BEBEL, AUGUST for many years the most popular and influential leader of the German Social Democratic Party, was born at Deutz, a suburb of Cologne, on Feb. 22, 1840, the son of a non-commissioned officer in the Prussian army. He lost both his parents before he was 14, when he was apprenticed to a master turner in the town of Wetzlar. In 1858, of ter the completion of his apprenticeship, be began the customary wander jahre of the German journeyman, visiting the towns of middle and south Germany, western Austria and northern Switzerland.
At that time no real labour movement existed in Germany. The movement based on the Communist Manifesto, issued by Marx and Engels on the eve of the revolution of 1848, had been sup pressed when the strong reaction set in, and its remaining sup porters were few and obscure. Thus it was that Bebel, though a Protestant, joined during his wanderjahre one of the network of Catholic journeymen's clubs in south Germany which were in spired by the social reformer, Father Kolping ; but in 186o, dis gusted by the bigoted spirit shown at the evangelical juvenile club at Erfurt, he left it, and did not join another.
Strangely enough, Bebel won his first oratorical success at a working man's study circle at Leipzig against Socialist members who wished to turn the society into a political one. For some years he was one of the most popular leaders of the non-Social ist labour movement. But he was gradually converted by the force of events to the Social Democratic Allgemeine Deutsche Arbeiterverein founded by Lassalle at Leipzig in May, 1863. His conversion was completed on the arrival in Leipzig of Wilhelm Liebknecht, who had been expelled from Prussia, and now became his friend. The two men complemented one another. Liebknecht was better educated than Bebel, but Bebel had the sharper eye and keener sense of practical politics.
The Austro-Prussian War of 1866, provoked by Bismarck, found Liebknecht and Bebel among its strongest opponents. When it was over and the North German Federation had been consti tuted under the hegemony of Prussia, the two friends founded, with others, the Saxon People's Party (Sachsische Volkspartei), with a programme proclaiming "inexorable war against the politi cal conditions created in Germany by the war" and demanding the union of Germany in a democratic state. Unlike similar par ties in south Germany the Sachsische V olkspartei decided to par ticipate in the elections for the newly created Reichstag. Bebel was elected deputy for the 17th electoral division of Saxony, which included the industrial centres of Glauchau and Meerane, which he represented in the Reichstag until 1877, when he surrendered this safe seat to the party and won one of the divisions of Dres den. Almost all his 'speeches at that time were protests against the splitting up of Germany, accompanied by sharp criticism of resultant conditions, which provoked some stormy interruptions. While Liebknecht desired to confine the parliamentary action of the party to protest, Bebel energetically took part in debates on matters of economic interest for the working classes, demanding measures in their favour, voting for these in division, and so obtaining the abolition of some abuses.
In 1869, at a congress held at Eisenach, at which Bebel was the principal speaker, the union of the Sdchsische V olkspartei and the other Socialist organizations which supported Liebknecht and Bebel, with the seceding members of the Lassallian organizations, was accomplished. A Social Democratic Party was formed on the basis of the Eisenach programme, which embodied the principles of the International Working Men's Association, whose general council was in London. The new party declared itself a member of the association as far as German law permitted. (See INTER NATIONAL.) In the early summer of 187o, on the outbreak of the Franco Prussian War, Bebel and Liebknecht declared, during a discus sion in the Reichstag on the war loan, that they would "neither vote the loan, because that would be a vote of confidence in a Government that by its procedure in 1866 had prepared the war, nor reject it, because such a rejection might be interpreted as approving Bonaparte's wanton and cruel policy," and that they would consequently abstain from voting. This action drew down on them violent abuse in the Reichstag and in the press. But in November, after the German victory of Sedan, the North Ger man Government asked for another 1 oo,000,000 thalers for the continuance of the war to compel the cession of Alsace and Lor raine; not only Bebel and Liebknecht, but the three Lassallian members who had voted for the original loan, refused to vote this money. Bebel and Liebknecht put forward a motion asking the Reichstag, since the newly formed French Republic had expressed a desire for peace, "to urge the chancellor to work for an early peace, renouncing any annexation of French territory." This motion, and the reasons given for it by Bebel, provoked an un precedented outburst of rage. A number of deputies attacked him with clenched fists and coarse abuse, and in the press Bebel and Liebknecht were denounced as "enemies of their country." Bebel was re-elected by his constituents to the new Reichstag, though all the other Social Democrat candidates were beaten. In the Reichstag he opposed Bismarck's war against the Roman Cath olic Church, and predicted its failure; in a later speech he opposed the prolongation of the dictatorship in Alsace-Lorraine and crit icized the help given to the bourgeois government of France in beating down the Paris Commune. He declared that the eyes of the European proletariat were fixed on Paris. The struggle there might only be an "outpost skirmish," but before many decades had passed "the war cry of the Paris proletariat—war on palaces, peace to the hovels, death to poverty and idleness—would be the battle cry of the European proletariat." Bismarck referred to this speech of Bebel's when in the autumn of 1878 he spoke in the Reichstag in defence of his Exceptional Law against Social Democracy. It had, he declared, clearly shown him the dangerous character of the Socialist agitation. There is reason to doubt the accuracy of this statement; at that time Bismarck was disturbed by the entirely legal parliamentary policy of the party (it had brought forward a bill demanding a maximum working day of ten hours), not by its revolutionary agitation. But whatever his reasons, Bismarck from that time repeatedly tried to promote measures hampering the activity of the Social Democrats. At first the Bismarckian press sounded the alarm against Bebel's declaration. Then the police and the public prosecutors took open action against the speakers of the "Bebel party," with the result that its membership increased, that Bebel's popularity was second to none with the workers, and that even non-Socialist circles recognized him as the most brilliant speaker in the Reichstag.
He was highly respected for his modest way of living on his earnings as a small master turner (he had set up for himself after victimization by an ill-disposed employer). In 1866 he had mar ried a railwayman's daughter, who was an affectionate companion and indefatigable helper; she died in 191o. His daughter (b. 1869) had her father's eagerness for learning and her mother's unselfish modesty.
On March II, 1872, Bebel and Liebknecht were tried at Leipzig on a charge of "treasonable intentions." An enormous mass of doc uments, printed and otherwise, was produced by the public pros ecutor as evidence, but not the slightest proof of their participa tion in any act tending to high treason was discovered, though the defendants frankly admitted the revolutionary nature of their aims. During the fortnight's trial the daily press incited the jury against them. They were declared guilty, and were sentenced to two years' confinement in a fortress, a sentence declared, not only by Socialists, but by many radicals, to be a judicial scandal. But, for Bebel, the sentence proved a blessing in disguise. His health was so seriously affected by overwork that his friends feared for his life, since they knew that he could not be induced to take a reasonable holiday. The two men were interned in the castle of Hubertusburg in rooms arranged as cells, but they enjoyed the liberties usually granted to persons sentenced to detention in a fortress. They could walk every day in the garden, at their own request they received a piece of land to cultivate, and eventu ally Liebknecht was allowed to visit Bebel in his cell to give him lessons in English and French. Bebel also studied works on economics, history and science, making copious notes and almost all his writings on social politics were prepared or planned during his detention at Hubertusburg. Before he entered on this term of imprisonment Bebel had been condemned by the Leipzig Dis trict Council to nine months' imprisonment and exclusion from the Reichstag for a criticism on William I. of Prussia. But at the by-election necessitated by this sentence Bebel was re-elected, receiving twice as many votes as the coalition candidate; in 1874 he was re-elected to the new Reichstag by a similarly large ma jority. All over the country the prosecution of Social Democrats was pursued with increasing severity, and after a short period of freedom Bebel was again sentenced to nine months' imprisonment. He served these two terms in the fortress of Konigstein and in the prison of Zwickau.
The fruit of this enforced leisure appeared in Der Deutsche Bauernkrieg (1876) and a translation of the treatise by Yves Guyot and Sigismond Lacroix on the "Social Teaching of Chris tianity," with a critical commentary on it and an appendix on the present and future position of women, which revolutionized the ideas of many members of the party on that question. Up to that time the final word on the woman question among the majority of German working-men had been "Man's place is the factory, woman's the home," and the adage seemed to be con firmed by the position in the engineering and similar trades. But Bebel, who had lived in a textile centre and had made exact inves tigations, perceived that it left out of account the social changes consequent on technical progress. He therefore expressed much sympathy with the movement for the political and social eman cipation of women, regarded at that time by most Social Demo crats as a mere caprice of middle-class women, and supported it, unmoved by the derision and even angry criticism of most Social ist colleagues. During a later term of imprisonment he elabora ted his Die Frau and der Sozialismus (1893), which also contained a criticism of capitalist society, and a description of the forces impelling it to a social cataclysm which would make Socialism a necessity, concluding with a description of the Socialist transfor mation of society, its possibilities, and its realization by a policy of economic expediency, social justice and humanitarian ethics. This book was enormously popular with German working-men and their sympathizers; it ran into 52 editions, and was trans lated into many languages. Bebel's writings on the woman ques tion contributed very substantially to popularize the demand for equal citizenship for women, and to make woman suffrage part of the political programme of German Social Democracy.
The persecution of the Socialists led to the union at Whitsun tide 1875 of the two rival Socialist parties and the foundation of a United Socialist Party whose programme was severely criticized by Karl Marx in a private circular letter to other members of the Eisenach party (Bebel being then in prison). But its programme met the practical requirements of the moment, and at the general election of 1877 the Socialist vote increased from 350,000 (1874) to 493,000. Bismarck realized the futility of the prosecutions, and promoted an Exceptional Law to make the existence of an organized Socialist Party impossible and to prohibit the publi cation of its literature. Against this bill Bebel delivered (Sept. 16, 1878) a speech in the Reichstag, in which he described Bis marck's early attempt to secure the co-operation of the Social ists in his struggle with the Liberals, and revealed the conferences between Bismarck and Lassalle in the winter of 1863-64. He asserted that the projected law would never accomplish its pur pose ; the ideals of the movement were too deeply implanted in the hearts of thousands of workers. If their meetings and socie ties were suppressed the workers, like the early Christians, would devote themselves with religious zeal to the propagation of its ideas, and it was absolutely impossible for the Government to suppress this widespread underground activity.
The law was nevertheless promulgated and rigorously executed, causing no little perplexity among Social Democratic leaders. But Bebel, with his strong practical sense, created with Liebknecht and Wilhelm Hasenclever, an office at Leipzig to assist the vic tims of the law ; this office increased the confidence of the party in its three promoters, and provided a much needed political party centre ; a party paper was published in Zurich by exiled members of the party. Some of the statements in this paper called forth severe criticism from Marx and Engels. Early in December 188o Bebel, with one of the three Zurich managers of the paper, Eduard Bernstein, went to London and effected an understanding with these revered intellectual founders of the movement. In My Years in Exile Bernstein wrote : "Bebel, who at this time was in the full prime of his intellectual powers, delighted both the old men with his frankness and the exhaustive explanations which he gave them on the political situation in Germany and the state of the party." Three months earlier, the first congress of the German Social Democratic Party had been held at Schloss Wyden, in the canton of Zurich, and there, as at the two later congresses held abroad on account of the Bismarckian law, Bebel struck the key note for the tactics of the party. There was, nevertheless, some confusion about the significance of the Marx-Engels theory of Socialism, to remedy which the Neue Zeit was founded by Kaut sky with the strong support of Bebel and Bernstein.
After the inglorious end of the Exceptional Law in 1890 the party, at its Erfurt congress, adopted a new programme with a theoretical introduction by Karl Kautsky, and the Neue Zeit became an authoritative weekly party organ. Dissension, however, continued. In Berlin and other northern centres the belief among younger members of the movement that a social upheaval was now due led to the demand for a more radical policy, while in the south Georg von Vollmar, a Saxony deputy, advocated a moderate opportunist policy towards the Caprivi government. Bebel fought both sections ; the youth movement soon subsided, but Vollmar's policy found many adherents in Munich and the south. The dis pute turned largely on agrarian policy, and on this Bebel was defeated for the first time on a question of importance at a party congress (Breslau, 1895). He took his defeat calmly, and his influence in the party was little impaired. At Hamburg (1897) he carried a resolution opposed by Liebknecht, and at Hanover (1899) carried another against a book by Eduard Bernstein, Evo lutionary Socialism (Eng. trans. 1909), written to oppose the view that a reformist policy was useless in view of the imminent collapse of capitalist society. Bebel made a speech of six hours against it, and his resolution, unanimously passed, reaffirmed the principle of the class-war and defined the historic task of the working-classes as the achievement of the greatest possible wel fare for all by the socialization of the means of production and exchange.
In 1903 this dispute was renewed at the party congress at Dresden, where Bebel made a passionate speech leading to a resolution, almost unanimously carried, against the participa tion by Social Democrats in a bourgeois administration; but the resolution was so worded that most "revisionists" (or moderate party) were able to vote for it, as it condemned, they said, prin ciples they had never advocated. Nevertheless the resolution had far-reaching international effects, for it was moved as binding on the international movement by the Guesdists (see GUESDE, JULEs BASILE) at the international congress at Amsterdam in 1904. Jean Jaures opposed it because it would render impossible the political tactics which he thought indispensable in France. There followed an unforgettable oratorical duel between Jaures and Bebel, in which the latter came off victor.
One point made by Jaures remained unanswered; he had declared that the German party, in spite of its magnificent organ ization, lacked the two essential means of proletarian action— the revolutionary and the parliamentary. Bebel did not forget the reproach. In subsequent years he carried out personally the struggle against militarism by land and sea, and against imperial ism ; in congresses and in the Reichstag he pointed out that under the modern policy of alliances a new war could hardly be restricted to any two States, but would assume European dimensions; he denounced as criminal folly the systematic violent incitement against England by considerable sections of the German national ists. In a speech against the von Tirpitz policy (Reichstag, Jan. 22, 1903) he said: "Especially during recent years and also dur ing the Boer War I have emphatically maintained the opinion that I could not imagine a greater misfortune than a serious quarrel between England and Germany." During the Morocco crisis of 191I (see GERMANY; History) Bebel opposed the action of the German Government more violently, and he and his col leagues backed a pamphlet by Bernstein which declared the in crease of the German navy to be the "real English danger" to the German people. But before the outbreak of the World War, Bebel died of heart failure at Passug, Grisons, Switzerland, on Aug. 13, 1913, lamented by the whole Socialist movement. With his passionate sentiment and strong sense of what was practica ble, he might well be called an ideal leader for the proletariat struggling for power.
His life shows him the sworn opponent of militarist tendencies and of the policy arising from them. In his parliamentary speeches this opposition and the desire for a union of the nations find powerful expression. A large number of speeches on these and other questions were issued at the time in pamphlet form; many characteristic passages are included in Franz Kliiss, August Bebel, der Mann and sein Werk (1923) . B N.)