Bismarck's anti-socialist laws

The publication of Engels' Anti-Dühring and the quick dissemination of its main ideas was but one of several reasons for the inordinately swift enshrinement of revolutionary Marxism as the gospel of the German labor movement. The tumultuous 1880s provided three additional elements needed for the ultimate triumph of Marxist doctrine: firstly, possessing the necessary instincts required for organizational success, young Marxists like Eduard Bernstein easily acquired the key theoretical and political positions of the rapidly expanding labor movement. Secondly, and more importantly, the eventual hegemony of Marxist ideology was the unintended result of the Bismarck government's political persecution of social democracy. Thirdly, Germany's prolonged economic recession coupled with the political decline of German liberalism seemed to bear out Marx's grand vision. Indeed, Marxist ideology would have never planted its roots so firmly into the soil of German social democracy had not the actual socioeconomic conditions in the 1880s corresponded to its revolutionary message.

In 1878, Chancellor Bismarck used two assassination attempts on the Kaiser to create a frantic political climate which allowed him – with the votes of the national-liberals – to introduce a set of so-called “anti-socialist laws,” outlawing public meetings of the SPD and closing down most of its party publications.