Social Democrat August Bebel: biography, features of activity and interesting facts

Politician and writer August Bebel was born on February 22, 1840 in the German city of Cologne. He was the son of a poor non-commissioned officer. My father died of tuberculosis when the boy was still very young. The widowed mother moved with her child to the town of Wetzlar in Hesse. There Augustus Bebel went to school.

Education

At the age of 14, the future socialist began to study the turning skills. His working day lasted 14 hours. In short intervals of free time, the teenager read a lot, absorbing the book after book. His favorite works were novels "Robinson Crusoe" and "Uncle Tom's Cabin". The last book was devoted to the problem of slavery in America. Therefore, even the literary taste clearly demonstrated the aversion of young Bebel to social injustice.

After learning, the future writer began to travel a lot. Wanderings threw him into various places, but, after all, he settled in Leipzig. During his travels, August Bebel gathered many impressions, which formed him as a person. He had to work as a wandering apprentice in the long period of the reaction of the authorities that came after the 1848 revolution.

Beginning of social activities

Just when August Bebel began to live in Leipzig (1860), the whole of Germany began to trace the revival of political life. The number of demonstrations and strikes of the unemployed increased. The center of discontent was not only Leipzig, but also Berlin, as well as Elberfeld. Under these conditions, labor unions began to appear like mushrooms after the rain. In 1861 Bebel August joined the Craftsmen's Educational Society.

The organization made the turner famous. He not only studied a lot, but also began to appear regularly in public. Soon Bebel was included in the leadership of the society. However, his ambitions did not allow him to stop at enlightenment. In 1866, Bebel, along with Wilhelm Liebknecht, established the Saxon People's Party. At the same time, the politician became chairman in the Council of Workers' Unions.

Principal Socialist

In his new position, August Bebel went to rapprochement with the First International. His decision caused heated controversy in the party. As a result, it split. In 1869, Bebel became the head of the new Social-Democratic Labor Party, which became the flagship of leftist ideas in Germany. The activity of the policy was extremely important for all his supporters and like-minded people. This is evidenced by the fact that Karl Marx considered him to be the most outstanding leader of German Social-Democracy.

As early as 1867, elections were held in the Reichstag of the North German Union, in which August Bebel was elected as a deputy. The biography of the politician is an example of a person's life, struggling to the end for their views. At the height of the war against France, Bebel spoke with a fiery speech, in which he called for peace with the French for the sake of the solidarity of the workers of all countries. For this, the speaker was tried for treason. In the Leipzig process, the Social Democrat August Bebel was sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

Persecution

In prison, the politician did a lot of self-education, so he even managed to hold his imprisonment with profit. Soon Bebel went free and continued to fight for the rights of workers. In 1878, he was deported from his native Leipzig. The reason for the repression of power was the "Exceptional Law Against Socialists." This document, signed by the Kaiser Wilhelm I, forbade Party activity of the Left outside the Parliament.

Bebel began to live in Borsdorf. He continued to travel around the country and conduct semi-legal party work, for which he was twice sentenced to short prison sentences. Publications of the 70's and 80's. They showed who August Bebel is from the ideological point of view. He was a staunch supporter of Karl Marx and his ideas, set out in Capital. Bebel opposed revisionism in the then German socialism, whose aim was to revise the foundations of the left doctrine.

"Woman and Socialism"

Numerous aphorisms and quotations of August Bebel became known due to his publications. The main and most brilliant work of the writer can be considered the book "Woman and Socialism", published in 1878. This publication was the result of many years of work. As early as 1869, Bebel was the first parliamentarian in the Reichstag to raise the issue of legislative protection of women's labor.

The author opposed the proletarian struggle to bourgeois feminism. According to Bebel, he was never able to rid society of the economic dependence of women on men, the slavery of hard workers, prostitution and simple domestic sexual prejudices. The main goal of the socialists in these matters was to achieve gender equality. In the book the author, on the one hand, described the history of the woman's position in society, and on the other - explained the aspirations of his supporters in relation to the problems of women. The book was published only a year after the "Exceptional Law Against Socialists." Therefore, immediately after its appearance, it was withdrawn by the authorities. However, from this publication Bebel acquired only great popularity.

Anti-militarist

In 1889, the Second International was established. The activities of the last years of Bebel's life were mainly connected with this organization. Companions in the Social-Democratic movement from all over the world trusted him with the most important tasks. Bebel, if allowed health, always participated in the congresses of the International. Particularly striking was his speech in 1904 at the congress in Amsterdam.

And in 1907 in Stuttgart Bebel again, as in his youth, severely criticized the supporters of militarism. At that congress there was also a Russian emigrant Vladimir Lenin. The leader of the Bolsheviks, as well as Rosa Luxemburg and the Menshevik Julius Martov, made several amendments to Bebel's resolution, with which he agreed. The final version of the document called upon the workers to defend their point of view in front of their own authorities, in case of war danger, including through non-parliamentary methods of struggle.

Death and heritage

Bebel died on August 13, 1913 in the Swiss city of Passege. According to the testament of the politician, he was buried in Zurich. His departure was mourned not only in Germany, but also in many other countries of the world. Rallies in memory of the socialist took place in Russia, America and even Australia. Obituaries to the defender of the proletariat were printed in all workers' newspapers.

With Bebel, with deep respect, Lenin and other Bolsheviks responded. I was impressed by the socialist's idea of the inevitability of the revolution. The politician considered armed action against the authorities a necessity, by the end of his life ever less believing that the left would be able to achieve his demands by parliamentary means. In addition, Bebel warned that the authorities will specifically drive the working class to an imperialist slaughter, when the degree of class incandescence in European society will reach its limit. For this reason or another, but the First World War really began only a year after the death of the famous socialist.