Combat league against fascism
The Kampfbund against Fascism was a subsidiary organization of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). It was founded in 1930 and existed until the beginning of National Socialist rule in 1933.
The organization was founded as the successor organization to the banned Red Front Fighters Association. This only continued to exist as an illegal organization. The Kampfbund was also a reaction to the emergence of the protective formations (Schufos) of the Reich Banner Black-Red-Gold . In contrast to the party self-protection of the KPD founded in 1931, the members of the Kampfbund were not allowed to carry weapons. The task of the federal government was to confront the National Socialists in a legally visible manner. At the same time he turned against the capitalist system. In the course of the " united front tactic from below" the organization was supposed to address both communist and social democratic workers.
The chairman of the Kampfbund was Hermann Remmele . In total it had around 100,000 members. There were 1658 local groups and 109 operational squadrons. The organ of the federal government was the newspaper Die Fanfare . In comparison with similar organizations, the Kampfbund was of little importance. The Reichsbanner had about a million members.
In particular, it was hardly possible to win over non-communist workers. In 1932 the Bund stated: "In its current political and organizational condition, the Kampfbund is in no way able to cope with the demands that the class struggle as a whole places on us."
After the formation of the Iron Front by the Reichsbanner, the free trade unions , the SPD and other organizations, the KPD founded the Antifascist Action . The central part of the organization was the Kampfbund.
Some members continued the work of the Kampfbund after the beginning of the National Socialist rule in illegality. Many of them were imprisoned or murdered.
literature
- Heinrich August Winkler : The way to catastrophe. Workers and labor movement in the Weimar Republic 1930–1933. Bonn 1990, ISBN 3-8012-0095-7 .
Web links
- Friedbert Mühldorfer: Kampfbund against fascism, 1930-1933 . In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria