communism, German

Revolutionary socialism that emerged in Germany between 1918 and 1933. Inspired by the Russian Bolshevik revolution of 1917, it sought to replace the democratic system of the Weimar Republic with a Soviet-style dictatorship of the proletariat. Although communist uprisings in 1919 and 1920 were crushed, the German Communist Party (KPD) emerged as the fifth largest party in the December 1924 Reichstag elections, with 9% of the popular vote compared to the Nazis' 6.5%. However, support declined over the following years. Although interest in communism re-emerged in the economic recession after 1929, the allegiance of the masses was shifting towards Adolf Hitler and the Nazi party. In 1933, Hitler, now chancellor, banned the KPD. Under the subsequent Nazi state many communists were rounded up and sent to concentration camps.

The communist uprisings The KPD emerged in 1919 from the Spartacus League, a German communist group founded in 1916. In the chaos and economic collapse that followed the end of World War I, the conditions for a communist revolution in Germany seemed perfect. Germany had a highly developed capitalist economy, in which the middle classes had already taken over large sections of the country. According to the theories of Karl Marx, this was part of the necessary process for a communist revolution to succeed - Germany was now ready for the communists to step in and lead the proletarian working classes to revolution. German communists were confident of success, particularly as the Bolsheviks had managed to gain control over Russia, a far less industrialized country and, in theory, less suitable for communist revolution.

In January 1919 the Spartacists, led by Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, staged an attempted coup. They worked with the Independent Social Democrats (UPSD) led by Kurt Eisner. The main impact of the uprising was to force the new German national assembly to move to the town of Weimar, as Berlin had become too dangerous. However, the Social Democrat prime minister Freidrich Ebert used the Nationalist Friekorps, a militia recruited from ex-servicemen by ultra-rightist Prussian officers, to crush the revolt; Liebknecht and Luxemburg were killed.

In February 1919 communists in the German state of Bavaria staged a coup against the democratic government of the Weimar Republic, and in Munich, on 22 February, the communist Soldiers' and Workmen's Council declared the Bavarian Soviet Republic. The communists remained in charge in Munich until May 1919, surviving a counter-coup by the Social Democrats in April, but were eventually suppressed by the Freikorps.

The Spartacus League became the German Communist Party (KPD) in 1919 but boycotted the Reichstag elections that year. However, the USPD took part, gaining 22 seats. In 1920 the USPD dissolved and the majority of its members joined the KPD. In March 1920 communists in the Ruhr industrial region staged another revolt. On this occasion the socialist government used the army to crush the uprising.

Communism in the political arena The KPD emerged as a powerful national force in the Reichstag elections of May 1924, winning 62 seats. It was the fifth largest party, with twice as many seats as the Nazis. The KPD's stated aim was to overthrow the democratic Weimar Republic and replace it with a Soviet-style proletariat dictatorship. However, the perceived closeness of the KPD to the USSR cost the KPD votes beyond its hardcore of supporters, and the workers supported the Social Democrats (SPD) to a greater extent than the KPD. Although the KPD were strong in some of the trade unions and industries of Germany, the SPD were always stronger.

In the 1925 presidential elections the KPD candidate was party leader Ernst Thalmann, a close associate of the Soviet leader Stalin. He gained around 2 million votes out of the 30 million cast.

Support for the KPD fell between 1925 and 1929, the golden years of the Weimar Republic, and their representation in the Reichstag fell to 54 seats in the 1928 election. The communists were unable to convince the workers of Germany to support their calls for a workers' revolution at a time of low unemployment and relative prosperity. However, the economic slump of the late 1920s and early 1930s, and subsequent rise in unemployment (from less than 1 million in 1928 to 6 million in 1932), sparked a resurgence of support for the communists.

The shift to Nazism In the 1930 Reichstag elections, although the KPD gained 77 seats, in percentage terms the communists had no more seats than in May 1924 - 13%. Despite the seeming collapse of the capitalist system the communists were unable to make strong gains. The support of the unemployed and disillusioned German masses was shifting to the Nazis, who were offering many of the social programmes of the communists along with promises to make Germany a great nation again.

In the first ballot of the presidential election held on 13 March 1932, Thalmann stood again as the Communist candidate and received 32.2% of the vote (nearly 5 million of the 37.65 million votes cast). However, unlike the election of 1925, he was the only left-wing candidate, so attracted many votes from SPD supporters. The combined votes of the right-wing Nationalist Paul Hindenburg (49.6%) and the Nazi party candidate Adolf Hitler (30.1%) were over 30 million. A second ballot on 10 April 1932 reduced Thurman's share of the vote to 10.2% and gave the presidential victory to Hindenburg with a 53% majority. When the ban on the Nazi paramilitary SA (Sturmabteilung) was lifted on 16 June 1932, the KPD faced constant violence and intimidation of its candidates.

In the Reichstag elections of July 1932 the KPD won 89 seats. Although this was 14.6% of the available seats and an increase for the KPD, who gained many working-class votes from the Social Democrats, the Nazi party had won 230 seats in the 608-seat chamber, and were now the largest party in the Reichstag.

The destruction of German communism In January 1933 Hitler was appointed chancellor, and immediately set about the destruction of the KPD. When the Reichstag building burned down in February 1933, a young Dutch communist, Marinus van der Lubbe, was arrested at the scene of the crime and later executed, having confessed to the arson. Van der Lubbe is believed to have acted alone, but the KPD was accused of plotting to overthrow the Weimar Republic, and there is still debate over whether the Nazis were involved in the fire, of which they were the main beneficiaries. The fire was used as a justification for the suspension of many constitutional guarantees and also as an excuse to attack the communists. Many KPD members and candidates were arrested during the election of March 1933. The SA and SS (Schutzstaffel) were used to break up KPD rallies, and the Nazis tore down their election posters. In this atmosphere the KPD lost 19 seats, dropping to 81 seats. They now had less than a third of the seats of the Nazis.

The KPD was banned following the March 1933 election, and when the Enabling Law (granting Hitler's cabinet dictatorial powers) was passed on 24 March 1933, the communists had no legal protection from the Nazi onslaught. Their leaders were rounded up and dispersed among the concentration camps run by the SS. Communist activity continued on a small scale throughout the Nazi dictatorship, but never posed a serious threat to the Nazi state.