Politician and writer August Bebel was born February 22, 1840 in the German city of Cologne. He was the son of a poor non-commissioned officer. Father died of tuberculosis when the boy was still very young. The widowed mother moved with her child to the Hessian city of Wetzlar. There, August Bebel went to school.
Education
At age 14, the future socialist began to learn turning skills. His working day lasted 14 hours. In short periods of free time, the teenager read a lot, swallowing book after book. His favorite works were the novels Robinson Crusoe and Uncle Tom's Cabin. The last book was devoted to the problem of slavery in America. Therefore, even the literary taste clearly demonstrated the young Bebel's aversion to social injustice.
Having learned, the future writer began to travel a lot. Wanderings threw him to various places, but, in the end, he settled in Leipzig. During his travels, August Bebel gained many impressions that shaped him as a person. He had to work as a traveling apprentice during the long period of reaction of the authorities that came after the 1848 revolution.
The beginning of public activity
Just when August Bebel began to live in Leipzig (1860), a revival of political life began to be traced throughout Germany. The number of demonstrations and strikes by the unemployed increased. The center of discontent was not only Leipzig, but also Berlin, as well as Elberfeld. In these conditions, labor unions began to appear like mushrooms after rain. In 1861, Bebel Augustus joined the Craft Educational Society.
The organization made the turner famous. He not only studied a lot, but also began to speak regularly in public. Bebel was soon included in the leadership of the company. However, ambition did not allow him to focus on educational activities. In 1866, Bebel, together with Wilhelm Liebknecht, established the Saxon People's Party. Then the politician became chairman of the Council of Workers' Unions.
Principal socialist
In a new position, August Bebel went to rapprochement with the First International. His decision caused heated debate in the party. In the end, it split. In 1869, Bebel stood at the head of the new Social Democratic Labor Party, which became the flagship of leftist ideas in Germany. The activity of the politician was extremely important for all his supporters and like-minded people. This is evidenced even by the fact that Karl Marx considered him the most outstanding leader of German Social Democracy.
As early as 1867, elections were held in the Reichstag of the North German Union, in which August Bebel was elected deputy. The biography of a politician is an example of the life of a person who fought to the end for his views. In the midst of the war against France, Bebel delivered a fiery speech in which he called for peace with the French for the sake of the solidarity of the workers of all countries. For this, the speaker was tried for treason. At the Leipzig trial, Social Democrat August Bebel was sentenced to two years in prison.
Persecution
In prison, the politician was much engaged in self-education, so even he could spend his imprisonment to good use. Bebel was soon released and continued to fight for the rights of workers. In 1878, he was expelled from Leipzig, which had become his family. The reason for the repression of power was the "Exceptional Law against Socialists." This document, signed by Kaiser Wilhelm I, prohibited the party activities of leftists outside parliament.
Bebel began to live in Borsdorf. He continued to travel around the country and carry out semi-legal party work, for which he was sentenced twice more to short prison sentences. Publications of the 70s and 80s showed who August Bebel is from an ideological point of view. He was a staunch supporter of Karl Marx and his ideas set forth in Capital. Bebel opposed revisionism in the then German socialism, which aimed to revise the foundations of the left doctrine.
"Woman and socialism"
Numerous aphorisms and quotes by August Bebel became known thanks to his publications. The main and most striking work of the writer can be considered the book “Woman and Socialism”, published in 1878. This publication was the result of many years of work. Back in 1869, Bebel was the first parliamentarian in the Reichstag to raise the issue of legislative protection of female labor.
The author opposed the proletarian struggle to bourgeois feminism. According to Bebel, he could not rid society of the economic dependence of women on men, slavery of toilers, prostitution and simple domestic sexual prejudice. The writer considered the main goal of socialists in these matters to achieve gender equality. In the book, the author, on the one hand, described the history of women's status in society, and on the other, explained the aspirations of his supporters in relation to the problems of women. The book was published just a year after the “Exceptional Law against the Socialists”. Therefore, immediately after its appearance, it began to be confiscated by the authorities. However, from this Bebel’s publication gained only great popularity.
Anti-militarist
In 1889, the Second International was established. The activities of the last years of Bebel's life were mainly connected with this organization. Companions in the Social Democratic movement from around the world entrusted him with the most important tasks. Bebel, if health allowed, always participated in congresses of the international. His speech in 1904 at the congress in Amsterdam was especially striking.
And in 1907, in Stuttgart, Bebel again, as in his youth, severely criticized the supporters of militarism. The Russian emigrant Vladimir Lenin was also present at that congress. The leader of the Bolsheviks, as well as Rosa Luxemburg and the Menshevik Julius Martov, made several amendments to Bebel’s resolution, with which he agreed. The final version of the document called on workers in case of danger of war to defend their point of view before their own authorities, including using non-parliamentary methods of struggle.
Death and Heritage
Bebel died on August 13, 1913 in the Swiss city of Passugge. According to the will of the politician, he was buried in Zurich. His departure was mourned not only in Germany, but also in many other countries of the world. Rallies in memory of the socialist were held in Russia, America and even Australia. Obituaries to the defender of the proletariat were published in all working newspapers.
About Bebel, Lenin and other Bolsheviks spoke with deep respect. He was impressed by the idea of ​​a socialist about the inevitability of a revolution. The politician considered an armed uprising against the authorities a necessity, by the end of his life he was less and less believing that the left would be able to achieve their demands by parliament. In addition, Bebel warned that the authorities would specifically drive the working class to imperialist slaughter when the degree of class tension in European society reached its limit. For this reason, or another, but the First World War really began just a year after the death of the famous socialist.