GHDI logo

German Social Democratic Party (SPD): Call to Rebuild the Party Organization (June 15, 1945)

page 3 of 3    print version    return to list previous document      next document


8. Nationalization of banks, insurance companies, and natural resources; nationalization of mines and the power industry. Seizure of large-scale landholdings, viable large-scale industry, and all war profits for the purposes of reconstruction. Elimination of unearned income from land and rental property. Tight restrictions on interest payments from mobile capital. Obligation on entrepreneurs to run the enterprises entrusted to them by the German national economy in a fiduciary way. Restriction of inheritance rights to immediate relatives.

9. Adjustment of the law to the anti-fascist democratic conception of the state. State protection for the individual. Freedom of expression in speech, image, and the written word, provided the interests of the state are protected and the individual citizen is respected. Freedom of opinion and religion. Incitement of racial hatred subject to criminal prosecution.

Because of Hitler’s guilt, our poor, tormented people must pass through unspeakable misery and a deep vale of suffering! We want to help lead it back to the heights of a humane culture, to friendship with all the peoples of the world.

Above all, we want to wage the struggle to create a new society on the basis of the organizational unity of the German working class! We regard this as a form of moral restitution for the political mistakes of the past and as a way to give the younger generation a unified political organization. The banner of unity must be carried forward as a shining symbol in all political activity by working people! We offer our hand of brotherhood to all those who live by the slogan: “Fight fascism for the freedom of the people, for democracy and socialism!”

That is why we call upon all our friends and comrades in the city and the countryside to begin rebuilding the party organization right away, with old devotion and new courage! Onwards! To work!

Central Committee of the Social Democratic Party of Germany



From: Aufruf vom 15. Juni 1945 zum Neuaufbau der Organisation [Call to Rebuild the Party Organization, June 15, 1945]; reprinted in Ossip Kurt Flechtheim, Die Parteien der Bundesrepublik Deutschland [The Parties of the Federal Republic of Germany]. Hamburg, 1973, pp. 212-15.

Translation: Adam Blauhut and Thomas Dunlap

first page < previous   |   next > last page