The SPD Heidelberg Programme

The SPD is the first major European political party to call for a United States of Europe

Although the SPD enjoyed electoral success after 1918 and spent most of the early years of the Weimar Republic in government, it realized that it would need to broaden its appeal to remain relevant. This was especially necessary given that the compromises involved in government had alienated many of its core supporters. In an attempt to attract voters from outside the working class, the party drew up its Görlitz Programme in 1921.

This new approach was unsuccessful and many in the party campaigned to restore the focus on the industrial proletariat. Proponents of this course of action won acceptance for the new Heidelberg Programme at a party conference on 18 September 1925. Moreover, they argued that the internationalization of finance capital required pan-European solutions – including the creation of a United States of Europe with a European economic union – to the problems currently besetting the working classes. Right-wing parties took the opportunity presented by this new internationalist policy to return to the old attack line of labelling the SPD as “comrades without a country”. The Heidelberg Programme was ahead of its time and remained in force until 1959. Whether its authors would be satisfied with the progress made towards European unity 100 years later is doubtful.