August Bebel
| August Bebel | |
|---|---|
Bebel c. 1900
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| Chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany |
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In office 21 November 1892 – 13 August 1913 |
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| Preceded by |
Paul Singer Alwin Gerisch |
| Succeeded by |
Hugo Haase Friedrich Ebert |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Ferdinand August Bebel 22 February 1840 Deutz (Cologne), Rhine Province, Kingdom of Prussia |
| Died | 13 August 1913 (aged 73) Passug, Churwalden, Switzerland |
| Political party |
Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany |
| Occupation | Turner |
Ferdinand August Bebel (22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist politician, writer, and orator. He is best remembered as one of the founders of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP) in 1869, which in 1875 merged with the General German Workers' Association into the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAPD). During the repression under the terms of the Anti-Socialist Laws, Bebel became the leading figure of the social democratic movement in Germany and from 1892 until his death served as chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
Ferdinand August Bebel, known to all by his middle name, was born on 22 February 1840, in Deutz, Germany, now a part of Cologne. He was the son of a Prussian noncommissioned officer in the Prussian infantry, initially from Ostrowo in the Province of Posen, and was born in military barracks.
As a young man, Bebel apprenticed as a carpenter and joiner in Leipzig. Like most German workmen at that time, he traveled extensively in search of work and he thereby obtained a first-hand knowledge of the difficulties facing the working people of the day.
At Salzburg, where he lived for some time, he joined a Roman Catholic workmen's club. When in Tyrol in 1859 he volunteered for service in the war against Italy, but was rejected; and in his own country he was rejected likewise as physically unfit for the army.
In 1860 he settled in Leipzig as a master turner, making horn buttons. He joined various labor organizations. Although initially an opponent of socialism, Bebel gradually was won over to socialist ideas through pamphlets of Ferdinand Lassalle, which popularized the ideas of Karl Marx. In 1865 he came under the influence of Wilhelm Liebknecht and was thereafter committed fully to the socialist cause.
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