1850–1947
→ Died in exile
USPD co-chair who rejected colonial policy at Stuttgart and went to Zimmerwald
German socialist politician and journalist. After left-liberal beginnings he joined the SPD in 1891 and sat in the Reichstag from 1900 to 1918. At the 1907 Stuttgart congress he moved the minority amendment rejecting colonial policy in principle, and in 1915 he represented Germany at the Zimmerwald conference. Co-chair of the USPD from 1917, he joined the leadership of the January 1919 uprising. He founded the Socialist League in 1923–1924, went into exile in Switzerland in 1933 and died in Bern in 1947.
Activities and affiliations
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1882–
Political and party leadership
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1891–1917
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)
Political and party leadership -
1900–1918
Germany state institutionsMember of the Reichstag
Legislature and state representation -
1917–1923
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD)Main
Political and party leadership
Career Timeline
- 1891Joined the SPD.
- 1900–1918Member of the Reichstag.
- 1907.08Moved the minority colonial amendment at Stuttgart.
- 1915.09Attended the Zimmerwald conference.
- 1917Co-chair of the USPD.
- 1919.01Joined the leadership of the Berlin January uprising.
- 1933Went into exile in Switzerland.
Against colonial policy and war
Ledebour was born in Hanover, the son of a court official, trained in commerce and served as a medical orderly in the Franco-Prussian War. From 1876 to 1882 he was a foreign correspondent for Berlin papers in London, then edited left-liberal papers, and in 1891 he joined the SPD.
At the 1907 Stuttgart International Socialist Congress the majority of the colonial commission proposed a resolution that did not reject in principle a colonial policy which "under a socialist regime" could have a civilising effect. With Bracke, Karski and others Ledebour moved a minority amendment to strike that first paragraph and replace it with the statement that "capitalist colonial policy must by its very nature lead to the enslavement, forced labour or extermination of the native population". Eduard David, of the same German delegation, defended the majority text and attacked his logic, but the amendment carried by 127 votes to 108.
During the First World War he belonged to the anti-war minority, and at the Zimmerwald conference in September 1915 he and Adolph Hoffmann signed for the German participants a joint declaration with the French. When the USPD was founded in 1917 he became its co-chair, and in January 1919 he joined Karl Liebknecht in the leadership of the uprising to overthrow Ebert's government. When the USPD split towards the Communists and the SPD in 1920–1922 he stayed, but after a dispute with Theodor Liebknecht over the response to the Ruhr occupation he left and founded the Socialist League.