The Social Political Party (Austrian German: Sozialpolitische Partei) was a liberal party of social reform intellectuals founded in Vienna in 1896. From 1896 to 1919 it was of greater political importance, especially in Vienna and Lower Austria.
The concerns of bourgeois social reform, equality before the law, equalization of social tensions, women's emancipation, etc., as represented by the Fabian Society in United Kingdom, also found an echo in Austria-Hungary. The founding of the "Wiener Fabier-Gesellschaft" (Fabian Society of Vienna) in 1893 was followed in 1896 by that of the Social Political Party. This party founding by the Viennese Fabians can also be seen as an attempt to renew the liberal camp against the onslaught of Karl Lueger's Sociochristians, who were fighting for political power in Vienna at the time with massive anti-Semitic slogans. Despite an impressive start with a large election meeting in the large hall of the Musikverein on 28 October 1896, the new party was never able to assert itself in the emerging age of mass parties and remained a respected or (because of its anti-clericalism) rudely opposed party of dignitaries.
Eva Holleis: Die sozialpolitische Partei. Sozialliberale Bestrebungen in Wien um 1900, München 1978
Alexander Emanuely: Das Beispiel Colbert. Fin de siècle und Republik oder die vergessenen Ursprünge der Zivilgesellschaft in Österreich. Ein dokumentarischer Essay. Theodor Kramer Gesellschaft, Wien 2020.
