ABSTRACT
Robert Michels was born in Cologne to a Catholic manufacturing family of GermanItalian-French heritage. Quitting the Prussian army in 1904, he moved to Marburg and started his academic career. Between 1903 and 1907 he was an active member of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) while maintaining close contact with French syndicalists like Sorel and Lagardelle. Michels criticized the SPD for its moderation despite its revolutionary rhetoric and advanced a syndicalist alternative, favouring class struggle through extra-parliamentary working-class organizations, utilizing agitation and strikes.
