Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Bebel, Ferdinand August

BEBEL, FERDINAND AUGUST (bā'bel), a German Socialist, born in Cologne in 1840. In his youth he was an apprentice, and, while learning and practicing the turner's trade, he acquired a practical knowledge of the difficulties and disabilities of the workingmen. He settled in Leipsic in 1860, joined various labor organizations, and became one of the editors of the “Volksstaat” and of the “Vorwärts.” Membership in the North German Reichstag was followed by his election to the German Reichstag, of which he was a member from 1871 to 1881, and which he entered again in 1883. He was the leader of his party in the Reichstag, even though, representing as he did the Marxian principles, he was bitterly opposed by certain factions. He wrote “Our Aims” (1874); “The German Peasant War” (1876); “The Life and Theories of Charles Fourier” (1888); “Women in Socialism, the Christian Point of View in the Woman Question” (1893); “My Life” (1910-1912). He died August 14, 1913.