Talk:German Social Party (German Empire)

In what universe a Social Reform Party would be considered right wing in the Imperial Germany? The party was obviously left wing - it represented lower classes: artisans, merchants and farmers/peasants against the elites: landed gentry and catholic & protestant clergy attached to the Hohenzollern imperial family. Don't forget that German kings and princes ruled "by the grace of God". It desired reforms that would benefit lower classes, who are the left wing (the fact that what benefited the German left wing 140 years ago does not agree with modern sensibilities does not change the side of the parliament where the defenders of lower classes were sited). It is especially obvious in the Age of Empires, when the original French division applied: left wing - commoners vs right wing - clergy and gentry. Today obviously it is hard to decide who is and is not left vs right wing as we no longer have clergy and gentry in power. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.8.53.28 (talk) 15:07, 4 July 2022 (UTC)

Falsifying historical truth for propaganda reasons - presentism.
This was a left wing political party. Of course it was: it represented merchants, peasants and workers. The right wing in the Kaiserreisch were a literal emperor and a literal aristocracy (literal right wing by the French Revolution standards, which were the only standards of left vs right in 1800s). In the 19th century Germany just like in the 18th/19th century France, everyone was antisemitic. The division between the left and the right did not center on issues important to late 20th / 21st century people. It centered on the rights of the lower classes versus the privileges and the rights of the aristocracy and the royalty. You have to remember that in the 19th century it was considered normal to call the army to murder striking workers. The left had issues to resolve that do not exist today.

Presentism (holding people of the past to the current standards) dictated the author of this entry to falsify the historical truth for ideological reasons: a rather ridiculous idea that the fact that the left wing had different ideological priorities in 1890s Germany somehow reflects poorly on the left wing in the USA of 2022.

It would be better to write the truth and explain the historical context of said truth.

BTW, Soviets did not have particularly warm feelings toward Jews either: in Katyn Forest they massacred over 2300 Jewish intellectuals and entrepreneurs for a crime of having (at least) a high school diploma. The idea that antisemitism is bad did not enter the general consciousness of the West until after WW2 was over and the enormity of the genocide perpetrated by the German state was known. 2A01:113F:4110:D700:A5AF:CC3B:F321:8B4B (talk) 02:00, 30 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Saying that a Wikipedia editor -- any Wikipedia editor, even in unnamed -- is "falsifying history" is a personal attack, which is not allowed, which is odd, considering how forgiving you are of antisemitism in the German Empire, sounding like a little kid explaining their bad behavior to their parents: but everyone was doing it. Yes, standards of morality do change over time, but hatred and oppression of a specific group of people has always been immoral. Beyond My Ken (talk) 05:23, 30,November 2022 (UTC)