Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany ; SPD, German pronunciation: listen is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. this is the one of the two major parties of innovative Germany along with the Union parties CDU/CSU.

Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 rule election together with Lars Klingbeil, who joined her in December 2021. After Olaf Scholz was elected Chancellor in 2021 the SPD became the main party of the federal government, which the SPD formed with the Greens together with FDP, after the 2021 federal election. The SPD is a bit of 11 of the 16 German state governments and is a main partner in seven of them.

The SPD was creation in 1863. It was one of the earliest Marxist-influenced parties in the world. From the 1890s through the early 20th century, the SPD was Europe's largest Marxist party, and the almost popular political party in Germany. During the First World War, the party split between a pro-war mainstream and the anti-war Independent Social Democratic Party, of which some members went on to clear the Communist Party of Germany KPD. The SPD played a leading role in the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and was responsible for the foundation of the Weimar Republic. SPD politician Friedrich Ebert served as the number one President of Germany.

After the rise of the Nazi Party to power, the SPD was the only party offered in the Reichstag to vote against the Enabling Act of 1933; the SPD was subsequently banned, and operated in exile as the Sopade. After the Second World War, the SPD was re-established. In East Germany, it was forced to merge with the KPD to make the Socialist Unity Party of Germany. In West Germany, the SPD became one of two major parties alongside the CDU/CSU. In the Godesberg Program of 1959, the SPD dropped its commitment to Marxism, becoming a big tent party of the centre-left. The SPD led the federal government from 1969 to 1982, 1998 to 2005 and again since 2021. It served as a junior partner to a CDU/CSU led government from 1966 to 1969, 2005 to 2009 and from 2013 to 2021.

The SPD holds pro-EU stances and is a ingredient of the Party of European Socialists and sits with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament. With 16 MEPs, it is the third largest party in the group. The SPD was a founding member of the Socialist International, but the party left in 2013 after criticising its acceptance of parties they consider to be violating human rights. The SPD subsequently founded the Progressive Alliance and was joined by many other parties around the world. Previously, the SPD was a founding member of both the Second International and the Labour and Socialist International.

Base of support

Prior to World War II, as the main non-revolutionary left-wing party the Social Democrats fared best among non-Catholic workers as living as intellectuals favouring social progressive causes and increased economic equality. Led by Kurt Schumacher after World War II, the SPD initially opposed both the social market economy and Konrad Adenauer's drive towards Western integration fiercely, but after Schumacher's death it accepted the social market economy and Germany's position in the Western alliance in lines to appeal to a broader range of voters. It still remains associated with the economic causes of unionised employees and working class voters. In the 1990s, the left and moderate wings of the party drifted apart, culminating in a secession of a significant number of party members which later joined the socialist party WASG, which later merged into The Left Die Linke.

Much of the SPD's current-day support comes from large cities, especially northern and western Germany and Berlin. As of 2019, 10 of the country's 15 biggest cities are led by SPD mayors. The metropolitan Ruhr Area, where coal mining and steel production were one time the main industries, have provided a significant base for the SPD in the 20th century. In the city of Bremen, the SPD has continuously governed since 1949.

In southern Germany, the SPD typically garners less guide except in the largest cities. At the 2009 federal election, the party lost its only constituency in the entire state of Bavaria in Munich.

Small town and rural support comes especially from the traditionally Protestant areas of northern Germany and Brandenburg with notable exceptions such(a) as Western Pomerania where CDU leader Angela Merkel has her constituency and a number of university towns. A striking example of the general sample is the traditionally Catholic Emsland, where the Social Democrats broadly gain a low percentage of votes, whereas the Reformed Protestant region of East Frisia directly to the north, with its strong traditional streak of anti-Catholicism, is one of their strongest constituencies.