Willy Brandt joins the SAP

After 1930 Willy Brandt increasingly distances himself politically from the SPD, , which appears to him to be insufficiently militant in the battles against National Socialism and for the realization of the goals of Socialism. In 1931 the Socialist Workers Party of Germany (SAP) is founded at a "National Conference of Opposition Social Democrats" in Berlin. The SAP differentiates itself from the SPD and also from the German Communist Party (the KPD ).

Willy Brandt liest die Zeitung "Kampfsignal" ©Willy-Brandt-Archiv

Willy Brandt joins the SAP. The party wants to establish a united front of the German workers' movement against National Socialism. However, the SAP is unable to prevail as a movement of the "New Left"; it remains a splinter party.

In Lübeck, Willy Brandt's hometown, only a few members leave the SPD. However, under Brandt's influence about a quarter of the members of the Socialist Workers' Youth (SAJ) join the SAP.

At the Reichstag elections in July 1932 the party gains what is for Brandt a disappointing 0.2 percent of the total votes. Because of his resignation from the SPD Brandt loses a prospective university scholarship; he is also relieved of his position on the Lübecker Volksboten newspaper.
After the National Socialists seize power in January 1933, the SAP and all other political parties were outlawed. The Party leaders decide to liquidate the SAP. A few members of the left wing of the party under the leadership of Jakob Walchers determine to continue the political work of the SAP underground. Willy Brandt joins this group.