“Performing Inter-Nationalism” in Stuttgart in 1907: French and German Socialist Nationalism and the Political Culture of an International Socialist Congress

Abstract

The emphasis on ritual, political symbolism and public display at international socialist congresses highlights important cultural dimensions of the Second International that historians have, until now, left unexplored. From 1904 until the International Socialist Congress of Stuttgart in 1907, French and German socialists articulated – in both symbolic and discursive forms – a socialist nationalism within the framework of internationalism. The Stuttgart congress represented a public spectacle that served a cultural function for international socialism. The international performance at Stuttgart was, however, undermined by the inability of the SFIO and the SPD to reconcile their conflicting conceptions of “inter-nationalism”.