Erfurt Program

The Erfurt Program (German: Erfurter Programm) was the party platform adopted by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) at its party congress in Erfurt in 1891. Drafted under the political leadership of August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht, and with theorist Karl Kautsky as its principal author, the program officially committed the SPD to Marxism. It was the first and most prominent in a series of similar Marxist-inspired platforms adopted by socialist parties across Europe.

The program represented a stark break from its predecessor, the Gotha Program of 1875, by rejecting the Lassallean idea of achieving socialism through state aid. Instead, it declared the impending death of capitalism and the necessity of class struggle. The program was divided into two parts. The first, the "maximalist" section, outlined the unalterable principles of a socialist transformation based on Marxist theory. The second, "minimalist" section, detailed a series of practical legislative goals to be pursued within the existing framework of the German Empire.

This dual structure allowed the Erfurt Program to accommodate the competing ideological currents within the party. It provided a theoretical justification for long-term revolutionary goals while enabling a practical, reformist political strategy. This "Erfurt Synthesis" guided the SPD's policies through the final decade of the 19th century and the first two decades of the 20th. However, the internal contradictions between its revolutionary theory and its gradualist practice became increasingly apparent, particularly in the face of the rise of Revisionism on the right and a new revolutionary left after 1905. The synthesis ultimately broke down, culminating in the formal split of the party during World War I. The program was formally superseded by the Görlitz Program of 1921.