- Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Jewish Polish-born Marxist political theorist, socialist philosopher, and revolutionary. She was a theorist of the Social Democratic Party of the Kingdom of Poland, later becoming involved in the German SPD, followed by the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. She started the journal "Die Rote Fahne" (The Red Flag).
- Willy Brandt
Willy Brandt, born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm (December 18, 1913 - October 8, 1992), was a German politician, Chancellor of West Germany 1969 - 1974, and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) 1964 - 1987. His most important legacy is the "Ostpolitik", a policy aimed at improving relations with East Germany, Poland, and the Soviet Union. This policy caused considerable controversy in West Germany, …
- Friedrich Ebert
Friedrich Ebert (February 4, 1871 - February 28, 1925) was a German politician (SPD), who served as Chancellor of Germany and its first president during the Weimar period. Born in Heidelberg as the son of a tailor, he himself was trained as a saddlemaker. He became involved in politics as a trade unionist and Social Democrat, and soon became a leader of the moderate "revisionist" wing of the Social Democratic Party, becoming Secretary-General in 1905, …
- Gerhard Schröder
"'"' (born April 7, 1944), German politician, was Chancellor of Germany from 1998 to 2005. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), he led a coalition government of the SPD and the Greens. Before becoming a full time politician, he was a successful lawyer, and before becoming Chancellor he was Minister-president of the German state of Lower Saxony. Following the 2005 federal election, which his party lost, …
- August Bebel
August Ferdinand Bebel (February 22 1840 - August 13 1913) was a German social democrat and one of the founders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
- Helmut Schmidt
Helmut Heinrich Waldemar Schmidt (born December 23, 1918) is a German Social Democratic politician. He was the Chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982, as well as Minister of Defence and Minister of Finance. He also served briefly as Minister of Economics and as acting Foreign Minister.
- Kurt Beck
Kurt Beck (born February 5, 1949) is a German politician and since 1994 the prime minister of the German federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate (Rheinland-Pfalz), serving as President of the Bundesrat in 2000/01. He was officially elected as chairman of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) on May 14 2006 with the approval of 95 % of the delegates. He succeeded Matthias Platzeck who resigned on April 10, 2006 due to medical reasons
- Johannes Rau
Johannes Rau was a German politician of the SPD. He was the eighth President of the Federal Republic of Germany from July 1, 1999 until June 30, 2004 and prime minister of North Rhine Westfalia from 1978 to 1998.
- Franz Müntefering
"'"' (born January 16, 1940) is a German politician and former chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Since November 22, 2005 he has served as Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs and Vice-Chancellor in the cabinet of Angela Merkel
- Philipp Scheidemann
Philipp Scheidemann (26 July 1865 - 29 November 1939) was a German Social Democratic politician, who proclaimed the Republic on 9 November 1918, and who became the first Chancellor of the Weimar Republic. Beginning his career as a journalist, Scheidemann became a Reichstag delegate for the Social Democrats in 1903, and soon rose to be one of the principal leaders of the party.
- Kurt Schumacher
Dr. Kurt Schumacher (13 October 1895 - 20 August 1952), was the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany from 1945 to 1952.
- Clara Zetkin
Clara Zetkin, maiden name Eissner (5 July 1857 - 20 June 1933) was an influential socialist German politician and a fighter for women's rights. Until 1917 she was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany, then she joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and its far-left wing, the Spartacist League; this later became the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), …
- Günter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grass is a Nobel Prize-winning German author. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). Since 1945, he has lived in (the now former) West Germany, but in his fiction he frequently returns to the Danzig of his childhood. He is best known for his first novel, "The Tin Drum", a key text in European magic realism. His works frequently have a strong (left wing, socialist) political dimension, …
- Frank-Walter Steinmeier
Frank-Walter Steinmeier (born 5 January 1956 in Detmold, Germany) has served as the Foreign Minister of Germany since 22 November 2005 in the Grand Coalition of Angela Merkel. In the first half of 2007 he was also President of the European Council. He is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
- Rudolf Scharping
Rudolf Scharping (December 2 1947 in Niederelbert) is a German politician (SPD). Scharping studied politics, sociology and law at the University of Bonn. He joined the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 1966. He was Member of the Rhineland-Palatine Diet from 1975 to 1994. From 21 May 1991 to 15 October 1994 he was prime minister of the state. In 1994 he ran for chancellor against Helmut Kohl (CDU), lost, and became leader of the opposition.
- Franz Mehring
Franz Erdmann Mehring, was a German publicist, politician and historian. He worked for various daily and weekly newspapers and over many years wrote lead articles for the weekly magazine "Neue Zeit". In 1868 he moved to Berlin to study, and worked in the editorial office of the "Die Zukunft" newspaper. From 1871–1874, Mehring worked for the Correspondence Office in Oldenburg, writing reports on sessions of the "Reichstag" and the local parliament.
- Hermann Müller
"'"' (May 18, 1876 - March 20, 1931), born in Mannheim, was a German Social Democratic politician who served as Foreign Minister (1919-1920), and twice as Chancellor of Germany (1920, 1928-1930) under the Weimar Republic. In his capacity as Foreign Minister, he was one of the German signatories of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. Müller's father was a champagne producer who died in 1892. In 1902 he married Frieda Tockus. They had one daughter, Annemarie, in 1905; however, …
- Erich Ollenhauer
Erich Ollenhauer (March 27 1901 - December 14 1963) was the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) 1952-1963.
- Otto Grotewohl
Otto Grotewohl (March 11, 1894 - September 21 1964) was an East German politician. Grotewohl was born in Braunschweig. A leader of the Social Democratic Party in the Soviet Zone of Occupation after World War II, he led his party into a merger with the Communist Party led by Wilhelm Pieck in April 1946, forming the new Socialist Unity Party (SED). Grotewohl and Pieck had received the Eulenberg estate as a life gift from the Soviet Government for the merger.
- Klaus Wowereit
Klaus Wowereit (born October 1, 1953 in Berlin) is a German politician, member of the SPD (Social Democratic Party), and has been the mayor of Berlin since the 2001 state elections. He served as President of the Bundesrat in 2001/02. His SPD-led coalition was re-elected in the 2006 elections. He is also sometimes mentioned as a possible SPD candidate for the Chancellorship of Germany ("Kanzlerkandidat"), …
- Björn Engholm
Björn Engholm is a Lübeck born German SPD politician. He was Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein, 1988-1993 and leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, 1991-1993. Engholm was elected Minister-President of Schleswig-Holstein in 1987, in the wake of the Barschel affair, serving as President of the Bundesrat in 1988/89.
- Otto Schily
Otto Georg Schily was Federal Minister of the Interior of Germany from 1998-2005, in the cabinet of former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Born in Bochum as the son of a mining plant director, he grew up in a family of anthroposophists. His younger brother is Konrad Schily, an academic and also a politician. In 1962, he passed his second state exam after having studied law and politics in Munich, Hamburg, and Berlin, thus being admitted to the bar; a year later, …
- Otto Wels
Otto Wels (September 15 1873 - September 16 1939) was the chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1919 and a member of parliament from 1920 to 1930. On March 23, 1933 the Berlin-born Wels was the only member of the Reichstag to speak against Adolf Hitler's Enabling Act (the "Law for Removing the Distress of People and Reich"). The vote took place during the last official session of the Reichstag, on March 23, 1933.
- Gustav Bauer
"'"' (6 January 1870 - 16 September 1944) was a German Social Democratic Party leader and Chancellor of Germany from 1919 to 1920. Born in Darkehmen near Königsberg in East Prussia, Bauer, who rose to notice through his leadership of a white-collar trade union, served from 1908 to 1918 as chairman of the General Commission of Trade Unions for all of Germany. A member of the Reichstag, Bauer entered Prince Max of Baden's government in October 1918 as Minister of Labour, …
- Peter Struck
Peter Struck is a lawyer, member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and was the German Minister of Defence under chancellor Gerhard Schröder from October 22 2002 until 2005. * 1962: Abitur * 1964: Member of the SPD
- Sigmar Gabriel
Sigmar Gabriel (born September 12 1959 in Goslar) is a German politician (SPD). After Gerhard Glogowski resigned, Gabriel became Minister-President of Lower Saxony on December 15 1999 and served until March 4 2003. He now is Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in the cabinet of Angela Merkel.
- Hans-Dietrich Genscher
Hans-Dietrich Genscher (born March 21, 1927) is a German politician and member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP). He was Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany from 1974-1992, making him Germany's longest serving Foreign Minister and Vice Chancellor
- Peer Steinbrück
Peer Steinbrück is a German SPD politician. He currently serves as Minister of Finance in the cabinet of Angela Merkel. He was Minister President ("Ministerpräsident") of North Rhine-Westphalia from November 2002 to June 2005. On the state election on May 22 2005 Steinbrück failed to be reelected as Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia. His successor is Jürgen Rüttgers (CDU). From November 2005 he is finance minister of Germany and Vice chief of SPD
- Andrea Nahles
Andrea Maria Nahles is a German politician, a Bundestag representative for Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and past SPD Youth leader. She is known with in the party for criticizing Gerhard Schröder's Agenda 2010 and thus considered to belong to the SPD's left wing.
- Hans Vogel
Hans Vogel was a German politician and chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) along with Arthur Crispien and Otto Wels from 1931 to 1933. After the NSDAP came to power in 1933, he became one of the leaders of the social democratic exile organization Sopade. After attending the "Volkshochschule" in Fürth, Vogel, the son of a merchant and shoemaker, complete an apprenticeship as wood sculptor assistant in 1897.
- Brigitte Zypries
Brigitte Zypries (born November 16, 1953, in Kassel, Germany) is a German politician. She is the current Federal Minister of Justice of Germany. She has been Minister of Justice since 2002. She is member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
- Gustav Noske
Gustav Noske (July 9, 1868 - November 30, 1946) was a German administrator. He served as the Defense Minister of Germany between 1919 and 1920. He was the first defense minister of the Weimar Republic. Noske was a Master Butcher by trade, who had climbed the political ladder within the trade union movement. He was a member of the Social Democratic Party and became a member of the German Parliament in 1906, …
- Hans Eichel
Hans Eichel (born December 24, 1941), German politician (SPD), was Minister of Finance from 1999-2005.
- Ulla Schmidt
Ursula ("Ulla") Schmidt is a German politician. She is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). In 2001, she became Federal Minister for Health under Gerhard Schröder. A year later, the responsibility for social security was added to her portfolio and she was appointed Federal Minister for Health and Social Security. In November 2005, she again became Federal Minister for Health in the Grand Coalition of Angela Merkel.
- Christian Ude
Christian Ude is the current mayor of Munich. He is a member of the German Social Democratic Party. Additionally, he is a member of the board of directors of the football (AE: soccer) club TSV 1860 München. After his career as a journalist and lawyer, he was elected as second mayor of Munich on May 2 1990. On September 12 1993, he was elected as lord mayor and successor of Georg Kronawitter.
- Klaus von Dohnanyi
Dr Klaus von Dohnanyi is a German politician and a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Dr. von Dohnanyi is the son of Hans and Christine Dohnanyi, and thus a nephew of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His younger brother is Christoph von Dohnányi. After studying law at the universities of Munich, Columbia, Stanford and Yale, he started his career working at the Max-Planck-Institute for Civil Law. He then moved to Ford Motor Company, the car manufacturer, …
- Leo von Caprivi
Georg Leo Graf von Caprivi de Caprara de Montecuccoli (English: Count George Leo of Caprivi, Caprara, and Montecuccoli, born Georg Leo von Caprivi; February 24, 1831 - February 6, 1899) was a German major general and statesman, who succeeded Otto von Bismarck as Chancellor of Germany. Caprivi served as German Chancellor from March 1890 to October 1894
- Otto Braun
Otto Braun was a German Social Democratic politician who was Prime Minister of Prussia. Originally from Königsberg in East Prussia, Braun became a leader of the Social Democratic Party there, and was elected to the Prussian Diet in 1913. In 1919, he was elected to the Constituent Assembly in Weimar. He became most noted as Prime Minister of Prussia, a position in which he served almost continually from 1920 to 1932.
- Herbert Wehner
Herbert Richard Wehner (July 11 1906 - January 19 1990) was a German politician. He was a member of the German Communist Party (KPD) as a young man. Between 1933 and 1935 he participated in the communist resistance against the National Socialist (Nazi) regime. In 1935 he went into exile in Moscow. After being sent to Sweden on party business in 1941, he was arrested and interned in 1942.
- Georg Leber
Georg Leber (born October 7 1920 in Obertiefenbach, near Limburg an der Lahn) is a German politician in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). After serving in the Luftwaffe (the German air force) in World War 2, he joined the SPD in 1947. In 1957, he was elected the to the Bundestag, which he was a member of until 1983. In 1966, Leber was appointed to the position of Minister for Transportation for the Grand coalition.