Viktor Adler

Born June 24, 1852; died Nov. 11, 1918. One of the leaders of the Austrian social democratic movement. Parliamentary deputy in the Reichsrat from 1905.

Adler began his political activity in a pan-German organization. In 1883 he became interested in problems relating to the workers’ movement and moved closer to social democracy. He met twice with F. Engels (1883 and 1889) and corresponded with him (1889–95). He was one of the main authors of the draft program of the Austrian Social Democratic Party which was accepted by the constituent congress in Hainfeld (Dec. 31, 1888–Jan. 1, 1889). Adler made great efforts to overcome the schism in the Austrian social democratic movement and to create a unified party. He played a prominent role in organizing the mass movement of Austrian workers and in the movement for universal suffrage (which triumphed in 1907). But on a number of important party policies, including the national question, Adler strayed to reformist positions. At the start of the imperialist war of 1914–18, his views were close to those of the German social chauvinists; later he began to lean toward centrism and criticize their policy from a Kautskyite standpoint. However, the main target of Adler’s criticism was the left wing of German social democracy (K. Liebknecht and R. Luxemburg). In November 1918, Adler served briefly as the Austrian government’s minister of foreign affairs.