Person

Ferdinand Lassalle

1825–1864 · 19th century · Also known as Ferdinand Johann Gottlieb Lassalle, Lassal

Ferdinand Lassalle was a German jurist, philosopher and socialist activist, an initiator of the social democratic movement in Germany. Born in Breslau to a prosperous Jewish family, he took part in the revolutions of 1848 and had a complex, often antagonistic relationship with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In 1863 he founded the General German Workers' Association, the first independent German workers' party, which sought socialism through state-aided producers' co-operatives won by universal suffrage, and he negotiated secretly with Otto von Bismarck. He was killed in a duel in 1864; in 1875 his party merged into the Social Democratic Party of Germany.

Ferdinand Lassalle
Image: Philipp Graff · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 3 profiles

Labour movementPeopleSocialismideas, SummarySocial democracyOrigins, Summary

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Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Ferdinand Lassalle. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ferdinand-lassalle
MLA
“Ferdinand Lassalle.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ferdinand-lassalle. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Ferdinand Lassalle.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ferdinand-lassalle.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Ferdinand Lassalle’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/ferdinand-lassalle (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻