Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 February 2009
* This article is based on papers presented at a Conference of the Historical Commission of the SPD, held in Bonn on 15–16 December 1995, and to the conference “The State of Labour and Working Class History in Europe”, held in Amsterdam on 17–18 February 1997. I would like to thank Stefan Bresky, Annette Schuhmann and Anne Sudrow for perusing the text and preparing material for the second section.