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General German Workers' Association

The General German Workers' Association (German: Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiter-Verein, ADAV) was a German political party founded on 23 May 1863 in Leipzig, Kingdom of Saxony by Ferdinand Lassalle. It was the first organized mass working-class party in European history.[1]

General German
Workers' Association
Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiter-Verein

23 May 1863 (23 May 1863)

May 1875 (May 1875)

Berlin
Leipzig (since 1868)

Der Sozial-Demokrat
Der Agitator
Neuer Social-Demokrat

15,000

  Red

The organization existed by this name until 1875, when it combined with the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP) to form the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany. This unified organization was renamed soon thereafter the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), which presently remains in existence and dates its origins to the founding of the ADAV. Its Austrian part would become the SPÖ.


The ADAV was the first German Labour Party, formed in Prussia before the establishment of the German Empire. It was active in the German Confederation, which included the Austrian Empire.[2]

Lasallean General German Workers' Association[edit]

The Lasallean General German Workers' Association (LADAV) was a short-lived splinter party founded by Sophie von Hatzfeldt and Friedrich Wilhelm Emil Försterling in June 1867. Despite success when Försterling gained the Reichstag seat for the Chemnitz Reichstag constituency in the August 1867 election, the party passed out of existence after Försterling resigned his seat in April 1870 and died in 1872.[8]

(23 May 1863 – 31 August 1864)

Ferdinand Lassalle

(1 September – 2 November 1864)

Otto Dammer

(2 November 1864 – 21 November 1869)

Bernhard Becker

(21–30 November 1865)

Friedrich Wilhelm Fritzsche

(30 November – 31 December 1865)

Hugo Hillmann

(1 January – 18 June 1866

Carl Wilhelm Tölcke

(18 June 1866 – 19 May 1867)

August Perl

(20 May 1867 – 30 June 1871)

Johann Baptist von Schweitzer

(24 June – 4 July 1869)

Fritz Mende

(1 July 1871 – 25 May 1875)

Wilhelm Hasenclever