Erfurt Program

German political platform

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June 26, 2026

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The Erfurt Program was a political platform adopted in 1891 by the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). It represented a significant shift, moving away from the compromise-based Gotha Program of 1875 and fully embracing a Marxist ideology. This program guided German socialism until the early 20th century.1

The SPD, founded in 1875, is Germany's oldest political party. It advocates for modernizing the economy and addressing the social needs of workers and disadvantaged groups. Despite facing persecution and being outlawed by Otto von Bismarck from 1878 to 1890, the SPD grew in support and became the largest party in the Reichstag by 1912. The party's history is marked by internal debates between revisionists and orthodox Marxists, and it played a key role in the formation of the Weimar Republic.2

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Karl Kautsky
…the Social Democrats adopted his Erfurt Program, which committed the party to an evolutionary form of Marxism that rejected both the radicalism of Rosa Luxemburg and the evolutionary socialist doctrines of Bernstein. Kautsky served as the German Social Democrats’ authority on Marxism until World War I, when he joined the…
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…the Social Democrats adopted his Erfurt Program, which committed the party to an evolutionary form of Marxism that rejected both the radicalism of Rosa Luxemburg and the evolutionary socialist doctrines of Bernstein. Kautsky served as the German Social Democrats’ authority on Marxism until World War I, when he joined the…
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Wilhelm Liebknecht
…until the adoption of the Erfurt Program in 1891, which discarded the state-aid provisions of the Gotha Congress and pledged the party to a Marxist program. Bismarck won his battle to repress the socialists in 1878 when the Reichstag adopted the Anti-Socialist Law that, among other things, forbade the publication…
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…until the adoption of the Erfurt Program in 1891, which discarded the state-aid provisions of the Gotha Congress and pledged the party to a Marxist program. Bismarck won his battle to repress the socialists in 1878 when the Reichstag adopted the Anti-Socialist Law that, among other things, forbade the publication…
Read More