Eduard Bernstein
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Eduard Bernstein (January 6, 1850 - December 18, 1932) was a German social democratic theoretician and politician, member of the SPD, and founder of evolutionary socialism or reformism.
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[edit] Life
Bernstein was born in Berlin on January 6, 1850 to Jewish parents. His political career began in 1872, when he became a member of the Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei, the so-called Eisenachers (named after the German town Eisenach). Together with August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht he prepared the Einigungsparteitag ("unification party congress") with Lassalle's Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiterverein in Gotha in 1875.
From 1878 on, Bernstein was the private secretary of social democratic patron Karl Höchberg, working in Zürich; 1888, he was expelled from Switzerland due to pressure from Prussia and moved to London, where he had close contacts to Friedrich Engels.
Between 1880 and 1890, Bernstein published the magazine "Sozialdemokrat" ("Social Democrat"); in 1891, he was one of the authors of the Erfurt Program, and from 1896 to 1898, he released a series of articles entitled "Probleme des Sozialismus" ("Problems of Socialism") that led to the revisionism debate in the SPD. He also wrote a book titled "Die Vorraussetzungen des Sozialismus und die Aufgaben der Sozialdemokratie" ("The Prerequisites for Socialism and the Tasks of Social Democracy") in 1899. The book was in sharp contrast to the positions of August Bebel, Karl Kautsky and Wilhelm Liebknecht. Rosa Luxemburg's 1900 essay Reform or Revolution? was also a polemic against Bernstein's position.
In 1901, he returned to Germany, following the lifting of a ban that had kept him from entering the country, and became a member of the Reichstag from 1902 to 1918. He voted against the armament tabling in 1913, together with the SPD fraction's left wing. From July 1915 he has opposed the World War I and in 1917 he was among the founders of the USPD. He was a member of the USDP until 1919, when he rejoined the SPD. From 1920 to 1928 Bernstein was again a member of the Reichstag. He retired from political life in 1928.
Bernstein died on December 18, 1932 in Berlin; a commemorative plaque is placed in his memory at Bozener Straße 18, Berlin-Schöneberg, where he lived from 1918 to his death.
[edit] Views
Die Vorraussetzungen was Bernstein's most significant work and was principally concerned with refuting Marx's predictions about the imminent demise of capitalism. In it, Bernstein pointed out simple facts that he took to be evidence that Marx's predictions were not being borne out: he noted that the centralisation of capitalist industry, while significant, was not becoming wholescale and that the ownership of capital was becoming more, and not less, diffuse. He also pointed out some of the flaws in Marx's labour theory of value.
In its totality, Bernstein's analysis formed a powerful critique of Marxism, and this led to his vilification among many orthodox Marxists. Bernstein remained, however, very much a socialist, albeit an unorthodox one (he was hostile to Trade Unions and Producers Co-operatives); he believed that socialism would be achieved through capitalism, not through capitalism's destruction (as rights were gradually won by workers, their cause for grievance would be diminished, and consequently, so too would the foundation of revolution). Although Marx would argue that free trade would be the quickest fulfilment of the capitalist system, and thus its end, Bernstein viewed protectionism as helping only a selective few, being fortschrittsfeindlich (anti-progressive), for its negative effects on the masses. Germany's protectionism, Bernstein argued, was only based on political expediency, isolating Germany from the world (especially from Britain), creating an autarky that would only result in conflict between Germany and the rest of the world.[1]
[edit] Quotes
- "The Communist Manifesto was correct…but…we see the privileges of the capitalist bourgeoisie yielding…to democratic organizations…In my judgment…success lies in a steady [peaceful] advance…[rather]…than in…a catastrophic crash."
[edit] Further reading & references
- ^ R. A. Fletcher (1983). "Cobden as Educator: The Free-Trade Internationalism of Eduard Bernstein, 1899-1914" 88 (3): 561-578.
- Eduard Bernstein, Cromwell and Communism: Socialism and Democracy in the Great English Revolution, International Specialized Book Service Inc, 1963, hardcover, ISBN 0-7146-1454-8; trade paperback, Spokesman Books, 1980, ISBN 0-85124-286-3; trade paperback, 287 pages, Coronet Books, 2000, ISBN 0-85124-630-3
- Eduard Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism: A Criticism and Affirmation, Random House, 1961, trade paperback, ISBN 0-8052-0011-8; trade paperback, ISBN 1-299-16172-3
- Eduard Bernstein, My Years of Exile: Reminiscences of a Socialist, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1986, hardcover, ISBN 0-313-25114-2
- Eduard Bernstein, Selected Writings of Eduard Bernstein, 1900-1921, Prometheus Books, 1996, hardcover, ISBN 1-57392-357-5
- Manfred B. Steger, Quest for Evolutionary Socialism: Eduard Bernstein and Social Democracy, Cambridge University Press, 1997, hardcover, 287 pages, ISBN 0-521-58200-8
- Peter Gay, The dilemma of democratic socialism: Eduard Bernstein's challenge to Marx, Octagon Books, ISBN 0-88254-837-9; Collier Books, trade paperback ISBN 0-374-93017-1
- James W. Hulse, Revolutionists in London: a study of five unorthodox Socialists, Clarendon Press, 1970, ISBN 0-19-827175-1
- Edited by Henry Tudor and J. M. Tudor, Marxism and Social Democracy: The Revisionist Debate, 1896-1898, Cambridge University Press, 1988, hardcover, 1988, ISBN 0-521-34049-7
- S. Ramaswamy and Subrata Mukherjee, Eduard Bernstein - His Thoughts and Works: His Life and Works, Deep & Deep Publications, 1998, hardcover, ISBN 81-7100-768-6
