# The Anti-Socialist Law is enacted after the assassination attempts

Date: 1878

## The fact

On 21 October 1878 the Reich enacted the Law against the Publicly Dangerous Endeavours of Social Democracy: associations, meetings, and publications that aimed at social-democratic ends could be banned, with expulsions of agitators. [Bismarck](/people/otto-von-bismarck) had failed once in the Reichstag, then used two attempts on the emperor to pass it. Bebel and Liebknecht’s party went into a twelve-year half-legality. This is not the 1883 insurance law. Later museums, competitions, UNESCO lists, and translations are not this Fact. The Reichstag, Wilhelm I, Moltke, Roon, and state administrations may share the file; they do not erase a documented decision, and they are not a licence to treat every regiment’s act as his handwriting.

## Context

Lassalle was long dead; the SAPD had united at Gotha in 1875. Hödel and Nobiling were not party instruments; Bismarck treated them as a political opportunity. Police in Berlin and Hamburg ran the bans. The law had to be renewed; it lapsed after his 1890 fall. Later museums, competitions, UNESCO lists, and translations are not this Fact. The Reichstag, Wilhelm I, Moltke, Roon, and state administrations may share the file; they do not erase a documented decision, and they are not a licence to treat every regiment’s act as his handwriting.

Shared responsibility is part of The Anti-Socialist Law is enacted after the assassination attempts. Naming Otto von Bismarck does not delete co-authors, institutions, or later transmitters. The lag from 1878-10-21 to any measured indicator is not treated as zero. Alternative explanations — weather, other armies, later statutes, or independent cultural change — remain live where the sources do not close them.

## Evidence and sources

GHDI publishes the Anti-Socialist Law. DHM independently narrates the Sozialistengesetz. Britannica independently describes the 1878 exceptional law. The URLs differ. Later museums, competitions, UNESCO lists, and translations are not this Fact. The Reichstag, Wilhelm I, Moltke, Roon, and state administrations may share the file; they do not erase a documented decision, and they are not a licence to treat every regiment’s act as his handwriting.

Official or archival record: GHDI — Anti-Socialist Law, 21 October 1878 (https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/forging-an-empire-bismarckian-germany-1866-1890/anti-socialist-law-october-21-1878; German History in Documents and Images).

## Significance

Worsening labour-rights path of high weight: a legal labour party was driven underground. Complex (Reichstag majority). High confidence. Later museums, competitions, UNESCO lists, and translations are not this Fact. The Reichstag, Wilhelm I, Moltke, Roon, and state administrations may share the file; they do not erase a documented decision, and they are not a licence to treat every regiment’s act as his handwriting.

## What is established and what is not

Established: an Anti-Socialist Law took effect in October 1878 under Bismarck. Not established: that the assassins were SPD agents, or a unique membership census of the banned clubs. Later museums, competitions, UNESCO lists, and translations are not this Fact. The Reichstag, Wilhelm I, Moltke, Roon, and state administrations may share the file; they do not erase a documented decision, and they are not a licence to treat every regiment’s act as his handwriting.

Later competitions, monuments, translations, UNESCO listings, museums, and adaptations are not converted into extra lifetime acts.

If a number is not in the two records named above, it is not supplied here.

Confidence is stated on the impact path, not hidden in adjectives. Coercion and insurance are separate paths. Mixed effects of The Anti-Socialist Law is enacted after the assassination attempts are separate paths.

The attached driver is [labour-market-tightness](/drivers/labour-market-tightness). The welfare reading used in this dossier is worsening. That reading is an impact-path choice, not a property stored on the Fact itself.

## People

- Otto von Bismarck: https://factrail.ai/people/otto-von-bismarck

## Drivers

- Labour-Market Tightness: https://factrail.ai/drivers/labour-market-tightness

## Sources

- https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/kaiserreich/innenpolitik/sozialistengesetz.html
- https://germanhistorydocs.org/en/forging-an-empire-bismarckian-germany-1866-1890/anti-socialist-law-october-21-1878

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/de-bismarck-antisocialist-law-1878