DOMELA NIEUWENHUIS, FERDINAND

(1846–1919)

   Socialist and anarchist politician. In 1879, Domela resigned as a minister of the Lutheran Church and became active in the Freethinkers move ment. In 1881, he founded the Sociaal-Democratische Bond (Social ist Democratic Association). He was a charismatic propagandist of socialist ideas in speeches and in writing, especially in the newspa per Recht voor Allen (Justice for all). In 1888, he was the first So cialist to be elected to Parliament, holding office until 1891. During the 1890s, a crisis in the socialist movement between the democrats, who preferred fundamental changes in society by parliamentary means, and disappointed socialists, such as Domela who sympa thized with anarchism, led to the secession of the Democratic Social ists. The Sociaal Democratische Arbeiderspartij (SDAP, Socialist Democratic Labor Party) was founded in 1894 by Pieter Jelles Troelstra and others. Domela played a role in the international so cialist and anarchist movement. He corresponded with Friedrich En gels, Wilhelm Liebknecht, August Bebel, and Pyotr Kropotkin. He was a prolific publicist, his most important theoretical publication in French being Le socialisme en danger(1897). In Dutch, he wrote De Geschiedenis van het socialisme [The History of Socialism, 1901–1902] and his memoirs, Van Christen tot Anarchist [From Christian to Anarchist, 1910]. His Frisian surname was “Us Fer losser” (Our Saviour).