Chapter 3
EmotionalSocialism and Sentimental Masculinity
BackthenIwas in the mostawful emotional stateimaginable. That they had expelled us,
as if we werevagrants or criminals,and separated us fromour wivesand children, without
duelegal process,Iexperienced asadeathlyinsultthatIwould have avenged ifIhad had
the powertodoso. No trial orverdicthas ever aroused such feelings of hate,bitterness,
and resentment as the annual expulsions,until the rescindingofthe untenable lawbrought
this cruelgame with human livestoanend.August Bebel,Ausmeinem LebenReferringtodeadlyinsults and fantasies ofrevenge,AugustBebel, one of the
founders of the SPD,draws on the confessional tones familiar fromautobio-
graphical writing.Yet here, his references to being overwhelmed by emotionap-
pear ina1910 memoir about the earlyyears of socialism.¹Forlabor historians,
the memoirsofsocialist leaders offer intimate perspectivesonthe difficult con-
ditionsunder which the SPD emergedasapolitical party and massmovement.
These confessional moments shedalight not onlyonthe required individual sac-
rifices but,for the cultural historian, also provide accesstothe conflicting(and
conflicted) views of Social Democrats on the proper place of emotions in the
growingmass movement.The official term used by earlysocialiststodescribe
this phenomenonwasGefühlssozialismus(emotional socialism),atermthat,
on the following pages, will function asaguide through the interior landscape
of the proletarian dream in late nineteenth-century Social Democracy.
The conceptual challenges of describing the proletariat as an emotional
community are considerable, even if the analysis remains limitedto collective
imaginariesrather than social practices or livedexperiences.The samecan be
concluded about the equation of the socialistmovement with specific emotional
regimes (e.g.,harmony, fraternity,solidarity) and the overdeterminedstatus of
the proletariat as the discursive figure through which two social bodies, the
workingclass and the workers’movement,weremeant to become one. There
is no waytodistinguish between feelingsfelt and thoughts remembered, or feel-
ingsand thoughts imagined, affirmed, and evaluated. The agitational, communi-
cative,and performative nature of emotions in social movements adds an addi-
tional layerofmediation thatcan onlybeacknowledgedthrough close attention
to therespectivemodes of representation, that is, the accessibilityofthese emo-
August Bebel,Ausmeinem Leben,3vols.(Stuttgart: Dietz, 1910),3: 183.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110550863-007