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Otto Bauer (September 5, 1881 - July 4, 1938) was an Austrian Social Democrat who is considered one of the leading thinkers of the left socialist Austro-Marxist tendency. He was also an early inspiration for both the for New Left movement and Eurocommunim, in their attempt to find a "Third way" to democratic socialism.
Having studied at the University of Vienna, Bauer finished his PhD in Law in 1906 and published his first book, Die Sozialdemokratie und die Nationalitätenfrage, in 1907. Although he was politically active during his studies, his gradual rise in the Austrian Social Democratic Party began after he had finished his PhD. He founded Der Kampf, the theoretical journal of the party in 1907, and between 1907 and 1914 he was secretary of the party. In this period Bauer was able to establish himself as a likely successor to Viktor Adler as party leader.
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Captured on the Eastern Front in the early months of the World War I, Bauer spent three years as a prisoner of war in Russia, returning to Austria in 1917. After Viktor Adler's death in 1918, Bauer became leader of the Austrian Social Democratic Party. From November 1918 to July 1919, the Austrian Social Democrats formed a coalition government with the Christian Social Party, and Otto Bauer was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.
When Engelbert Dollfuss, with the assistance of elements of the Christian Social Party and the Heimwehr, installed an authoritarian, corporatist dictatorship in 1933, the activities of the Austrian Social Democrats were severely curtailed. Following the Social Democrats' failed uprising in February, 1934, Otto Bauer was forced into exile. He continued to organize the Austrian Social Democrats' resistance first from Brno, Czechoslovakia, and later from Paris, France. He continued his literary and theoretical work until his death.
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