Ferdinand Lassalle (1825-1864) was the main initiator in the founding of the General German Workers' Association (ADAV), the first workers' organization in the German-speaking world. The association, founded in 1863, later gave rise to the SPD. Initially friends with Karl Marx, the two increasingly fell out: While Marx adhered to his concept of the revolutionary overthrow of capitalism, the democratically oriented Lassalle hoped for improvement through cooperative and political self-organization of the workers. In addition to his political interests, the talented speaker and skilled lawyer, who fell victim to a duel, pursued literary and philosophical interests throughout his life. The portrayal of his life by the well-known Danish writer Georg Brandes (1842-1927) is both a political biography and a literary character study.