Wilhelm Dittmann

Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) Social democracy Germany Germany 1874–1954 ○ Natural causes

Founding USPD leader and member of the Council of People's Deputies in 1918

German social democratic politician. A carpenter by trade, he joined the SPD in 1894 and entered the Reichstag in 1912. Expelled from the parliamentary group in 1916 for voting against war credits, he co-founded the USPD in 1917 and sat on its central committee until 1922. In November and December 1918 he was a member of the revolutionary Council of People's Deputies. He attended the Second Comintern Congress in 1920 but opposed affiliation, and led the reunification with the SPD in 1922. He went into exile in 1933 and returned in 1951.

Also known as: Wilhelm Friedrich Karl Dittmann

Activities and affiliations

Career Timeline

The USPD and the Council of People's Deputies

Dittmann at first supported the war credits, but believing Germany was to blame for the war he voted against them on 21 December 1915. Expelled from the SPD parliamentary group for this in March 1916, he formed the Social Democratic Working Group with Hugo Haase and Georg Ledebour and in April 1917 co-founded the USPD. In February 1918 a military court sentenced him to five years for attempted treason over the Berlin munitions workers' strike, but he was released on 15 October as the government sought an armistice.

On the six-man Council of People's Deputies, set up as the revolutionary government on 10 November 1918, he sat for the USPD and was responsible for transport and the demobilisation of returning soldiers. When Ebert used the army against the revolutionary sailors in the Christmas crisis, he resigned with the other USPD members on 29 December.

In 1920 he attended the Second Comintern Congress for the USPD but opposed affiliation to the Comintern and union with the Communist Party. When the majority voted to join at the Halle congress, he led the remaining USPD to reunification with the SPD in 1922. He then served as secretary of the SPD executive and chairman of its parliamentary group, and in 1926 gave a six-hour speech to the Reichstag committee of inquiry refuting the stab-in-the-back myth.