Federation of Communist Anarchists of Germany

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The Federation of Communist Anarchists of Germany (FKAD) was an anarchist organization that existed during the Weimar Republic and the early years of National Socialism .

history

The FKAD, with 500 members, was founded in 1919 as the successor organization to the Anarchist Federation of Germany (AFD), which fell apart in 1914 . This was founded in 1900 as the German Federation of Revolutionary Workers and was renamed in 1903. In the FKAD, in contrast to the anarcho-syndicalist FAUD , mainly the supporters of the communist anarchism of Pyotr Kropotkin's oriented variant of anarchism united . The most famous members of the organization were Rudolf Oestreich, Rudolf Rocker and Erich Mühsam . The latter was excluded from the organization in 1925 because of allegations of a certain closeness to the KPD , as Mühsam was involved in the KPD-affiliated prisoner aid organization Rote Hilfe Deutschland , which he later left because of political differences. Rocker resigned from the FKAD because it published an anti-Semitic article by Paul Robien , The Jewish Nimbus, in its organ . This weekly newspaper with the title Der Freie Arbeiter was published by FKAD from 1919 to 1933 under the direction of Rudolf Oestreich. At its peak, it had a circulation of over 7,000 copies. The young Herbert Wehner and Heinrich Vogeler were among the most prominent contributors to this newspaper today . In addition to its educational work with its own publishing house, the FKAD unfolded its effect primarily in solidarity with internationally persecuted anarchists and also had an impact on the settlement and free thinker movements . Yet it was always overshadowed by the anarcho-syndicalist FAUD. It had regional focuses in Berlin as its organizational center and in Rhineland - Westphalia .

The activity of resistance groups of the FKAD against National Socialism can be recorded after 1933 especially in West Germany, for example in Krefeld, Düsseldorf and Aachen; these groups mostly cooperated with local FAUD structures.

The free worker

Cover of the magazine Der Freie Arbeiter from June 18, 1904

The Free Worker appeared in Berlin in 1904 as an anarchist newspaper with the subtitle “Knowledge and Will”. It emerged from the weekly newspaper Neues Leben, founded in 1897, and was the organ of the Federation of Communist Anarchists in Germany from 1919 to 1931 and, from 1932, of the Anarchist Federation of Germany . The editors included Albert Weidner, Karl Kielmeyer, Rudolf Rocker, Joseph Oerter and Rudolf Oestreich . Headings and supplements were book reviews, information about the youth movement, club calendars, an anarchist weekly paper, anti-militarism and a series of publications entitled “Anarchist Library”. Articles and contributions by Errico Malatesta , Pierre Ramus , Max Nettlau , Michail Bakunin , Emma Goldman , Erich Mühsam , John Henry Mackay , Berthold Cahn and Rudolf Rocker were published in the bi-weekly magazine. Between No. 1 (1904) and No. 31 (1914), 86 bans were issued. From No. 31 (August 1, 1914) the magazine was banned by the police and money transfers and letters from the post office were blocked.

literature

Books:

  • Helge Döhring: Organized anarchism in Germany 1919 to 1933. The Federation of Communist Anarchists of Germany (FKAD). Volume 1. Verlag Edition AV, Bodenburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-86841-192-8 .
  • Helge Döhring: Anarchists in search of meaning. The Federation of Communist Anarchists in Germany (FKAD) 1919–1933. Volume 2. Verlag Edition AV, Bodenburg 2019, ISBN 978-3-86841-191-1 .
  • Ulrich Linse : Organized Anarchism in the German Empire from 1871. Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1969, on Der Freie Arbeiter: pp. 67, 90–91, 109, 163, 167–169, 205–210, 215–218, 224–226 , 229-230, 234-235, 242-243, 249-250, 270-274, 309, 317, 322, 362-363 (also: University of Munich, dissertation, 1969).

Magazines:

  • Interview with Helge Döhring about the FKAD. In: Gǎidào. (GaiDao) Journal of the Anarchist Federation. No. 83, November 2017, ZDB -ID 2799453-3 , pp. 22-30 ( fda-ifa.org ).
  • The Troublemaker (Subtitle: Anarchism and Syndicalism in Magdeburg ). No. 12, 2003: "The 'Federation of Communist Anarchists of Germany' (FKAD) was joined by the Association of Communist Anarchists of Magdeburg".

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See: Andreas G. Graf , Dieter Nelles: Resistance and Exile of German Anarchists and Anarcho-Syndicalists (1933–1945). In: Rudolf Berner: The Invisible Front. Report on illegal work in Germany (1937) (= archive for social and cultural history. Volume 7). Ed., Annotated and supplemented by a study on the resistance and exile of German anarchists and anarcho-syndicalists by Andreas G. Graf and Dieter Nelles. Translated from Swedish by Helmut Kirschey and Dagmar Lendt. Libertad Verlag, Berlin / Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-922226-23-X , pp. 11-13, 20, 30 f., 53, 55, 71, 88 f.
  2. ↑ Ulrich Linse: The Anarchists and the Munich November Revolution. In: Karl Bosl et al. (Ed.): Bavaria in transition. The revolution of 1918, its conditions, its course and its consequences. Oldenbourg, Munich / Vienna 1969, DNB 455679355 , pp. 37-74, here p. 39.
  3. ↑ The free worker. In: anarchismus.at, accessed on March 23, 2020.
  4. ↑ Cf. Ulrich Linse : Organized Anarchism, p. 317 (see literature ).