Revisionist currents (from the 1890s)

In the late 1880s, the theorist Eduard Bernstein, who had been a friend of Engels, attempted to develop a critique of the supposed certainty and “laws” of economic development (progressive class polarisation, “impoverishment” and “collapse”).

The aim was to provide the SPD’s manifesto with a reformist line; Bernstein was staunchly criticised by Kautzky.