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This essay provides an overview of the development of the German working class in relation to the imperialist character of the German state and society. It focuses on the political aspect of embourgeoisement as entailing working-class incorporation within a state based on policies of conquest, plunder, and the exploitation of foreign labor. The essay relates the economic and political development of the German working class between the founding of the German Reich in 1871 and the voting into power of fascism in 1933 to the phenomenon of social imperialism (Sozialimperialismus). It argues that between 1871 and 1933, the better-off German workers, as represented politically by the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) and organized within the SPD-affiliated Free Trade Unions of Germany (Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, ADGB), were prepared to...
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Cope, Z. (2021). German Imperialism and Social Imperialism, 1871–1933. In: Ness, I., Cope, Z. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Imperialism and Anti-Imperialism. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29901-9_311
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