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.
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