The SPD conference in Saxony in 1924 had called for the cooperation with the state government to be terminated, but a significant number of deputies in the Landtag disobeyed the decision.
[4][6][7] The dispute between the leftwing of SPD and the rightist parliamentarian wing (which formed the 'Old Social Democratic Party') in Saxony was labelled the Sachsenkonflikt.
[4] In the summer of 1926 all members of the Old Social Democratic Party were purged from the SPD mass organizations, such as the Socialist Workers Youth.
Soon after the foundation of the party, it began redefining itself, from viewing itself as the moderate wing of the German Social Democracy to a 'proletarian nationalist' ideological position (in contrast to the 'internationalist' and 'anti-state' SPD).
[9][10] The Volkstaat editor Ernst Niekisch (later a prominent National Bolshevik), whose influence within the party grew, was the architect of this process.
[4][9] Niekisch's national revolutionary line was supported by Heldt, but others in the party leadership (Wilhelm Buck and Karl Bethke) opposed it.
[4] The party was joined by August Winnig (former president of East Prussia), who had been expelled from the SPD for involvement in the Kapp Putsch.
However, this decision was soon reverted and the Old Social Democratic Party politician Georg Elsner was reinstated as Minister of Employment and Welfare.