How successful were the German governments in dealing with the threat of the SPD from 1878-1914?

won 2 seats in the Reichstag in 1871: in 1877 it had 12 seats, showing that support was slowly growing for the socialist ideals. However, socialists were not as strong or as revolutionary as Bismarck feared and they liked to appear. In 1876 Bismarck tried to pass a bill preventing the publication of socialist propaganda, as well as other measures to prosecute the SPD, however both failed to get through the Reichstag. Bismarck knew that an attack on socialism would strengthen Germany's ties with Russia and Austria, who were intenten on suppressing international revolutionary movements, and after 2 assasination attempts on the Emperor in 1878 provided Bismarck the perfect oppurtunity to take advantage of public alarm, to whip up anti-socialist feelings. His persuasion that the SPD were a major source of disloyalty, led the Reichstag to pass the Anti-Socialist law in 1878, which declared that social democratic meetings and publications were banned. However, Bismarck did not get to actually ban the Social Democratics as a party, as the fierce opposition led by the National Liberals, meant that members could still take part in elections and sit in the Reichstag. This backfired on Bismarck, as the law deprived many people of their livelyhoods, meaning industirial workers were left feeling like the state was unsympathetic towards them and supporters of the SPD began to increase in numbers. The number of seats for the SPD rose from 9 to 35 in 1890, and the number of people voting went from over 437 thousand in 1878 to just under 1 and a half million in 1890. In a realisation that repression did not work, Bismarks 'plan b' was to give the people some socialism - including 3 key reforms of medical insurance in 1883, accident insurance in 1884 and old age insurance in 1889, in the hope that his 'carot and the stick' method - carrot as the way to get the people off socialism, and the stick was beating them with the anti-socialist law; would leave the people content. Although, the Anti-socialist law lapsed with the arrival of the new Kaiser WIlhem II, who believed that workers could be won over by more social insurance schemes.  Bismarcks repressive measures helped to increase support for the SPD and ensured that moderate and revolutionary socialists remained united, succeeding the opposite of what he intended. Chancellor Von Caprivi 1890-1894, set out a 'new course', which allowed social reforms to be created to reconcile the worjking classes with the esablished order, and also let the Anti-Socialist Bill lapse. Instead he introduced a series of reforms to reduce social tension and in an attempt to curb support away from socialism. However, this led to his downfall as the conservative Junkers disapproved of Caprivi's decisions. As Caprivi refused to introduce an Anti-Socialist subversion bill, Phillipp zu Eulenburg encouraged Wilhelm to present the bill to the Reichstag, and this led to Caprivi's departure. Hohenlohe-Schillingsfurst was seen as nothing more than a figureheaded chancellor, which led the Kaiser to attempt the Subversion Bill in 1894, and the Anti Union Bill in 1899 - though these both got thrown out by the Reichstag. This led to a new policy known as the Sammlungspolitik, which was intended to rouse nationalist sympathies and bring the land owners and industrialists together in the face of the threat of socialism.