intellectuals in support of the SDS.

After that, the SB hardly appeared, apart from two larger congresses that were organized jointly with the SDS: Today's capitalism - the armaments industry - the Western European labor movement (1963) and the formed society or economic democracy (1966). But although there was a constant exchange with the SDS federal board, the distance to the more anti-authoritarian student association grew.

The SB took part in efforts to establish a left-wing electoral alliance with the involvement of communists in the 1969 Bundestag election ( Socialist Center ), but this was abandoned after the communists took sides for the suppression of the Prague Spring and the surprising founding of the DKP . In competition with the efforts for a socialist center , the Action Democratic Progress (ADF) came into being in 1968 , for which Abendroth publicly positioned himself in order not to lose contact with communists. But this jeopardized any possible alliance with the social democratic camp. As a result, and to an even greater extent by the rapid development of the 1968 movement of the New Left, the SB was overwhelmed by the dynamics of events and dissolved in 1969.

Retrospective evaluation

According to Philipp Kufferath, the Socialist Bund was unable to establish itself as an intellectual theory group or as an activist organization. Nevertheless, the SB provided important assistance for the SDS. Gregor Kritidis found that the SB could neither give political impulses as an organization nor a contribution to the theoretical reorientation. Nevertheless, he had fulfilled an important function: As a collecting basin for the older generation of socialists, he had given important orientation, to which younger socialists could refer - "albeit partly polemically negative" - ​​in order to be able to sharpen their own positions.

literature

  • Gregor Kritidis: Left Socialist Opposition in the Adenauer Era. A contribution to the early history of the Federal Republic of Germany . Offizin-Verlag, Hannover 2008, ISBN 978-3-930345-61-8 , pp. 504-515.
  • Philipp Kufferath, The Socialist Bund and the Left Socialist Origins of the New Left in the 1960s . In: Christoph Jünke , Left Socialism in Germany: Beyond Social Democracy and Communism? VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-413-4 , pp. 186-205.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information in this article is based, unless otherwise stated, on: Philipp Kufferath, Der Sozialistische Bund and the left-socialist origins of the New Left in the 1960s . In: Christoph Jünke , Left Socialism in Germany: Beyond Social Democracy and Communism? Hamburg 2010, pp. 186–205.
  2. ↑ a b c Jürgen Seifert : From "58" to "68". A biographical review . In: Operations , No. 124 (Issue 4/1993), pp. 1-6, online .
  3. ↑ The Frankfurt university lecturer Heinz Brakemeier (1925–2010) was an important organizer in the history of SFG and SB. To the person an obituary of the reaction of the journal Socialism .
  4. ↑ a b Gregor Kritidis: Left Socialist opposition in the Adenauer era. A contribution to the early history of the Federal Republic of Germany . Hanover 2008, p. 505.
  5. ↑ The addition Neue Linke was only mentioned in the amendment to the statutes, after which the literature consistently only mentions the Socialist Federation .
  6. ^ Philipp Kufferath, The Socialist Bund and the Left Socialist Origins of the New Left in the 1960s . In: Christoph Jünke , Left Socialism in Germany: Beyond Social Democracy and Communism? Hamburg 2010, pp. 186–205, here p. 205.
  7. ↑ Gregory Kritidis: Left Socialist opposition in the Adenauer era. A contribution to the early history of the Federal Republic of Germany . Hanover 2008, p. 515.