The 'KPD'

The topic came up today, and I reviewed how an American journalist told the story, and felt it was rather marginal on details.....so this is my essay over the German KPD Party and it's relationship to history.

Prior to WW I, in Germany....you had a number of political parties, but the 'master' of all parties in Germany was the SPD Party (which is still around today).  You'd describe today as 'left-of-center'.

But prior to 1914, they were in some ways a collection of groups, and some folks were mildly left-of-center, and some folks were extreme far-left-of-center.

In the summer of 1914, things change, and the Kaiser presents his war declaration, and the SPD Party stamps its approval.  But in the ranks....this element of the far-left exists, and they aren't happy with the war idea.

This is where Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg come into the picture, in the summer of 1914.  They mount an effort to lead folks out of the SPD....into a new group....the USPD (basically the Independent Social Democrat Party).  For five years, you hear mostly nothing out of the group.  This is the war period, and marginal political bickering is allowed. 

War ends on 11 November 1918, and the Kaiser is forced to leave.  Things are shaky for the next seven weeks. The USPD then come to this new reality on 30 December 1918....the Communist Party of Germany will exist (the KPD).

It's safe to say over the next four months....it's a major disaster in Munich and the KPD or it's thugs are in the middle of a civil war.  This is eventually put down, but along the way....there's a lot of chat over the future.

From this period, until 1933, the KPD is a significant political player in Germany.  Voting-wise?  Typically, they can get 15-percent of the vote....but it's mostly all in highly urbanized areas.

The KPD had various minor groups who were versions of the Brownshirts, but their numbers never did amount to much. 

After the election of 1933, the KPD was dissembled, and those who did remain....transformed into Antifa, and their enemy were the Nazis.  KPD and Antifa being 'anti-commerce' or 'anti-capitalism'?  Well....yes, absolutely. 

Stories of cooperation between KPD and the Nazi Party......to take down the SPD?  Yes, those stories are mostly true, and the belief in KPD's leadership's minds....if the SPD didn't exist....then people would flock to the KPD.  It's not clear if this was a brilliant idea or simply made the Nazis stronger.  The fact that Antifa/KPD considered the left-of-center SPD as a threat to society?  That was far-fetched as well. 

You can look back and just say that the SPD folks were mildly interested in socialism, and wanted capitalism to be part of the path ahead.  That wasn't the KPD agenda.

Just about every group today that exists within Antifa.....considers themselves warriors and attached to the 1933 period to 1945....fighting the evil Nazis.  Unfortunately, they also identified the SPD as targets, and gave the Nazis a chance to grow and expand. 

Attachment to Marxism?  That's the curious part of the story.  Commerce and free-market activities are a major problem for any Antifa member to accept. 

Developed originally as simply an alternate to the SPD?  That's really a big part of the story, and how they never seemed to get beyond 15-percent of the vote.  The use of violence or intimidation as part of the brand?  That's also a part of the story that makes the general public a bit stand-offish. 

Finally, I should bring up this little part of their history.  The KPD folks who escaped Germany and went into Russia....felt safe.  In 1937-1938....Stalin had a little 'purge', and a fair number of the members were either executed or sent to Siberia.  Stalin, himself....didn't really feel that much attachment to the German brand of the KPD or the Antifa.