Gotha Program

The Gotha Program (German: Gothaer Programm) was the party platform adopted by what would become the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) at its initial conference, held in the city of Gotha from 22 to 27 May 1875. Written by Wilhelm Liebknecht, the program was the result of a compromise between the two founding factions of the party: the Marxist-influenced Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP), known as the "Eisenachers", and the General German Workers' Association (ADAV), founded by Ferdinand Lassalle.

The program called for universal suffrage, freedom of association, limits on the working day, and other laws protecting the rights and health of workers. While its immediate demands were radically democratic for the time, the Gotha Program was strongly influenced by Lassalleanism, declaring the party's intention to pursue its goals "by every legal means" and calling for the establishment of state-aided producer co-operatives.

This deference to Lassallean ideas drew sharp criticism from Karl Marx, an opponent of Lassalle who had been living in London. In an 1875 letter later published as the Critique of the Gotha Program, Marx attacked the program for a variety of perceived flaws. Marx took issue with what he saw as its theoretical vagueness, its lack of a revolutionary and class-based analysis, its embrace of bourgeois democratic ideals, and its concessions to the power of the state. The Gotha Program served the unified party for 16 years. During the period of Anti-Socialist Laws from 1878 to 1890, the party became more explicitly revolutionary and Marxist in its outlook. In 1891, following the repeal of the laws and the publication of Marx's critique, the party adopted the more consistently Marxist Erfurt Program.