In 1899, Germany was an empire. Industrial production experienced a tremendous structural upswing in the last decades of the 19th century, interrupted only by a few minor economic crises. The proportion of workers in the population grew steadily. The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) was their party. Together with the trade unions, it led the class struggles of the time. It seemed only a matter of time when the SPD would bring the working class to power and socialism would be built. But within the SPD there were different opinions on how to achieve this goal. In 1897/1898, Eduard Bernstein published the series of essays "Problems of Socialism" in the "Neue Zeit." In it, he put forward the thesis that it was possible to raise the standard of living of the broad population under capitalism.