The SPD, the Welfare State, and Agenda 2010

The German Social Democratic Party (SPD) celebrated its 140 years of existence on 23 May 2003 with the appropriate fanfare in Berlin. Not too many other political parties in the world can match this survival record, especially given the hostility of Chancellor Bismarck, who in 1878 outlawed the fledgling party as an organization for twelve years, and of Adolf Hitler, who in 1933 drove the party into exile for twelve years. During the post-World War II era, the SPD reestablished itself as a major party and shared in governing the country from 1966 to 1982 and again from 1998 to the present. It has left an imprint on the country’s domestic and foreign policies. But in the twenty-first century’s initial years, the SPD, despite being in power, is facing serious problems of maintaining membership and electoral support.