Dictionary of Meaning
<<Back
Please select a letter:
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
H |
I |
J |
K |
L |
M |
N |
O |
P |
Q |
R |
S |
T |
U |
V |
W |
X |
Y |
Z |
0-9
Click here for Shopping
Communist Party of Germany
*** Shopping-Tip: Communist Party of Germany
:''This article deals with the original KPD. For information on later groups using the same name, see
Communist Party of Germany (disambiguation).''
Image:1932-kpd.jpg thumb|right|230px|1932 KPD poster, "End This System"
The '''Communist Party of Germany''' (
German language German '''Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands''' – '''KPD''') was a major political party in
Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in
West Germany in the postwar period. Founded in the aftermath of the
First World War by socialists inspired by the
Russian Revolution, the party was committed to
Marxism-Leninism, and in the 1930s was completely loyal to the the
Soviet Union and its leader
Joseph Stalin. During the
Weimar Republic period, the KPD usually polled between 10 and 15% of the vote and was represented in the
Reichstag and in state parliaments. Banned by the
Nazi regime of
Adolf Hitler, the KPD maintained an underground organisation but suffered heavy losses. The party was revived in postwar Germany and won seats in the first
Bundestag elections in 1949, but its support collapsed after the establishment of a
Communist state in
East Germany. It was banned in West Germany in 1956 and was in effect wound up in 1969, when a new, legal
German Communist Party (DKP) was formed.
Early history
Before the First World War the
Social Democratic Party of Germany Social Democratic Party (SPD) was the largest party in Germany and the most successful socialist party in the world. Although still officially a Marxist party, by 1914 it had become in practice a reformist party. In 1914 the SPD members of the Reichstag voted in favour of the war. Left-wing members of the party, led by
Karl Liebknecht and
Rosa Luxemburg, bitterly opposed the war, and the SPD soon suffered a split, with the lefists forming the
USPD Independent Social Democratic Party of
Germany (USPD) and the more radical
Spartacist League. When the war ended in German defeat in November 1918, revolution broke out across Germany. Inspired by the Russian Revolution, the leftists formed the KPD in December 1918.
In its early years the KPD was committed to an armed workers' revolution in Germany, and during 1919 and 1920 revolutionary disturbances continued. But the majority Social Democrats, who had come to power after the fall of the old regime, hated the revolutionary socialists and brought in the army to suppress them. During the failed
Spartacist Uprising in
Berlin of January 1919, Liebknecht and Luxemburg were killed. The party then split into two factions, the KPD and the
Communist Workers Party of Germany (KAPD), both proclaiming loyalty to the
Communist International in
Moscow.
Following the split with KAPD,
Paul Levi became the KPD leader. Other prominent members included
Leo Jogiches,
Clara Zetkin,
Paul Levi,
Paul Frolich,
Willi Münzenberg,
Franz Mehring and
Ernst Meyer. Levi led the party away from the policy of immediate revolution, in an effort to win over SPD and USPD workers. These efforts were rewarded when a substantial section of the USPD joined the KPD, making it a mass party for the first time.
Through the 1920s the KPD was racked by internal conflict between more and less radical factions, partly reflecting the power struggles between
Leon Trotsky Trotsky and
Joseph Stalin Stalin in Moscow. Germany was seen as being of central importance to the struggle for socialism, and the failure of the German revolution was a major setback. Eventually Levi was expelled by the
Comintern for "indiscipline." Further leadership changes took place in the early 1920s, and supporters of Trotsky such as
Heinrich Brandler and
August Thalheimer, set up a splinter
Communist Party Opposition.
The Weimar Republic years
In 1923 a new KPD leadership was installed loyal to the rising
Stalin faction in Soviet Union. This leadership, headed by
Ernst Thälmann, abandoned the goal of immediate revolution, and from 1924 onwards contested Reichstag elections, with some success. Although the KPD advocated a "united front" during this period, it remained deeply hostile to the SPD. In 1928 Stalin launched a new "leftist" policy, which the KPD loyally followed. This so-called
Third Period policy held that capitalism was entering a deep crisis and the time for a revolution was approaching fast. The SPD was denounced as "
social fascist" and any suggestion of co-operating with it was rejected.
During the years of the
Weimar republic the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe, and was seen as the "leading party" of the communist movement outside the Soviet Union. It maintained a solid electoral performance, usually polling more than 10% of the vote, and gaining 100 deputies in the November
1932 elections. In the presidential election of the same year, Thälmann took 13.2% of the vote, compared to Hitler's 30.1%.
However the "social fascism" policy meant that there was no possibility of a united front with the SPD against the rising power of the
Nazism Nazis. Both the KPD and Stalin disastrously miscalculated the Nazi threat, assuming that the Nazis were no immediate threat and that a Nazi regime would quickly collapse. Many in the KPD thought the fall of the "bourgeois" Weimar Republic would be a good thing and that Hitler would be the "ice-breaker of the revolution." There was even some collaboration between the KPD and the Nazis against the SPD government in
Prussia, Germany's largest state.
The Nazi era
Soon after the appointment of Hitler as Chancellor, the
Reichstag fire Reichstag was set on fire. The Nazis publicly blamed the fire on Communist agitators (though many historians believe that the Nazis themselves set the fire). They used the fire as a pretext to introduce laws enabling suppression of political parties. The
Enabling Act, which legally gave Hitler dictatorial control of Germany, was passed by a Reichstag session held after the Communist deputies had been arrested and jailed.
The KPD was thoroughly suppressed by the Nazis. Thousands of Communists were imprisoned, including Thälmann, who died in a
concentration camp. The most senior KPD leader to escape was
Walter Ulbricht, who went into exile in the Soviet Union. The KPD maintained an underground organisation in Germany throughout the Nazi period, sustained by ideological conviction in the face of Nazi terror, but the loss of many core members severely weakened the party. In 1945 many of the KPD's strongest areas were placed in the Soviet Zone of Occupation, where the behaviour of the occupiers soon alienated many prewar KPD voters.
Postwar history
In East Germany, the KPD (led by Walter Ulbricht) absorbed some elements of the eastern SPD and was renamed the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany Socialist Unity Party (SED), which became the ruling party in East Germany until
1990. After the KPD was banned in West Germany, the SED planted spies such as
Günter Guillaume in the west. A small sister party of the SED, the
Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin, operated in the west. After German reunification, reformist elements in the SED won control of the party and refounded it as the
Left Party (Germany) Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS).
The KPD reorganised in the western part of Germany, and received 5.7% of the vote in the
German federal election, 1949 first Bundestag election in 1949. But the onset of the
Cold War and imposition of a communist dictatorship in
East Germany soon caused a collapse in the party's support. At the
German federal election, 1953 1953 election the KPD only won 2.2 percent of the total votes and lost all of its seats. The party was banned in
1956 by the
Federal Constitutional Court of Germany. After the party was declared illegal, many of its members continued to function clandestinely but faced government interference. Part of its membership later refounded the party in
1968 as the
German Communist Party (DKP), which still exists. Following
German reunification, however, many DKP members joined the new PDS.
External links
-
Losing the Battle of the Streets, Reflections on the KPD, 1930-33
Category:Communist parties in Europe
Category:Weimar Republic
de:Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
ko:��공산당
cs:Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
fr:Parti communiste d'Allemagne
no:Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
zh:德国共产党
*** Shopping-Tip: Communist Party of Germany
