Founder of Marxist revisionism and evolutionary socialism, author of The Preconditions of Socialism
"I have extraordinarily little interest in what is called the 'final goal of Socialism.' This aim, whatever it be, is nothing to me, the movement everything." — Response to critics (1899)
German SPD theorist and politician. Engels's literary executor and editor of Der Sozialdemokrat, Bernstein began as an orthodox Marxist before his 1899 The Preconditions of Socialism challenged Marx's predictions of capitalist collapse, class polarization, and revolutionary necessity. His dictum "the goal is nothing, the movement everything" laid the foundation for social democracy's reformist, parliamentary turn, creating the schism between revolutionary socialism and evolutionary social democracy. He broke with the SPD's pro-war majority to co-found the anti-war USPD during World War I, and spent his final years defending Weimar parliamentary democracy, dying six weeks before Hitler took power.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1872Joined SDAP (Eisenachers); delegate to 1875 Gotha unification congress
- 1881–1890Editor of Der Sozialdemokrat in exile (Zurich, then London); close collaborator of Engels
- 1891Co-drafted Erfurt Programme with Kautsky; named Engels's literary executor (1895)
- 1899Published The Preconditions of Socialism — launched revisionism debate that divided the international socialist movement
- 1902–1928Reichstag deputy (Breslau-West, later Potsdam II) — specialist in taxation, trade, and constitutional law
- 1915–1917Turned against war credits; issued peace manifesto with Haase and Kautsky; co-founded the anti-war USPD
- 1918–1928Assistant secretary in Weimar Treasury; defended parliamentary democracy; died 1932
Related historical events
Opposition to the war and the German Revolution
Bernstein initially voted with the SPD parliamentary group for war credits in August 1914, but changed his position as evidence emerged about Germany’s war aims and its violation of Belgian neutrality. On 20 March 1915 he left the chamber rather than vote for further credits. In June he joined Karl Kautsky and Hugo Haase in issuing a manifesto denouncing the war as an imperialist venture. When antiwar deputies were expelled from the SPD parliamentary group in 1916, Bernstein left with them; in April 1917 he helped found the antiwar Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD). Unlike the USPD’s left wing, he and Kautsky advocated a negotiated peace.
After the SPD-USPD coalition collapsed in December 1918, Bernstein remained as an assistant in the Treasury Department of the provisional Council of the People’s Deputies. He urged reunification of the socialist movement, arguing that the split over the war should end, and on 24 December rejoined the SPD while still belonging to the USPD. He left the USPD in March 1919 after it prohibited dual membership. After the war he clashed with SPD leaders over his view that Germany, particularly the Kaiser and military, bore primary responsibility for the conflict, and over accepting the Treaty of Versailles. During the Weimar period he defended parliamentary democracy, wrote a history of the revolution published in 1921, and served in the Reichstag from 1920 to 1928.