Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany (, , KPD ) was a major far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West Germany during the postwar period until it was banned by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1956.Founded in the aftermath of the First World War by socialists who had opposed the war, the party joined the Spartacist uprising of January 1919, which sought to establish a soviet republic in Germany. After the defeat of the uprising, and the murder of KPD leaders Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and Leo Jogiches, the party temporarily steered a more moderate, parliamentarian course under the leadership of Paul Levi. During the Weimar Republic period, the KPD usually polled between 10 and 15 percent of the vote and was represented in the national and in state parliaments. Under the leadership of Ernst Thälmann from 1925 the party became thoroughly Stalinist and loyal to the leadership of the Soviet Union, and from 1928 it was largely controlled and funded by the Comintern in Moscow. Under Thälmann's leadership the party directed most of its attacks against the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which it regarded as its main adversary and referred to as "social fascists"; the KPD considered all other parties in the Weimar Republic to be "fascists".
The KPD was banned in the Weimar Republic one day after the Nazi Party emerged triumphant in the German elections in 1933. It maintained an underground organization in Nazi Germany, and the KPD and groups associated with it led the internal resistance to the Nazi regime, with a focus on distributing anti-Nazi literature. The KPD suffered heavy losses between 1933 and 1939, with 30,000 communists executed and 150,000 sent to Nazi concentration camps.
According to historian Eric D. Weitz, 60% of German exiles in the Soviet Union had been liquidated during the Stalinist terror and a higher proportion of the KPD Politburo membership had died in the Soviet Union than in Nazi Germany. Weitz also noted that hundreds of German citizens, the majority of whom were communists, had been handed over to the Gestapo from Stalin's administration.
The party was revived in divided postwar West and East Germany and won seats in the first (West German Parliament) elections in 1949, but its support collapsed following the establishment of the German Democratic Republic in the former Soviet Occupation Zone in the east. The KPD was banned as extremist in West Germany in 1956 by the Federal Constitutional Court. In 1969, some of its former members founded an even smaller fringe party, the German Communist Party (DKP), which remains legal, and multiple tiny splinter groups claiming to be the successor to the KPD have also subsequently been formed.
In East Germany, the party was merged, by Soviet decree, with remnants of the Social Democratic Party to form the Socialist Unity Party (SED) which ruled East Germany from 1949 until 1989–1990; the merger was opposed by many Social Democrats, many of whom fled to the western zones. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, reformists took over the SED and renamed it the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS); in 2007 the PDS subsequently merged with the SPD splinter faction WASG to form . Provided by Wikipedia
-
1Stuttgart, Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, Bezirk Württemberg-Baden.v. ill.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands...”
-
2Published 1926Braunschweig : Niedersächsische Zeitungsverlag G.m.b.H., [1926-v. : ill.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands...”
-
3Published 1945Berlin : Zentralkomitee der Kommunistischen Partei Deutschlands, 1945-1946.2 v. : ill.Also available on microfilm from the Library of Congress Photoduplication Service.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands...”
-
4
-
5Published 1930[Berlin] : Zentralkomitee der KPD, 1930.46 p.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands Zentralkomitee...”
-
6Published 1945Berlin : Zentralkomitee der Kommunistischen Partei Deutschlands, 1945-1946.2 v.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Zentralkomitee...”
-
7Published 1946Eisenberg : Druckerei Paul Kaltenbach, -1946.v. ; 48 cm.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”
-
8Published 1946Arnstadt : Druckerei Otto Böttner, OHG, -1946.v. ; 47 cm.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”
-
9Published 1946Greiz : Stadtdruckerei Greiz, -1946.v. ; 49 cm.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”
-
10Published 1946Schmalkalden : Konventdruck Gebr. Vogel, -1946.v. : ill. ; 47 cm.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”
-
11Published 1946Apolda : Verlag Rob. Birkner, -1946.v. ; 47 cm.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”
-
12Published 1946Meiningen : Kayssnersche Druckerei, -1946.v. ; 47 cm.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”
-
13Published 1946Hildburghausen : Druckerei Nonnes Erben, -1946.v. ; 48 cm.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”
-
14Published 1946Altenburg : Druckerei Thüringer Volksverlag GmbH., -1946.v. ; 47 cm.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”
-
15Published 1946Gotha : Druckerei Thüringer Volksverlag GmbH., -1946.v. ; 47 cm.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”
-
16Published 1946Suhl : J.W. Müllers Buchdruckerei, -1946.v. ; 47 cm.Also available on microfilm from New York Public Library.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”
-
17Published 1946Rudonstadt : Druckerei Mäniche u. Jahn, -1946.v. ; 47 cm.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”
-
18Published 1946Gotha : Druckerei Thüringer Volksverlag GmbH, -1946.v. : ill. ; 47 cm.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”
-
19Published 1946Jena : Thüringer Verlagsanstalt u. Druckerei GmbH., -1946.v. : ill. ; 47 cm.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”
-
20Published 1946Mühlhausen : Dannersche Buchdruckerei, -1946.v. : ill. ; 48 cm.“...Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands. Bezirk Thüringen...”