tendentious novels (Tendenzromane)openedupanimaginary space wherepub-
lic and privatefeelingscould become one, and which in the political memoirs
relied on empathetic identificationtodrawreadersinto the utopianworlds of so-
cialism.The resultwas adistinctly Social Democraticversion of working-class
masculinity:marked by suffering,motivated by indignation, and united in the
demand for recognition.It will be the main purpose of this chapter based on
these preliminary remarks to identify some of the constitutive elements ofaso-
cialist discourse of male sentimentality thathas been forgotten in favorofthe
equation of proletarian identifications with militant masculinity sinceWorld
WarI.
The opening quotation fromBebelillustrates well how his deeplyfelt sense
of injusticebecameapolitical emotion through highlygenderedscenarios–in
this case, the separation from his wife and children and his inability to provide
for the family.Described as an experience of emasculation, his imprisonment ex-
poses the abyss between his sense of self and his understanding of the world,
ultimatelydrawing attention to the conditionsthat produce social and economic
inequalities. Read in more optimistic terms,his reminiscencesalsoattest to the
growingstrength of civil society–and,ofcourse, of Social Democracybothof
which made possiblethe publicationofhis thoughts. More specifically, Bebel’s
personal perspectivesonfelt injustices, large and small, would have been seen
as bothameasure of, andatool in, the workers’long fight for equality.His pre-
sentation of sufferingasasign ofmoralauthority andasourceofpolitical
strength attestedto the growingconfidence of the workers’movement and its
ability toappropriateexisting definitions of right andwrong for an emerging so-
cialist morality.Articulated in oppositiontodominant society and mainstream
culture,“hatred, bitterness,and resentment”and its political alternatives of
hope, unity,and solidarity thus became part of what,from the perspective of
hindsight,can be called the emotional archivesofanemerging proletarian pub-
lic sphere.
InAusmeinem Leben(1910–1914,My Life), Bebel for the most part recounts
the internal and external struggles of the SPDwith little attention to his private
life. Nonetheless,the apparent bracketingofthe personal does not mean that
emotionswerenot essentialto the promotion of socialism asanew wayof
life, namelyasasolutionto the psychological wounds caused by oppression
and exploitation in capitalist society.Asthe author of the widelyreadDie
Frau und der Sozialismus(1878,Women and Socialism), Bebel was wellaware
of the problems of working-class women, marriage, and familylife and, closely
related, the party’sinsufficient attention to what,inMarxistterminology, is
sometimesreferredto as the subjective factor.Onthe one hand,heacknowl-
edgedthe power of political emotionswhen he described the ideal socialist lead-
68 Chapter3