Victor Adler (1852-1918) was drawn to politics after witnessing the appalling conditions in the slums of Vienna as a physician. He joined the Social Democrats and founded the Arbeiter-Zeitung in 1889, which he edited until 1918. Adler was the driving force in formulating the Brünner Program, and from 1905 was a deputy in parliament and the Social Democratic Party leader. Adler was tireless in his exposure of exploitation of the working classes and in consequence served various terms of imprisonment. In later years he associated his party with the Crown, which led to the Social Democrats being derided as ‘Kaisersozialisten’. Throughout the 1914-18 War, he supported the State by participating in the suppression of a strike in January 1918. In October 1918, he accepted government office. He died at his desk on  November 11, the last day of the old regime and the first of the new.