Gerhard Hildebrand

Who is Gerhard Hildebrand?

Gerhard Hildebrand, was a German journalist and from 1903 on member of the Social Democratic Party. His main work was the book The concussion of the industrial dominion and of the industrial socialism, published in 1910, where he doubted that an economy should be socialised completely. He emphasized the importance of agricultural production in the book, and promoted the acquisition of colonies. This was straight against the than strictly socialist and anti-imperialistic policy of the Social Democratic Party, and so he was excluded from the party on a convention in Chemnitz on 16 September 1912. The reason for exclusion was called heavy violation of the basic principles of the party platform. He was defended by major right wing Social Democrats like Eduard Bernstein and Wolfgang Heine, but the conventions majority voted against Hildebrand. Hildebrand said, he would stay being a Social Democrat and went on promoting his ideas.