August Dreesbach (13 August 1844 – 25 November 1906) was a German shop owner, concentrating on cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products, who became a political agitator and then a politician, a political journalist and a pioneer of what became the country's Social Democratic Party (SPD). As Bismarck's contentious anti-Socialist Laws were allowed to lapse during 1890, Dreesbach was elected to membership of the ”Reichstag” (imperial parliament) in Berlin in February 1890, representing the electoral district of Mannheim. He remained a member, albeit with a break between 1893 and 1898, until his death, by which time he was among the best known of the SPD leaders on the national stage. It was estimated that 30,000 people took part in his funeral and cremation ceremonies, conducted in Mannh