Communist Party of Germany (organizational structure)

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Communist Party of Germany Organizational Organization (KPD-AO)
founding February 1970
Place of foundation West Berlin
resolution 1980
Headquarters Dortmund (from February 1972); Cologne (from 1975)
Youth organization KJVD
newspaper Red flag
Alignment Communism
Maoism
Number of members estimated 700 (1973)

The Communist Party of Germany (structural organization) was a Maoist K-group that emerged in 1970 from the 1968 movement .

history

prehistory

The founding of the KPD (AO) was preceded by a lengthy fractionation process within the APO and the Berlin SDS , in the course of which various groups and factions were formed, such as B. the "Berliner Projektgruppe Elektroindustrie" (PEI) - later "Proletarian Left / Party Initiative" ( PL / PI ) -, "ML West Berlin", "Ruhrkampagne", the "Socialist Workers and Apprentices Center West Berlin" (SALZ) or the various "Red cells" at the Berlin universities and colleges.

The open rift between the various factions finally came about at the working conference of the “ Red Press Correspondence ” (RPK) on 6/7. December 1969 in West Berlin, in which various political groups took part (including ad hoc groups, SALT parliamentary groups, Ruhr campaign, 883 editorial team , “Red Cells” FU and TU Berlin, various base and operational groups, INFI project group Africa , Vietnam Committee , Palestine Committee, and RPK Management and Sales).

The development of the September strikes in West Germany in 1969 had led to the question “what role the revolutionary intelligentsia had to play in the class struggle, when it was clear to us for the first time that it was not us but the proletariat who would lead the class struggle”, which ultimately led to the conclusion was drawn to build a communist party: “The group of comrades who, after a series of in-depth discussions under the aspect of 'ideological unification' on fundamental political issues, come together after questions about the future careers of students and the long-term political obligations are clarified, justifies its political activity as KPD-BUILDING ORGANIZATION with the aim of creating a revolutionary Communist Party on a national level ”.

founding

This “revolutionary Communist Party” was founded in February 1970 under the name “Communist Party of Germany - Organization” (KPD-AO) in West Berlin under the leadership of Jürgen Horlemann , Peter Neitzke and Christian Semler (also jokingly “KPD / A-Null "Or named after their central organ" Gruppe Rote Fahne "). She dropped the "AO" in July 1971 and called herself only "KPD".

How did numerous other competing "K-Group" the KPD to the tradition of the old, 1956 by the Federal Constitutional Court banned KPD build but-successor KPD founded distanced himself from the case in 1968 as the "official" new German Communist Party from. While the DKP and in West Berlin the SEW were ideologically strongly oriented towards the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , the KPD rejected a post-Stalinist Soviet claim to leadership and described the Soviet Union as “revisionist” since Khrushchev . The KPD claimed to represent the theories of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao Tsetung ( Maoism ), and appealed to the legacy of the old KPD (under Ernst Thälmann before 1933).

In July 1971 the "Programmatic Declaration of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD)" was published, in which they u. a. formulated: "The KPD is consistently holding fast to the main political interest of the proletariat, the building of socialism as a transition stage to a classless society: communism" (p. 13). In February 1972 the “Report of Accounts of the Central Committee of the KPD to the 4th Party Conference” and finally in May 1972 the statute: “The basis of the KPD program is the theory of Marxism-Leninism ... The organizational principle of the party is democratic centralism ... “(Statute, p. 6f.). The KPD formulated the establishment of the “dictatorship of the proletariat” as its political goal (Statute, p. 5).

Union opposition

At times the party propagated the revolutionary trade union opposition along the lines of the Weimar KPD: "Our goal is to build the revolutionary trade union opposition under the political leadership of our party". "In the spring of 1973 ... the congress of the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO) took place in Dortmund-Mengede ... In terms of content, the congress primarily propagated 'independent fighting without and against the trade union leadership' and the establishment of 'groups of opposition trade unionists' as well as the continuation of the opposition Work in all company trade union organizations ... ”The second party congress of the KPD in 1977 finally dealt critically with this RGO policy pursued by the KPD and found that the party“ overall ... had not shown the right way with the RGO line ”.

Course correction

In 1975 there was a “fundamental correction of the political line”. In April 1975 the KPD adopted the new theory of the three worlds formulated by the KPC and declared the "social-imperialist" USSR to be the main enemy. During visits to the People's Republic of China in 1977 and 1978, representatives of the KPD were received by the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party , Hua Guofeng . Until its self-dissolution on March 8, 1980, the KPD / AO was one of the most determined advocates of the policy of the Communist Party of China and welcomed the so-called "smashing of the counterrevolutionary gang of four" around Mao Tsetung's widow.

In November 1975 the KPD published the declaration “For an independent, united and socialist Germany” and in 1977 the “Report of the Central Committee to the Second Party Congress of the KPD” as well as various political resolutions (including “On the current situation and tasks of the KPD”) and "Resolution on trade union policy and proletarian united front policy in the FRG").

organization

Like other “K groups”, the KPD / AO was tightly organized: “The entire party obeys the uniform discipline: subordination of the individual to the party, subordination of the minority to the majority, subordination of the lower levels to the higher, subordination of the entire party under the Central Committee ... The highest level of the party is the party congress. He determines the general line of the party and elects the central committee. The delegates for the party congress are elected by the basic organizations ... The foundation of the party is the cell. The KPD follows the Leninist principle of Bolshevization ... All members and candidates of the party must put politics first in all their activities; they must, without exception, work actively in basic organizations ... The prerequisite for admitting a candidate to the party is a firm determination to put the revolution first, knowledge of the fundamentals of revolutionary theory and verifiable practice in the service of the party ”(Statute , P. 7ff.).

In the Sponti scene, the well-known abbreviation “KPD-AO” was inverted in KPD / OA and jokingly interpreted as “KPD without workers”. The assertion that the KPD or KPD-AO was “mainly represented in the student body” and that “almost no workers or other working people were able to bind to itself” cannot be substantiated, as there are precise figures on the composition of the KPD members from the party leadership were never published. However, it was asserted: "Overall, the workers in large and medium-sized enterprises, the workers who work in utility companies, in offices and administration, together with members of the working intelligentsia, make up the great majority of party workers".

The party was headed by the Politburo Standing Committee. The members of the Politburo were elected by the Central Committee. The political leadership of the individual basic organizations ("cells") was the responsibility of the respective regional committees in the individual federal states. Party cells were mainly formed in large companies and hospitals; Occasionally, district committees or street cells were founded in the early years.

Students were organized in the Communist Student Union (KSV), but broadly supported the political work of the party and its cells through the regular sale of the “Red Flag” and the distribution of leaflets in front of the factory gates and in the district.

Persons and sub-organizations

Spokesmen for the party were Christian Semler and Jürgen Horlemann . The central organ was called the “Red Flag”, the theoretical organ was “ Theory and Practice of Marxism-Leninism ”. The individual party cells published their own cell newspapers (“Kommunistische Arbeiterpresse”), which were distributed free of charge in front of the factory gates.

The party affiliated "Trabanten" organizations were

The League Against Imperialism , founded in July 1971, functioned as an “anti-imperialist mass organization” .

Influences

In the state and federal elections, the KPD never exceeded 0.7% of the votes ( West Berlin 1975 ).

On May 1st, the KPD, together with the KJVD, the KSV, the KOV and the League Against Imperialism as well as friendly foreign organizations, held their own May 1st demonstrations in various cities (e.g. around 5,000 took part in 1973 Supporters at the May Day demonstration organized by the KPD in Berlin's Wedding).

In 1977 the KPD itself assessed its influence on the political development in the Federal Republic of Germany as follows: “The strike movement in North Rhine-Westphalia in the autumn of 1973 gave the party a great ideological and political influence, which was reflected in the whole of the FRG . B. through the participation of comrades and friends of the party in the independent leadership of the Ford strike ”.

The KPD was able to achieve a certain influence in the anti-nuclear movement at the end of the 1970s . Members and supporters of the KPD participated u. a. on February 19, 1977 at the anti-nuclear demonstration in Brokdorf, on September 24, 1977 at the forbidden anti-nuclear demonstration against the Kalkar nuclear power plant and at the large anti-nuclear demonstration on October 14, 1979 in Bonn.

In 1973, the KPD was threatened with a ban, against which the party and its supporters demonstrated on June 23, 1973 in Karlsruhe. Against the threatened ban on the “K groups” (KBW, KPD and KPD / ML) in 1977, they jointly organized a large demonstration in Bonn on October 8, 1977. In no case did a prohibition proceed.

Party congresses

  • The first party congress took place in Cologne from June 26th to 29th, 1974 and ended with a major event.
  • The second party congress (from July 28 to 31, 1977) took place in Duisburg and ended on September 10, 1977 with a public event in Offenbach.
  • At the third party congress in 1980, which was held near Gelsenkirchen, the KPD dissolved. The last edition of the "Red Flag" with reports on and motions from the third party congress appeared on March 19, 1980.

The leadership cadres like Semler and others united in the group of 99 , which was however dissolved after a year. Many members became active in the growing ecological movement and in the Greens .

Due to numerous divisions, amalgamations, renaming and, not infrequently, identical names, orientation in the landscape of the K groups of the 1970s is extremely difficult. The KPD is to be distinguished in particular from the KPD / ML , which can easily be confused with it and also Maoist, but followed the Albanian party course and which, after the dissolution of the KPD in 1980, initially occupied the traditional abbreviation KPD (without addition), which had become free; a split from this has been called KPD / ML again since 1986.

The KPD had no closer ties to the Maoist Communist Bund West Germany (KBW) , which was much larger and more professionally organized.

Former members or members of alliance organizations

Dieter Kunzelmann became a "candidate" but not a member of the KPD in Berlin for election to the Berlin House of Representatives after his conviction while in prison in 1975.

literature

  • Jürgen Bacia, The Communist Party of Germany (Maoists) , in: Richard Stöss (Ed.), Party Handbook. The parties of the Federal Republic of Germany 1945-1980 , Westdeutscher Verlag, Opladen 1983-84, pp. 1810-1830.
  • Karl Schlögel, Willi Jasper, Bernd Ziesemer: Party broken. The failure of the KPD and the crisis of the left. , Olle & Wolter, Berlin 1981. ISBN 3883957046 .
  • Gerd Langguth , protest movement. Development-Decline-Renaissance. Die Neue Linke since 1968 , Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, Cologne 1983, 2nd unchanged edition 1984. ISBN 3-8046-8617-6 .
  • Hartmut Rübner: "Organize solidarity". Concepts, practice and resonance of the left movement after 1968 , Plättners Verlag Rotes Antiquariat, Berlin 2012.

Documents

  • Programmatic declaration of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), Verlag Rote Fahne, July 1971.
  • Report of accounts of the Central Committee of the KPD to the 4th party conference, Verlag Rote Fahne, Berlin, undated
  • Statute of the Communist Party of Germany, Verlag Rote Fahne, Berlin, undated
  • Report of accounts of the Central Committee to the Second Party Congress of the KPD, Cologne 1977.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ "Red detours" , FOCUS magazine | No. 36 (1997) TIME HISTORY - 1st archive document, 2 parts.
  2. ↑ a b Der Spiegel 14/1970: Sixth Column Already at the beginning of March prominent Berlin SDS functionaries, among them Jürgen Horlemann, Peter Neitzke and Christian Semler, founded an "organizational organization for the Communist Party of Germany ??" - the sixth on German soil .
  3. ↑ http://www.mao-projekt.de/BRD/BER/RC/RPK-Arbeitskonferenz_1969.shtml
  4. ↑ See “Rote Presse Korrespondenz” No. 46/47.
  5. ↑ Rotzeg: Report of the Red Cell German Studies, o. O. o. J., p. 3.
  6. ^ Provisional platform for the organizational structure of the KPD, Berlin 1970, p. 5.
  7. ^ Annual report of the Central Committee of the KPD to the 4th Party Conference, February 1972, p. 137.
  8. ^ Annual report of the Central Committee to the Second Party Congress of the KPD, Cologne 1977, p. 222.
  9. ^ Annual report of the Central Committee to the Second Party Congress of the KPD, Cologne 1977, p. 223.
  10. ^ Annual report of the Central Committee to the Second Party Congress of the KPD, Cologne 1977, p. 208.
  11. ↑ Cf. “Message of greeting from the Second Party Congress of the Communist Party of Germany to the Communist Party of China” in: II. Party Congress of the KPD, Resolutionen, Cologne 1977, p. 151ff.
  12. ^ Annual report of the Central Committee of the KPD to the 4th Party Conference, Verlag Rote Fahne, Berlin, undated, p. 149.
  13. ↑ http://www.mao-projekt.de/BRD/BER/IGM/Berlin_AEG_Kommunistische_Arbeiterpresse.shtml Kommunistische Arbeiterpresse Edition AEG Telefunken
  14. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of July 7, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
  15. ^ Annual report of the Central Committee to the Second Party Congress of the KPD, Cologne 1977, p. 223.