Kautsky, Benedikt

Born Nov. 1, 1894, in Stuttgart; died Apr. 1, 1960, in Vienna. One of the leaders and ideologists of the German Social Democratic movement. The son of Karl Kautsky.

In 1919, Benedikt Kautsky was secretary of state for foreign affairs, and in 1921, he was secretary of the chamber of employees. From 1920, he occupied responsible posts in the Social Democratic Party of Austria. After the seizure of Austria by the Nazis he was arrested, and he spent the years 1938–45 in concentration camps. In 1951 he became a leader of the school of economics of the chamber of employees in Graz. In maintaining the concepts of rightwing Social Democracy concerning the transformation of capitalism, Kautsky asserted that “socialism no longer needs to carry out the expropriation of the capitalists, because this task has been taken on by the managers.” Kautsky was the principal author of the reformist program of the Social Democratic Party of Austria (1958).