thumb|250px|Spur Museum in [[Cham, Germany.]]
Gruppe SPUR was an artistic collaboration formed by the German painters Heimrad Prem, Helmut Sturm, and Hans-Peter Zimmer, and the sculptor Lothar Fischer in 1957. They published a journal of the same name Spur.
Spur was subject to prosecution and was convicted "in the name of moral order". This split however was not a declaration of hostilities, as in other cases of SI exclusions. A few months after the exclusion, in the context of Judicial prosecution against the group by the German state, Debord expressed his esteem to the Spur group, calling it the only significant artistic group in Germany since WW2, and at the level of the avant-gardes in other countries. However, after the exclusion and split, the two groups remained distinct and separated, and each was only responsible for its autonomous actions.
The first contact with Situationist International happened through Asger Jorn. Jorn, one of the most prominent members of the SI, discovered the SPUR-paintings at a gallery managed by art dealer Otto Van de Loo. Later on, the Spur members come to join and became members of the Situationist International, forming the majority of the members of the German section of the SI.
A major point of divergence came up from the Spur group during The Fourth SI Conference in London (December 1960). The discussion of a report by Attila Kotányi, leads to posing the question: "To what extent is the SI a political movement?" Various responses state that the SI is political, but not in the ordinary sense. The discussion becomes somewhat confusing. Debord proposes, to bring out the opinion of the Conference, that each person responds in writing to a questionnaire asking if he considers that there are "forces in the society that the SI can count on? What forces? In what conditions?" This questionnaire is agreed upon and filled out. When, a day later, the Spur members present a joint response to the questionnaire, in which they reject the concept of a proletarian revolution, it generates a sharp debate:
This position was critiqued by Debord, Nash, Kotányi, and Jorn. The majority of the S.I. seems to be against it, and the Spur members are asked to formalize their position so it can be brought to a vote. But, when the Spur group returned from their deliberation, they retract the preceding declaration. of Spur, the following issue #7 was printed five months later without Kotányi and de Jong's knowledge. Issue #7 featured considerable divergences with the SI ideas, marking a distinct regression from the preceding #5 and #6 issues. These events led the following month, February 1962, to the exclusion from the SI of those responsible. that they were using the Situationists to succeed on the art market