General German Workers' Association in the context of "Critique of the Gotha Programme"

The Gotha Program (German: Gothaer Programm) was the party platform adopted by what would become the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) at its initial conference, held in the city of Gotha from 22 to 27 May 1875. Written by Wilhelm Liebknecht, the program was the result of a compromise between the two founding factions of the party: the Marxist-influenced Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP), known as the "Eisenachers", and the General German Workers' Association (ADAV), founded by Ferdinand Lassalle.

The program called for universal suffrage, freedom of association, limits on the working day, and other laws protecting the rights and health of workers. While its immediate demands were radically democratic for the time, the Gotha Program was strongly influenced by Lassalleanism, declaring the party's intention to pursue its goals "by every legal means" and calling for the establishment of state-aided producer co-operatives.

Ferdinand Johann Gottlieb Lassalle (born Lassal; 11 April 1825 – 31 August 1864) was a German jurist, philosopher, and socialist activist. Best remembered as an initiator of the social democratic movement in Germany, in 1863 he founded the General German Workers' Association (ADAV), the first independent German workers' party. His political theories included state socialism and the popularisation of the iron law of wages.

Born in Breslau to a prosperous Jewish family, Lassalle became a follower of Hegelian philosophy in his youth. During the 1840s and 1850s, he gained public renown for his involvement in a long and sensational legal case to vindicate the rights of Countess Sophie von Hatzfeldt. Active in the revolutions of 1848, he formed a complex and often antagonistic relationship with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Lassalle also authored several major intellectual works, including the philosophical treatise Heraclitus the Obscure (1857) and the legal study The System of Acquired Rights (1861).

Ferdinand August Bebel (22 February 1840 – 13 August 1913) was a German social democratic politician. He is best known as one of the founders of the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Germany (SDAP) in 1869, which in 1875 merged with the General German Workers' Association to form what would become the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). As a leader of the German workers' movement for over four decades, Bebel served as a member of parliament in both the North German Confederation and the German Empire, becoming the movement's leading parliamentary voice.

Born into poverty in Prussia, Bebel was orphaned at a young age and apprenticed as a woodturner. His experiences as a traveling journeyman exposed him to the hardships of the working class and led him to socialist politics in the 1860s. Alongside Wilhelm Liebknecht, he became a central figure in the German socialist movement, opposing the nationalist and state-oriented socialism of Ferdinand Lassalle in favor of a more orthodox Marxist, internationalist position. During the Franco-Prussian War, he gained notoriety for his opposition to the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine, which led to his conviction for high treason in 1872.