Revolutions of 1917–1923 Codexery

Communist Workers' Party of Germany

Anti-parliamentarian left communist party of the Weimar Republic.

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During the Weimar Republic, the anti-parliamentarian left communist party known as the Communist Workers' Party of Germany (KAPD) was active.[1]

Key facts and history

The founding conference in Berlin was attended by 11 delegates from Berlin and 24 from further afield, representing about 38,000 members.[2] The party published a newspaper, Kommunistische Arbeiter-Zeitung, and a weekly, Kommunistische Montags-Zeitung.[3] Within the ISD were those whose political positions were more radical than those of the Spartacus League, which was led by Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht.[4] The KAPD's membership exceeded 43,000 after 1921, and in 1922 it divided into two groups: the Berlin Tendency and the Essen Tendency.[5]

What the research sources say

Bernhard Reichenbach, a former member, stated that during 1919 almost all left politics took place within workers' councils, not in trade unions or parliament.[6] Reichenbach noted that the KAPD believed trade unions were an obstacle to creating a new society and encouraged workers to take direct action independently of unions.[6] He also recounted meeting Lenin in 1921 in the Kremlin, where Lenin explained he had little time to become familiar with revolutionary activity in the West.[6] The party's youth wing, the Kommunistische Arbeiter Jugend, published a "struggle-organ" called Rote Jugend.[7]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Communist Workers' Party of Germany" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: La gauche allemande: Textes du KAPD, de L'AAUD, de L'AAUE et de la KAI (1920–1922), La Vecchia Talpa, Invariance, La Vieille Taupe, 1973, p2 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Communist Workers' Party of Germany" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Bericht Über Den Gründungsparteitag Der KAPD Am 4. und 5. April 1920 in Berlin", Kommunistischen Arbeiterpartei Deutschlands, 23 April 1920 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Communist Workers' Party of Germany" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "To the Masses. Proceedings of the Third Congress of the Communist International, 1921", Brill, 2015, p. 1214 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Communist Workers' Party of Germany" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Dauvé, "The Communist Left in Germany 1918-1921" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Communist Workers' Party of Germany" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Philippe Bourrinet, The Dutch and German Communist Left (1900–1968) (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Bernhard Reichenbach, The KAPD in Retrospect: An Interview with a Member of the Communist Workers Party of Germany. facts only, no text reused. marxists.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Communist Workers' Party of Germany" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Rote Jugend Jahr 2", Association Archives Antonie Pannekoek (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Communist Workers' Party of Germany (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

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Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

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