During the 20th century, social democracy in Europe experienced profound ideological changes. In Germany, the Godesberg program of November 1959, is considered one of those poignant shifts in European social democratic ideology. Reinventing Social Democracy explores the program’s genesis and offers an original interpretation of both the written text and its subsequent uses.

Using innovative analytical tools underutilized in the examination of social democracy's history, including quantitative history and prosopography, Karim Fertikh analyses the making of political ideas in the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), comparing the configuration under the Republics of Weimar and Bonn. While describing the fabric of Marxism in the 1920s social democrat programs in Germany to better understand the shifts that occurred after the World War II, Fertikh expertly highlights the radical transformation between social democracy to its intellectuals and the end of a monopoly of party intellectuals on the fabrication of social democratic doctrine. Finally, he follows the program through to the 2000s to identify the clear break with the ideological tradition of social democracy.

Reinventing Social Democracy enriches our understanding of the historical and ideological forces that shaped social democracy during that crucial period in European history. A staple for courses on German politics, political parties, history of Germany, history of political ideas.