In all the German states in which exists the three-class electoral system, the members of the party are bound at the next elections to take part in the campaign with their secondary electors. For the elections to the Prussian Landtag the party executive forms the central electoral committee, and without its approval the members of the party in the several electoral districts must make no coalitions with bourgeois parties.[1]
Relatively slight use was made of these formal authorizations while the Marxists seemingly had the upper hand, from 1901 to 1907, but the great success of the coalitions effected by other parties against the Social Democrats in 1907 was a lesson to be taken to heart by the defeated party.
Under these circumstances came the general elections of 1912. This time the Social Democrats were quite restrained in denunciation of imperialism, militarism, and foreign policies; they confined their efforts to attacks upon the unpopular Finance Act of 1909; and, in order to break the "Blue-Black Block", their party executive made arrangements to co-operate on the second ballotings with the Fortschrittliche Volkspartei. The latter promised to support the former in thirty-one constituencies, and the former were to reciprocate in sixteen constituencies. By this means, the party executive estimated that it gained at least sixteen deputies more than it otherwise would have had.[2] The total gains of the German Social Democracy in 1912 went far to remove the stigma of the 1907 defeat and to justify the "moderate" tactics which of late the party had been following, for its popular vote increased from 3,259,000 to 4,250,300, and its representation in the Reichstag from 43 to 110.[3]
Only a few facts and impressions concerning the German Social Democracy after 1912 need now detain us. The "victory" of 1912 was a victory less of Marxian doctrines throughout Germany than of Revisionist, opportunist tactics within the Social Democratic party. The number of Socialist votes polled in the empire was indeed four and a quarter millions; yet the number of regularly enrolled members of the party—presumably the bona fide proletarians—was but 970,112, and of this number over 130,000 were women[4] and perhaps as many more were males under the voting age of 25. And of the enrolled members, a majority were trade-
- ↑ Ibid. (1900), p. 241.
- ↑ Bericht des Parteivorstandes an den Parteitag en Chemnitaz 1912 in Protokoll, pp. 29–31.
- ↑ For electoral statistics, 1871-1912. see Cl. v. Stumpf-Brentano, Ravensteins Reichstags-Wahlkarte des Deutschen Reichs (1912).
- ↑ Bericht des Parteivorstandes an den Parteitag zu Chemnitz 1912. At the Jena Congress of 1913. the number of members was reported as 982,850, including 141,115 women.
