Landagitation

Abstract

Just twelve days after the expiry of the Anti-Socialist Law in October 1890 the SPD held its congress in Halle.¹ The rapidity with which the party managed to do this points to the fact that it not only survived the period of banishment but actually managed to thrive during it. Party literature was distributed widely during the period of illegality, especially in the late 1880s; and though the party itself did not contest elections during that period, known Social Democrats did. They used election campaigns as occasions for spreading general Social Democratic propaganda. From the Reichstag elections of 1884 onwards the share of votes cast for Social Democratic candidates steadily increased. In fact it was the spectacular increase in the share of votes cast for them in the elections of February 1890 which forced the government to let the Anti-Socialist Law lapse. As compared to the 1887 elections the number and the share of votes cast for Social Democratic candidates in 1890 almost doubled. With a fifth of votes cast for it the SPD became the largest parliamentary party, though not in terms of its share of seats in the Reichstag.²