Schweitzer, Johann Baptist

Born July 12, 1833, in Frankfurt am Main; died July 28, 1875, in Giessbach, near Bern, Switzerland. Figure in the German working-class movement.

Schweitzer was a lawyer by profession. Influenced by F. Lassalle’s ideas, he joined the Lassallean General German Workers’ Association and became one of its leaders. He actively supported O. von Bismarck on the question of unifying Germany under Prussian hegemony. Schweitzer’s political line led to the growth of an oppositional wing in the association; some of the members of the opposition broke with Lassalleanism and joined the Social Democratic Workers’ Party (the Eisenachers).