However, its vote in favour of war credits in 1914 and Germany’s disastrous fate in World War I led to an internal split, with the centrists under Karl Kautsky forming the Independent Social Democratic Party and the left under Rosa Luxemburg and Liebknecht forming the Spartacus League, which in December 1918 became the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).

They opposed unity to defend German bourgeois-democracy against Hitler and argued that Socialist-Communist unity must be conditioned on acceptance of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The Communists operated under the theory that the Social-Democrats were "social-fascists," a harmful concept and an insurmountable barrier to unity.

18/11/2019 · After all, social-democratic movements emerged from communist parties, many of which — including the Social Democrats in post-war Germany and the French Socialist Party — …

19/05/2019 · In any event, the opposition between the social democratic and communist theories was already clear in regard to the question of revolution. For the social democrats, the proletarian revolution is a single act, a popular movement that destroys the old power and puts the social democrats in the driver's seat of the State, in the government posts.

Austria's Social Democrats did not suffer from the warring and split with the Communists as in Germany. Austria's Communist Party numbered no more than 6,000 and had little if any electoral successes. The Social Democrats enjoyed support from around 60 percent of Vienna's population and held a majority of seats in Vienna's city council.

1) Acknowledged debt to the activities of the People's Will 2) asserted that Social Democracy would follow different path to freedom 3) Working classes had, and were being, exploited by their masters 4) Future of Russia would be the product of a class struggle 5) Impetus for change had to come from the working men.