The Workers Party (Socialist Unity Party) (German: Arbeiter-Partei (Sozialistische Einheitspartei)) was a political party in West Germany. The party was founded in Offenbach in the autumn of 1945.[1][2] The party sought to profile itself as a third alternative to the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) or the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).[1] Between 1946 and 1947 the party expanded to other towns in Hessen.[1] The party gathered former members of the Communist Party of Germany (Opposition) (KPO) and the Socialist Workers Party (SAP).[1] Heinrich Glam was the chairman of the party, former chair of the KPD branch of Offenbach and former leader of KPO and SAP.[3] Another key leader was Philipp Pless, party secretary and chair of the Frankfurt branch.[3]
The party won 1.5% in the April 1946 Hessen local elections. In the subsequent Hessen regional assembly election, the party fielded candidates in 39 constituencies, obtaining 0.6% of the votes. In Offenbach, it obtained 15.8% of the votes. In Frankfurt, it obtained 0.6%.[3]
The first regional assembly of the party was held on 18 August 1946, with 61 delegates representing 23 towns in Hessen and 4 towns in other parts of the country. The assembly voted to remove "Socialist Unity Party" from the name of the party.[3] In 1946 a Workers Party group was formed in Baden-Württemberg by merging ex-KPO and ex-SAP members, which registered itself as a political party in 1947. On 18 October 1947 the party held its first public meeting in Stuttgart. It obtained 2% of the votes in the Stuttgart local elections of December 1947.[3] A Bremen Workers Party was also formed.[3]
In 1951 a number of local politicians in Offenbach left the party for SPD. The remainder, including Glam, joined SPD in 1954.[3]
References edit
- ^ a b c d Uwe Backes; Eckhard Jesse (1989). Politischer Extremismus in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Analyse. Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik. p. 107. ISBN 9783804686953.
- ^ Dirk Berg-Schlosser; Alexander Fack; Thomas Noetzel (1994). Parteien und Wahlen in Hessen 1946-1994. Schüren. p. 209. ISBN 978-3-89472-087-2.
- ^ a b c d e f g Richard Stöss (13 August 2013). Parteien-Handbuch: Die Parteien der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1945–1980. Springer-Verlag. pp. 374, 377, 379–380, 383. ISBN 978-3-663-14349-9.
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