Paul Thalmann

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Paul Thalmann (born September 30, 1901 in Basel ; † March 16, 1980 near Nice ) was a Swiss author , editor, resistance fighter , former communist and later anarchist . He also published under the pseudonym Franz Heller .

Live and act

Thalmann was a member of the socialist youth and later, after the First World War , became a member of the Communist Party of Switzerland (KPS). As a young delegate he took part in the congresses of the Communist International in Moscow (1921 and 1924). From 1925 to 1928 Thalmann attended a workers' university in Moscow. In 1929 he was expelled from the KPS, where he was a member of the Central Committee, because of his anti-Stalinist stance, to which his personal experiences with Stalinism in Soviet Russia had led him. From 1928 Thalmann worked as an editor for the communist newspaper Vorwärts in Basel, where he met his wife Clara Ensner and married in 1931. From 1932 he worked in Schaffhausen for the Arbeiter-Zeitung of the anti-Stalinist Communist Party Opposition (KPO) founded in 1930 , which he and his wife Clara Thalmann had joined.

From August 1936 Thalmann participated first as a correspondent, then together with his wife as a militiaman in the resistance against the Franco regime in the Spanish Civil War . They joined the " Durruti " column and fought on the Aragon front . They were also members of the «Bataillons de Choque» of the anti-Stalinist Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista (POUM). The anarcho-syndicalist Augustin Souchy wrote: “Without the enthusiasm with which people took their lives into their own hands, without the social revolution, a victory against Franco was unthinkable. The people did not fight for a republican state, they wanted the kingdom of heaven on earth. " The "Grupo Erich Mühsam " was also involved in the fighting for the city of Huesca .

On May 4, 1937, armed clashes between communists and anarchists (May events ) began, in which some group members of the "German Anarcho-Syndicalists" (DAS) as well as Paul and Clara Thalmann from the SIM, the secret service of the Spanish Communist Party, were arrested as alleged counter-revolutionaries . (The "DAS Group" was founded in Catalonia , with Augustin Souchy and Helmut Rüdiger , among others, actively involved . The group worked with the International Transport Workers' Federation, and ten members of the DAS joined the Group of German Seafarers Under the title The Social Revolution , the «DAS Group» published its own magazine with 13 issues from 1936 to 1937.)

After their release following an intervention by the Socialist Workers' International, Paul and Clara Thalmann stayed in Paris between 1940 and 1944 during the Second World War and helped German refugees. As a member of the Compagnia Internacional company (previously: «Grupo Internacional»), Paul Thalmann was part of the Resistance and actively involved in the resistance movement against the German occupation forces. In the company, however, there were violent clashes, which led to his separation from the group.

In 1953 Paul and Clara Thalmann founded the Séréna commune together with others in a suburb of Nice .

Movie

A documentary entitled The Long Hope was released in the media workshop in Freiburg i. Br. (Germany / UK 1984) and was also in "small television game" of the ZDF broadcast on 29 February 1984. Also published as a book with the subtitle “Memories of Another Spain” by A. Souchy and C. Thalmann.

Works

  • Paul Thalmann (pseudonym: Franz Heller): For the workers revolution in Spain . Reissued with an up-to-date afterword by the author. Working Group on the History of the Spanish Revolution. Veritas Verlag Zurich, no year (circa 1976).
  • Paul Thalmann: Where freedom dies. Stations of a political struggle . Walter Verlag, Freiburg i. Br. 1974. ISBN 3-530-87880-4

further reading

  • Clara Thalmann, Augustin Souchy: The long hope. Memories of another Spain . With a detailed bibliography and filmography on the Spanish Civil War. Edited by the media workshop Freiburg i. Br. Nevertheless Verlag , Grafenau 1985. ISBN 3-922209-54-8
  • Clara and Paul Thalmann: Revolution for Freedom. Stations of a political struggle . Moscow / Madrid / Paris. Nevertheless Verlag, Grafenau 1985. pp. 35 and 90-115. ISBN 3-922209-54-8
  • Augustin Souchy: Night over Spain - Anarcho-Syndicalists in Revolution and Civil War 1936–39, A factual report . P. 125. New edition by anyway Verlag, Grafenau, 1992. ISBN 3-922209-51-3
  • Rudolf Berner: The Invisible Front. Report on illegal work in Germany (1937). S. 121, 137 f .: about Clara and Paul Thalmann. About the group “German Anarcho-Syndicalists” (DAS) pp. 9, 12, 16, 24, 40, 43, 76–80, 93, 96, 111, 116–120, 122–125, 127 f., 130, 132, 135 f., 141, 145, 147-150, 152. Libertad Verlag , Potsdam 1997. ISBN 3-922226-23-X
  • Patrik von zur Mühlen : Spain was your hope. The German Left in the Spanish Civil War 1936 to 1939 , (PDF file; 9.66 MB), Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, Bonn 1983, ISBN 3-87831-375-6 , or Dietz Verlag Berlin, Bonn 1985, ISBN 3-8012 -3012-0 . (In this book about the German left in the Spanish Civil War [1936–1939], among other things, the political and journalistic activities of the group "DAS" and the German employees of the anarcho-syndicalist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo [CNT] and the Federación Anarquista Ibérica [FAI] shown.)
  • Hans Jürgen Degen, Helmut Ahrens (ed.): "We are tired of wearing the chains" - anti-fascists in the Spanish civil war. With contributions by, among others, Carla and Paul Thalmann. Jakobsohn Verlag, Berlin 1979 (without ISBN).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. on this: Clara and Paul Thalmann, Revolution für die Freiheit . In the afterword by E. Rathfelder and U. Pampuch
  2. ↑ Quotation from: A. Souchy, Night over Spain. P. 125
  3. ↑ Grupo Erich Mühsam . Retrieved July 25, 2010
  4. ↑ Cf. on this: Rudolf Berner: The invisible front
  5. ↑ Cooperation with DAS
  6. ↑ See: Patrik von zur Mühlen, Spain was their hope . P. 85
  7. ↑ See on this: H. J. Degen, H. Ahrens, "We are tired of wearing the chains" . P. 165 ff.
  8. ↑ The Long Hope. Media workshop Freiburg. Medienwerkstatt Wien, accessed on July 17, 2017 .
  9. ↑ The Long Hope on YouTube
personal data
SURNAME Thalmann, Paul
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Heller, Franz (pseudonym)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss anarchist and fighter in the Spanish Civil War
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1901
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH March 16, 1980
Place of death near Nice