Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD), one of the West’s oldest and most storied political forces, has long stood as a pillar of social democracy. From its opposition to Nazism to its role in rebuilding postwar Germany, the SPD has historically been at the forefront of progressive labor, economic, and human rights reforms. Under the leadership of figures like Willy Brandt, whose “Ostpolitik” laid the groundwork for German reunification, the party helped shape the modern German state. However, the results of Germany’s recent federal election paint a starkly different picture of the SPD’s standing today.

Winning only 16.4 percent of the vote, the party has been eclipsed by both the conservative Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). This precipitous decline raises urgent questions about the future of social democracy, not only in Germany but across the Western world. How did the SPD reach this point, and what does its electoral collapse suggest about the broader trajectory of left-wing politics?

The SPD’s decline did not begin overnight. While the party enjoyed strong support in the late 20th century, winning nearly 41 percent of the vote in 1998, its grip on the electorate has weakened significantly since the early 2000s. The seeds of this downturn were sown during the tenure of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, whose “Agenda 2010” and “Hartz” labor market reforms alienated much of the party’s working-class base.

Schröder’s economic policies-aimed at reducing unemployment by liberalizing labor laws and cutting social welfare programs-were rooted in neoliberal orthodoxy, but they fractured the party’s traditional alliance with trade unions and working-class voters. The reforms also prompted Oskar Lafontaine, a former SPD leader and popular finance minister, to defect and form a left-wing political alliance that later became Die Linke. This defection further drained SPD........

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