Eduard Bernstein

Eduard Bernstein (1850 to 1932) was a German Social Democrat whose 1899 book Evolutionary Socialism argued against Karl Marx's prediction of capitalism's imminent collapse, holding instead that the condition of the working class was improving and that socialism could be achieved gradually, through elections and trade unions rather than revolution. Known as the father of revisionism, his position was officially rejected by the German Social Democratic Party at the time but shaped the practical, reformist current that became social democracy.