''Sozialistische Monatshefte'' (, "Socialist Monthly Bulletins") was a German journal edited by

Joseph Bloch Joseph Meyer Bloch (pronounced "block", November 6, 1917 – March 4, 2009) was an American concert pianist and professor of piano literature at the Juilliard School in New York City. During a career at Juilliard that spanned five decades, Bloc ...

from 1897 to 1933 and published by the ''Verlag der Sozialistischen Monatshefte'' in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

History and contents

It was close to the revisionist wing of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...

. It was not controlled by the party and provided a space for debates within the labor movement. Its opponents were representatives of the revolutionary viewpoint as well as the center of the party; they regarded the ''Monatshefte'' as the journalistic "center of international revisionism". The journal was originally founded in 1895 by

Johannes Sassenbach Johannes Sassenbach (12 October 1866 – 19 November 1940) was a German trade union leader and politician. Born near Wipperfürth, Sassenbach's father was a saddler and ran a pub. Johannes also completed an apprenticeship as a saddler, and h ...

as Der sozialistische Akademiker - Organ der sozialistischen Studirenden und Studirten deutscher Zunge (''The Socialist Academic - Organ of the Socialist Students and German Speaking Academics''). Two years later there were disagreements and Sassenbach left the editorial office. From then on Joseph Bloch continued the journal under the title ''Sozialistische Monatshefte'' as chief editor in July 1897, restarting the volume count. Since 1903, the ''Sozialistische Monatshefte'' had been a

GmbH (; ) is a type of Juridical person, legal entity in German-speaking countries. It is equivalent to a (Sàrl) in the Romandy, French-speaking region of Switzerland and to a (Sagl) in the Ticino, Italian-speaking region of Switzerland. It is a ...

company with 20,000

German gold mark The German mark ( ; sign: ℳ︁) was the currency of the German Empire, which spanned from 1871 to 1918. The mark was paired with the minor unit of the pfennig (₰); 100 pfennigs were equivalent to 1 mark. The mark was on the gold stand ...

s of capital. Shareholders were

Jakob Bamberger Jakob "Johnny" Bamberger (11 December 1913 – 1989) was a Sinti boxer and later an activist in the Romani civil rights movement. Life Jakob Bamberger was born in Königsberg, East Prussia, the son of Julius Bamberger, a horse trader and owner o ...

(5,999 marks),

Eduard Bernstein Eduard Bernstein (; 6 January 1850 – 18 December 1932) was a German Marxist theorist and politician. A prominent member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), he has been both condemned and praised as a "Revisionism (Marxism), revisi ...

(2,000 marks), Joseph Bloch (6,000 marks, of which, however, 5,000 marks came from

Leo Arons Martin Leo Arons (15 February 1860 – 10 October 1919) was a German physicist and social democratic politician. He was the namesake of the ''Lex Arons'', a law which disallowed members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (, SPD) to teach a ...

Charles Hallgarten Charles Hallgarten, or Charles/Karl Lazarus Hallgarten (18 November 1838 – 19 April 1908) was a German banker and philanthropist. His father was Lazarus Hallgarten, founder of Hallgarten & Company, and his mother was Eleonore Hallgarten (born ...

also supported the magazine, for example with 5,000 marks in 1905. The magazine was independent of the SPD. It first appeared monthly, fortnightly from the beginning of 1908 to 1922, and then monthly again. The magazine was close to the political viewpoint of the publisher, the revisionist wing of the SPD, but also offered room for representatives of other views, including some

anarchists Anarchism is a political philosophy and movement that seeks to abolish all institutions that perpetuate authority, coercion, or hierarchy, primarily targeting the state and capitalism. Anarchism advocates for the replacement of the state w ...

and sympathizers of

Labor Zionism Labor Zionism () or socialist Zionism () is the left-wing, socialist variant of Zionism. For many years, it was the most significant tendency among Zionists and Zionist organizations, and was seen as the Zionist faction of the historic Jewish ...

. The latter was rejected within the SPD because of his ideas of settlement colonialism in

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

, but the ''Monatshefte'' did not share the SPD's strict colonial criticism. In 1902,

August Bebel Ferdinand August Bebel (; 22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German socialist activist and politician. He was one of the principal founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Bebel, a woodworker by trade, co-founded the Sa ...

strongly opposed the magazine and believed that the newspaper was "outside the party". However, a petition to punish publication in the ''Monatshefte'' by party exclusion was unsuccessful at the

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

Party Congress of 1909. In 1913, the SPD's party committee again considered the question of whether party members could publish in the ''Monatshefte'' Issues.

Philipp Scheidemann Philipp Heinrich Scheidemann (26 July 1865 – 29 November 1939) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In the first quarter of the 20th century he played a leading role in both his party and in the young Weimar ...

describes it as a meeting point: "where everything is gathered that can give satisfaction to the opponents of our party". The ''Monatshefte'' had great significance for the struggle for recognition of the

consumer cooperative A consumer cooperative is an enterprise owned by consumers and managed democratically and that aims at fulfilling the needs and aspirations of its members. Such cooperatives operate within the market economy independently of the state, as a form ...

movement as one of three pillars (

party A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

s, consumer cooperatives) in the

labor movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

. This included not only the essays in the main section, by and others, but also regular reports in the section ''Genossenschaftswesen'' (''Consumer cooperative movement'').Cf. also: Erwin Hasselmann: ''Geschichte der deutschen Konsumgenossenschaften.''. Knapp, Frankfurt am Main 1971, p.246. Another fixed component was the column ''Frauenbewegung'' (''

Women's Movement The feminist movement, also known as the women's movement, refers to a series of social movements and political campaigns for radical and liberal reforms on women's issues created by inequality between men and women. Such issues are women's ...

'') supervised by . In addition, the ''Monatshefte'' published

belletristic () is a category of writing, originally meaning beautiful or fine writing. In the modern narrow sense, it is a label for literary works that do not fall into the major categories such as fiction, poetry, or drama. The phrase is sometimes used pej ...

texts, for example, 17

novella A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most novelettes and short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) ...

s by the West Prussian writer appeared between 1908 and 1923. The journal contained the supplements ''The Socialist Student'' (nine issues in total) and ''Documents of Socialism''. Notable contributors included Julius Bab, Eduard Bernstein, Gertrud David,

Eduard David Eduard Heinrich Rudolph David (11 June 1863 – 24 December 1930) was a German politician. He was an important figure in the history of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and of the German political labour movement. After the German Revo ...

, Adolph von Elm,

Henriette Fürth Henriette Fürth (born Henriette Katzenstein, 15 August 1861 – 1 June 1938) was a German sociologist, Feminism, women's rights activist, author-journalist and poet. After the ban on female participation in political organisation :de:Reichsvere ...

Wolfgang Heine Wolfgang Heine (3 May 1861 – 9 May 1944) was a German jurist and social democratic politician. Heine was a member of the Imperial parliament and the Weimar National Assembly, he served as Minister President of the Free State of Anhalt and ...

, Gerhard Hildebrand, , ,

Max Nettlau Max Heinrich Hermann Reinhardt Nettlau (; 1865–1944) was a German anarchist and historian. His extensive collection or archives was sold to the International Institute of Social History in Amsterdam in 1935. He lived continuously in Amsterdam f ...

, , ,

Gustav Landauer Gustav Landauer (7 April 1870 – 2 May 1919) was a German philosopher, writer, and a leading theorist of anarchism in Germany at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. He was an advocate of social anarchism and an avowed ...

, Hope Bridges Adams Lehmann,

Élisée Reclus Jacques Élisée Reclus (; 15 March 18304 July 1905) was a French geographer, writer and anarchist. He produced his 19-volume masterwork, ''La Nouvelle Géographie universelle, la terre et les hommes'' ("Universal Geography"), over a period of ...

Karl Renner Karl Renner (14 December 1870 – 31 December 1950) was an Austrian politician and jurist of the Social Democratic Party of Austria, Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria. He is often referred to as the "Father of the Republics" because he ...

Rosa Schapire Rosa Schapire (9 September 1874 – 1 February 1954) was an Austro-Hungarian Austria-Hungary, also referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Dual Monarchy or the Habsburg Monarchy, was a multi-national constitutional monarchy in Ce ...

, Max Schippel, Conrad Schmidt, , , , ,

Georg von Vollmar Georg Heinrich Ritter (Chevalier) von Vollmar auf Veldheim (March 7, 1850 – June 30, 1922) was a democratic socialist politician from Bavaria. Biography Vollmar was born in Munich, and educated in a school attached to a Benedictine monastery at ...

, .

References

External links

Wikisource Wikisource is an online wiki-based digital library of free-content source text, textual sources operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. Wikisource is the name of the project as a whole; it is also the name for each instance of that project, one f ...

(German)
''Der sozialistische Akademiker'' (1895–1896)
at the

Friedrich Ebert Foundation The Friedrich Ebert Foundation (''German: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung e.V.; Abbreviation: FES'') is a German political party foundation associated with, but independent from, the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Established in 1925 as t ...

''Sozialistische Monatshefte (1897–1933)''
at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation &mdash
Introduction
(in German, PDF, 36 KB) by Hubert Woltering
Record
in the anarchist database {{ill, Datenbank des deutschsprachigen Anarchismus, de
Archive
at the

International Institute of Social History International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

Defunct political magazines published in Germany Biweekly magazines published in Germany Monthly magazines published in Germany Magazines established in 1897 Magazines disestablished in 1933 Magazines published in Berlin Social Democratic Party of Germany