IParl joined expert conference on the work of the SPD’s parliamentary group
by OK
Due to the Covid19 pandemic, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung’s expert conference on the Social Democratic parliamentary party group in the German Bundestag could only be held virtually. Although the usual face-to-face coffee break conversations were missing, the conference was a major success. After welcoming speeches by the FES’s chairperson, Kurt Beck, and the current leader of the party group in the Bundestag, Dr. Rolf Mützenich, Prof. Dr. Uwe Jun (University of Trier) hold the key note speech.
It was followed by 19 presentations that touched such different facets as the SPD in the multi-level system during the German Empire, the myth of the legendary PPG chair Herbert Wehner or women underrepresenation. For all participants, the conference’s compilation of both historians and political scientists proved to be very instructive as it led to inspiring thoughts and discussions.
Within the panel “persons, actors, roles”, Danny Schindler presented data drawn from our recently launched SOPiP project that deals with PPG standing orders in a comparative perspective. Looking at the SPD in the German Bundestags, he revealed that its rules of procedure have increased tremendously. More important, changing the rules regularly led to shifts of power towards and within the leadership bodies. The panel overview as well the papers can be found here.
