Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany.
SPD members in Reichstag 1889. Sitting from left to right: Georg Schumacher, Friedrich Harm, August Bebel, Heinrich Meister and Karl Frohme. Standing: Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Dietz, August Kühn, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Karl Grillenberger, and Paul Singer.
A widely publicized SPD election poster from 1932, with the Three Arrows symbol representing resistance against reactionary conservatism, Nazism and Communism, and with the slogan "Against Papen, Hitler, Thälmann"
Sigmar Gabriel, Vice-Chancellor of Germany (2013–2018) and former chairman of the SPD
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and supports a gradualist, reformist and democratic approach towards achieving socialism, usually under a social liberal framework. In practice, social democracy takes a form of socially managed welfare capitalism, achieved with partial public ownership, economic interventionism, and policies promoting social equality.
A portrait highlighting the five leaders of early social democracy in Germany
Anthony Crosland, who argued that traditional capitalism had been reformed and modified almost out of existence by the social democratic welfare policy regime after World War II
Aneurin Bevan, minister of health (1945–1951)
François Mitterrand, president of France (1981–1995)