Eduard Bernstein | |
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| Member of the Reichstag from Brandenburg | |
| In office 7 June 1920 – 20 May 1928 | |
| Constituency | Potsdam (Teltow-Beeskow-Charlottenburg) |
| Member of the Imperial Reichstag from Silesia | |
| In office 13 January 1912 – 10 November 1918 | |
| Preceded by | Otto Pfundtner |
| Succeeded by | Reichstag dissolution |
| Constituency | Breslau-West |
| In office 31 October 1901 – 25 January 1907 | |
| Preceded by | Bruno Schönlank |
| Succeeded by | Otto Pfundtner |
| Constituency | Breslau-West |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 6 January 1850 Berlin-Kreuzberg, Kingdom of Prussia |
| Died | 18 December 1932 (aged 82) Berlin, Free State of Prussia, German Reich |
| Political party | SDAP (1872–1875) SPD (1875–1917) USPD (1917–1919) SPD (1918–1932) |
Philosophy career | |
| Era | Modern philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Socialism |
Main interests | Politics, economy, sociology |
Notable ideas | Social democracy Revisionism |
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Eduard Bernstein (German: [ˈeːduaʁt ˈbɛʁnʃtaɪn]; 6 January 1850 – 18 December 1932) was a German Marxist theorist and politician. A prominent member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Bernstein has been both condemned and praised as a "revisionist" who challenged major aspects of Karl Marx's thought. A key influence on the European social democratic movement, Bernstein argued for legal legislation over revolutionary action, and a gradual democratization and socialization of capitalist society.
Bernstein joined the Social Democratic Workers Party in 1872, which was merged into the SPD in 1875. He lived in exile in Switzerland and later London from 1878 to 1901, and in 1880 met Marx and Engels, who impressed him with their thought. With Karl Kautsky, Bernstein was one of the drafters of the party's Erfurt Program of 1891. In his 1899 book Die Voraussetzungen des Sozialismus, Bernstein argued that socialism would be achieved through accumulated reforms and improvements of capitalism, rejecting the dialectical and revolutionary elements of Marxism. He was a member of the Imperial Reichstag from 1901 to 1907, and again from 1912 to 1918. After World War I, during which he joined the anti-war Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), he was again a member of the Reichstag from 1920 to 1928.