The SPD's Görlitz Programme

As early as 1899, Eduard Bernstein had called on the SPD to abandon obsolete doctrines. In his „concept of revisionism“ he had argued that „capitalism had proved its ability to adapt“.

© AdsD Delegates of the party congress in Görlitz: Eduard Bernstein, Otto Braun, Paul Löbe and others

The „transformation of capitalism to socialism“ would best be realised in a parliamentary democracy. Over the years the „revisionists“ in the party prevailed. On 23 September 1921, the SPD adopts the „Görlitz Programme“ which definitively replaces the 1891 „Erfurt Programme“ once and for all. In it the party renounces the programmatic goal of revolution. From now on the party considers itself a „national force for reform“.