Gotha Congress of the Socialist Workers’ Party of Germany

Congress held 22–27 May 1875, in Gotha, at which the Eisenachers and the Lassalleans merged.

With the development of capitalism and the rapid growth of the working class in Germany, Germany became the most vibrant center of the “international” workers' movement. However, there existed two factions within the German workers, namely the Eisenachers (Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Germany) and the Lassalleans (General German Workers’ Association), which kept the workers' movement in a splintered state and weakened the fighting power of the working class, and the toiling masses demanded to put an end to this situation and to safeguard the unity of the working class in the fight against the enemy.

Faced with this situation, the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Germany decided to adjust its policies and actively suggested merging or cooperating with the General German Workers’ Association. However, the proposals of the Eisenachers were rejected by the leaders of the General German Workers’ Association. In August 1873, the Eisenachers discussed the unification of the workers' movement again at its Congress, but due to the resolution passed by the Lassalleans at the Berlin Congress in May 1873 to attack and slander the Eisenachers, the Eisenachers' discussion resulted in a refusal to cooperate with any other party faction.

Due to the implementation of the right-leaning erroneous line of the Lassallean leaders in the workers' struggle and the intensification of internal contradictions, the influence of their activities was diminishing. Especially from 1874 onwards, the Bismarck government changed its policy of suppressing only the Eisenachers and adopted the measure of total suppression of the workers' movement irrespective of the factions, and seized the General German Workers’ Association in June 1874, and disbanded the workers' associations in Prussia and all the states one after the other. Soon after, the head of its organization, Hasenclever, was arrested, and the General German Workers’ Association was momentarily thrown into a situation of extreme difficulty. Under these circumstances, the Lassalleans, in a reversal of their usual practice, on October 10 and 11, 1874, successively submitted their demand for a merger with the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Germany.

Marx and Engels were very much concerned about the merger of the two factions, and had given important advice to the leaders of the Eisenachers that it was essential to fight for the unity and solidarity of the workers' movement on the basis of principles and not to haggle about principles in the hope of momentary success. They suggested that if the merger could not be effected on the basis of the principles of scientific socialism, it would be better simply to conclude an agreement for action against the common enemy; and, at the same time, not to concentrate mainly on the work of winning over the Lassallean leaders, but on educating and winning over the members of the Association and the broad masses under the influence of Lassalleanism, and in particular on the new forces that had not yet become involved in the revolutionary movement.

Liebknecht, the leader of the Eisenachers, had declared to Carl Wilhelm Tölcke (1817–1893), the leader of General German Workers’ Association, that the merger could not be retrograde step to the Lassallean programme, to which Tölcke agreed. Two talks were held on November 2 and December 15, 1874 and finally the two sides agreed to merge. At the end of the year, when the news of the negotiations between the leaders of the two factions for a merger became public, the masses of workers of the two factions rejoiced, joint rallies were frequently held, and in some places they even merged of their own accord. The working class abroad also expressed enthusiastic approval. At a time when the demand for a merger was soaring, the merger was already the first task facing the Social Democratic Workers’ Party of Germany.

In February 1875, a preparatory meeting for the merger congress of the two factions was held in the city of Gotha. The question of a draft programme and draft statute was discussed, and Hasenclever, Hasselmann, Geib, and Liebknecht were commissioned to prepare a draft program, which was published in the organs of both parties on March 7.

When Marx and Engels learned of the draft programme from the newspapers, they were “astonished a bit” and were particularly perturbed by the decidedly retrograde step manifested by this draft programme. March 18–28, 1875, Engels made a preliminary criticism of the draft programme in a letter to Bebel and at the same time to Liebknecht. Due to the contempt of its leaders, Marx expressed great concern and had to write the Marginal Notes to the Programme of the German Workers’ Party (i.e., the Critique of the Gotha Programme at the time of its later publication), which criticized the Lassallean views in the programme, and exposed and dissected the shortcomings and errors of the draft programme, while he was ill in April-May. Criticized by Marx and Engels, Liebknecht submitted, under the title “Leipzig Proposals”, a proposal for revisions, which was later incorporated, albeit slightly, into the draft programme submitted to the Congress for formal discussion.

On May 22–27, 1875, the Eisenachers and Lassalleans held a merger congress in Gotha. The congress was attended by 129 delegates, 56 Eisenachers and 73 Lassalleans. The congress adopted a draft programme with only a few editorial changes, adopted the constitution of the organization and elected the central leading body of the party, in which the Lassalleans predominated. The congress tentatively decided that the Eisenachers' Der Volksstaat (The People’s State) and the Lassalleans' Neuer Social-Demokrat (New Social Democrat) would be the central organs of the party, and it decided to change the name of the party to the “Socialist Workers' Party of Germany”. The congress brought about the unification of the German workers' movement, but the programme of the congress had a negative ideological impact on the German workers' movement.

See Critique of the Gotha Programme on p. 388.