Alliance of Red Front Fighters
The Red American Legion ( RFB ) - also Rotfrontkämpferbund - was a paramilitary task force of the German Communist Party (KPD) in the Weimar Republic .
development
The Red Front Fighters Union (RFB) was the paramilitary protection force of the KPD in the Weimar Republic. It was founded in Halle / Saale in mid-July 1924 (different dates are mentioned) and developed a culture of agitation that was shaped by being a front soldier as well as by its political self-image. On May 3, 1929, the RFB was banned by the Prussian Interior Minister. Its members acted in successor organizations or changed their political home.
To the prehistory
The fighting culture after the First World War
The tensions in everyday life in Germany after the First World War resulted from the defeat, the behavior of the victorious powers as well as the political turmoil and radicalization, as well as the large number - a good five million - of mostly demobilized soldiers. A specific combatant culture developed in their ranks, which, regardless of the political direction of the respective group or formation, had the same rituals and a partially identical self-image.
Their more or less forced classification finally took place to a large extent in familiar terrain, which often only differed from a different political conception: in the predominantly large central combatant groups that developed after 1924. Around three million men were organized in the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, loyal to the republic, and around 400,000 in the right-wing traditionalist union Stahlhelm . Then there was the Young German Order , many small regional combat and steward groups, black Reichswehr associations, the SA , which had been broken up and banned many times, and 50,000 - 100,000 Red Front Warriors.
Together with a large number of young people looking for meaning, security and “home”, an explosive mixture resulted.
From the "black cats" to the Red Front Fighter League
The founding of the Red Front Fighter League is occasionally associated with the bloody disputes over a " German Day " of the Stahlhelm in Halle . However, this is a political myth . The paramilitary formation of the KPD had a tradition that was explained by the imperial army and its collapse in 1918. It was founded on the one hand to collect the former soldiers (frontline fighters) and to give them a political home and on the other hand as a reservoir for the realization of a popular front theory under the leadership of the KPD.
Independent of the predominantly Social Democrat-minded revolutionary soldiers and their attempts to establish councils ( workers 'and soldiers' councils ), after the January strikes in 1918 there was already a group in the vicinity of the Berlin ombudsmen called "Black Cats" that tried to set up illegal weapons stores . On October 7, 1918, the Spartakusbund and the Bremen left-wing radicals decided to form illegal combat groups and procure weapons based on the model of the Russian Red Army and on the theoretical basis of Lenin's military program ("The Military Program of the Proletarian Revolution"). When it turned out that the workers' and soldiers' councils were mostly social democratic, the Spartakusbund founded a Red Soldiers ' Union (RSB). The RSB was involved in most of the following fighting, which lasted from December 1918 to May 1919. Despite a so-called "self-dissolution" in September 1919, regional formations remained. In Hamburg it was z. B. a revolutionary sailors' union and an association of inactive naval teams. There were also regionally organized folder associations.
After the 2nd World Congress of the Communist International (KI) decided in July / August 1920 to set up illegal organizations to carry out systematic underground activities, the KPD began to build up an "apparatus", including a. of the military apparatus ( M apparatus ). In the so-called “ united front policy ” under the leadership of the KPD, which the Executive Committee of the Communist International (EKKI) decided the following year after the failed attempts at insurrection in Central Germany ( March fights ) and Hamburg ( Hamburg uprising ), the so-called proletarian hundreds were central When these were banned from November 23, 1923 to March 1, 1924 in the course of the renewed attempt at insurrection in 1923, together with the party, the leadership of the KPD and the CPSU sought - at least temporarily - legality. Officially, no continuation or renewal of the armed forces was decided, but the discussion about this soon continued. In the lessons of the German events of the Presidium of the EKKI in January 1924, the work in the “organs of the united front from below”, which included the armed hundreds in particular, was emphasized as urgent. Trotsky and Radek brought in a draft that essentially provided for a continuation and expansion of the security troops. According to this, the hundreds should also be used on the street "in defense of the demonstrations of the striking workers against the acts of violence of the fascist dictatorship". However, the rather vague conception of Zinoviev , which concealed the idea of an undefined Red Army, was accepted. In his draft thesis it is explicitly stated:
“The KPD must by no means remove the question of the armed insurrection and the conquest of power from the agenda [...] The arming of the workers and the technical preparation of the decisive struggles must be continued with all tenacity. Red Hundreds cannot be found on paper, but in reality only when the whole working class sympathizes with them and supports them. In order to achieve this support and this sympathy, it is essential to develop it in close connection with the partial struggles of the proletariat . "
Around two months after the KPD ban was lifted, they were on the IX. Party congress of the KPD (April 7-10, 1924), all parliamentary groups within the party agreed in principle on the motto of the united front from below and the creation of corresponding organs. Only the weighting of the tasks was emphasized differently: While the leftists who were in opposition at the time placed the emphasis on agitation and propaganda , the others wanted to focus on armament. That was decided
“Creation of organs to conduct these (partial) struggles. Constant activity in the creation of united front organs (works committees, hundreds, control committees, councils), even if the communists still have to fight for leadership in them. Skilful and quick displacement of any opposing functionaries. "
The establishment of a new "protection force" was one of the priority tasks. In competition with the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold, which was loyal to the republic, this troop was to become the collecting tank for all leftists under the leadership of the KPD. In addition, decomposition work should be carried out in the Reichsbanner.
Founding myth
In order to demonstrate the spontaneity and independence of the RFB from the party, an exchange of letters was produced between the federal board of the RFB and the headquarters of the KPD. Although the Federal Administration (BL) had already written a letter to the KPD district leaderships and the RFB district leaderships on August 22, 1924 regarding organizational issues, the initially appointed board members Seemann and Kakies wrote on September 17 1924 a letter to "the headquarters of the KPD" with a request for cooperation. If the first of August 22nd was held in indicative , the current one, for external propaganda, had taken a different tone:
“Dear comrades and comrades!
As you should already know from the press, a 'Red Front Fighters League' has been formed on an imperial scale, the goals of which are given in the enclosed statutes. We feel the need to get in touch with the proletarian party, the aim of which is to promote class consciousness and which, in all its actions, is based on the class struggle . One of our main goals is the prevention of imperialist wars, which is why we cannot and do not want to portray ourselves in any way as a shield holder of the capitalist social order, in contrast to the 'Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold', which actively takes a stand for capital in its rallies and deeds , against the oppressed working people. Of course we consider it our duty to enlighten the proletarians who have been misled by reformist and capitalist leadership in the Reich Banner, but we declare the sharpest struggle against the leaders of the Reich Banner.
Our struggle applies equally to the nationalist-fascist organizations.
We ask you, comrades and comrades, to comment on our organization and to inform us of your decision. In particular, we ask you whether you are willing to support us morally and to include our publications etc. in your press. We expect your answer as soon as possible. "
The reply from the headquarters is already dated the following day. a. called:
“We have received your letter and inform you that we have the greatest sympathy for your endeavors. We are ready to make our press available to you and hope with you that we may succeed in freeing the proletarians from reformist and capitalist influence. "
A first local group was founded in Bremen on September 30, 1924, and a month later the Bremer Arbeiter Zeitung (AZ) read: "In the local district, too, a local group of the RFB was spontaneously founded by the workers."
The establishment of the new organization began as planned in Greater Thuringia and Halle-Merseburg within a period of propagandistic focus work, in the "Anti-War Week" from July 31 to August 4, 1924. On August 28, Berlin followed and three days later, Braunschweig.
The numerical development of the RFB can only be seen as a tendency due to the often dubious collection of statistical data or the profiling wishes or hopes of regional leaders. On September 23, 1924, the report on the establishment of the Red Front Fighters Association according to "the reports from the districts" as "Status of the founding until September 1" provides the following information:
- "Halle-Merseburg - 71 organizations approx. 2,500 members."
- “Greater Thuringia - local groups in Arnstadt, Berka, Kamburg, Erfurt, Gisbershausen, Greusen, Heringen, Hildburghausen, Jena, Ingersleben, Martinrode, Mühlhausen, Nordhausen, Pössneck, Rudolstadt, Saalfeld, Salza, Schnedt, Sonneberg, Weimar; Number of members approx. 2,000. There are also 15 local groups of the youth organization, the Rote Jungsturm, with approx. 2,000 members. "
- “Berlin-Brandenburg - local groups exist in Berlin and Treppin; Number of members cannot yet be determined, but small. "
- “Lausitz - local groups in Kottbus, Finsterwalde, Niesky, Senftenberg and Ströbitz, Guben; Membership in Guben 150, not yet established in the other local groups. "
- "East Prussia - 7 local groups with approx. 800 members."
- “East Saxony - Founding of the Dresden local group announced; further messages are missing. "
- "Erzgebirge-Vogtland - reports the local groups Chemnitz, Plauen, Hertha with approx. 600 members; Rohna and Rosswein; Number of members not reported. "
- “Lower Saxony - local groups in Braunschweig, Hanover, Holzminden, Lauterberg and Wolfenbüttel; Number of members not reported. "
- “Mecklenburg - local groups founded; further information is still missing. "
- “Pomerania - local groups are founded; Details are missing. "
- “Baden - local groups in Mannheim, Heidelberg and Karlsruhe; Membership is missing. "
- "It is currently impossible to establish a company in northern and southern Bavaria."
- “The following districts have not yet reported startups: Upper Silesia, Magdeburg-Anhalt, Wasserkante, Northwest (founded this week), Ruhr area, Lower Rhine, Middle Rhine, Hesse-Waldeck, Hesse-Frankfurt, Rhine-Saar and Württemberg. (But the foundings are also taking place in these districts these days). "
The RFB was founded where the proletarian hundreds were strongest - in Greater Thuringia and Halle-Merseburg. As in Hamburg, the KPD leadership had to exert pressure in many places to overcome regional resistance. The first groups were supported in their founding by the communist press, but after a short time they largely disappeared again without a sound.
The slow structure of the organization was largely blamed by the GDR historiography on the Fischer - Maslow headquarters. But other causes were more decisive. The members of the provisional district management, Seemann and Kakies, were not only overwhelmed with their task, they are also said to have enriched themselves with federal funds. In addition (and above all) there were various fears of competition within the communist organizations. Many feared competition for the party in an additional central alliance. In addition, remnants of the party's military organizations as well as the various stewardship services (OD) saw their positions in danger. The latter in particular were often opponents of centralization and feared for their independence or linked other ideas with the future of their own group.
According to a report by the Reich Commissariat, an instruction from the M leadership in the party headquarters to transfer the members of the steward service to the RFB was followed just as hesitantly as with the Hundreds. This group of people in particular was said to have “arrogance” and “a certain feeling of superiority on the part of the 'soldier' over the 'civilians' in the party”. Soldiers as the avant-garde of the revolution were no novelty on the part of the left either. If the German workers were already referred to as the elite troops in the Spartacus letters, after their own revolutionary experiences the soldiers of the revolution advanced to become the elite of the Soviet Union, especially through the Red Army of Soviet Russia Elite. Since “strictly speaking” there were “only two political battle groups” in the Weimar state, “which could be described as 'party armies', the SA of the National Socialists and the RFB of the Communists”, a comparison is obvious. Schuster draws the conclusion that “an elite consciousness comparable to the SA could not even emerge in the RFB”, but considers the train of thought, “at least for the lower level of functionaries”, to be “all too obvious that it is not also in the RFB, in terms of behavior and to be found in the statements of its members ”.
After Ernst Thälmann had taken over the leadership of the party and the federal government, the RFB began its propaganda campaign in April 1925 and developed into a paramilitary organized civil war army under the leadership of Willy Leow , which set up the "Red Wehrinternational" between agitation, militaristic marches, street fighting and military simulation games wanted to.
The organization of the RFB
Formally, the RFB was a registered association . In reality it was strictly hierarchical. Its structure began from the bottom up with the group, which usually consisted of 8 men and a group leader. Four groups represented a platoon (including a platoon leader) and three platoons represented a comradeship. Depending on the regional circumstances, several comradeships resulted in a department and several departments in a local group.
Several local groups formed a district . In May 1925, the 2nd Reich Conference decided to introduce the term “Gau” instead of the term “District”.
An annual Reich conference was held at which the delegates decided on a large number of applications. The federal leadership was elected “by resolution”. It was the “executive, determining and responsible body of the federal government”. The leadership of the RFB agreed with that of the KPD one hundred percent.
A Reich meeting of the RFB and the KPD was also held annually with mass marches, music bands, etc. as a propaganda platform. The Reich Meeting was the model for the regional "Red Front Fighters Days", which, under the short form "Red Days", became the most popular form of agitation among the Red Front Fighters.
The Red Navy
As the trigger for the revolutionary uprising in Kiel in November 1918 ( Kiel sailors' uprising ), the navy was the only unit to receive a special position within the RFB through its own section. The group known as the Red Navy (RM) not only took over the memory of deeds that were perceived as extraordinarily revolutionary, but also the tradition of the Imperial Navy as that of a privileged troop.
- A first section of the Red Navy was founded on June 9, 1925 in a restaurant on Davidstrasse for the Greater Hamburg area. Kiel, Königsberg, Bremen and Lübeck followed.
The Red Navy, the most zealous shawm musicians in Hamburg , opposed centralism most strongly and strove for independence. Any attempt to maintain her own cash register was forbidden. Own events were only allowed to be organized with the consent of the responsible governing body. With a view to the revolutionary tradition, the Red Navy often acted as the most radical group of the RFB. This led to the fact that a Red Navy should be founded in places that had absolutely no connection to the water. It was of course forbidden by the federal leadership (BF) - only branches should be created in port cities.
Problem area youth - from the Red Young Storm to the Red Young Front (RJ)
Since the RFB local groups were first founded, there has been a special relationship between the former soldiers of the World War - the actual target group - and the youth. In contradiction to the desire to collect war experienced fighters, the founding events were mostly dominated by young people.
In contradiction to this, the youth organization was not even mentioned in the first statutes and guidelines of the RFB. At the 1st Reich Conference, the Red Young Storm (later Red Young Front) was "one of the main subjects of discussion". As a subdivision of the RFB, the RJS should “to a certain extent” be an “independent organization” for the age group of 16 to 21 year olds (from November 1928 to 23 year olds), and an RJS member and an RFB member can be elected in all RJS lines. Political actions, however, required the approval of the responsible RFB management. The RFB comrades were present as "teachers" in the local groups. From 1927 the RJF was able to hold a preliminary conference on the occasion of the Reich Conference.
The increase in agitation made more training necessary. The central training in the interests of the party was of particular importance. Two summer camps, originally intended for vacation purposes, have been converted into "Reichsführer-camps". The first took place from July 3 to 24, 1927 in Tambach-Dietharz, Thuringia, and the second from July 15 to August 12 in Einsiedel (Ore Mountains). The program consisted of military drill (morning roll call, simulation games, military sports exercises, etc.) paired with camp life, as is usual with scouts.
The greater radicalism was undoubtedly present in the youth organization, but in many cases it was characterized by an uncontrolled actionism, which repeatedly brought problems with the parent organization in addition to the difficulties with the state organs. At the 2nd Reich Conference it became clear that the youthful exuberance had even led to attacks by the RJ on the RFB.
During the entire time of the RFB's existence, the leadership failed to do a fruitful youth work. At the end of 1925, 20 percent of the RFB members belonged to the RJ. While the number of members of the general association rose steadily, those of the RJ stagnated. At the 5th Reich Conference of the RFB in March 1928, it was decided to introduce a separate military sports group of the RJ for all members aged 16 to 28 years.
The "Red Women and Girls Association" (RFMB)
Women played a special role within the men's association. While “girls” were initially allowed to be included in the RJ, a Red Front Women's League (RFFL) and then the Red Women and Girls' Association (RFMB) were briefly founded in 1925, despite considerable resistance from many front-line fighters . Its subordinate role in agitation was only briefly broken after the RFB was banned in May 1929, when the separate, non-forbidden organization offered the men space to make demonstrative appearances.
A case study: The development in the Gau Wasserkante and in Hamburg
The first founding in the district of Wasserkante was stated by the federal leadership for September 1924 in Neumünster, but is neither in the files of the political police nor in the Hamburger Volkszeitung. The KPD organ “Hamburger Volkszeitung” (HVZ) recorded a foundation in Pinneberg for November 15th and three days later in Hamburg Winterhude-Uhlenhorst. On January 18, 1925, Altona, Wandsbek and Bramfeld followed in Schleswig-Holstein's territory, obviously extremely sluggishly.
On March 1, 1925, according to the federal leadership in the Wasserkante Gau, there were 23 local groups with a membership of 1,845 people (including 1,257 RFB and 588 RJS). In January 1926 there were already 65.
In the autumn of 1926, Untergaue was divided into the following areas in the Wasserkante Gau:
- Hamburg: 6 local groups and 16 departments
- Kiel: 14
- Stormarn: 5
- Lübeck: 9
- Lüneburg: 6
- Heath: 10
- Itzehoe: 8
- Harburg: 6
In Hamburg there were 17 departments, each with music formations drummers and whistlers (T), brass music (B) or shawm bands (S) in the following districts:
| Department | Comradeships | district | T | B. | S. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | Altona | x | x | |
| 2 | 2 | St. Pauli | x | ||
| 3 | 2 | Eppendorf | x | ||
| 4th | 2 | Eimsbüttel | x | x | |
| 5 | 2 | Hamm-Horn Borgfelde | x | ||
| 6th | 4th | Hammerbrook | x | x | |
| 7th | 4th | Barmbek | x | ||
| 8th | 3 | Inner city | x | ||
| 9 | 1 | Harvestehude | x | ||
| 10 | 3 | Rothenburgsort, Veddel | x | x | |
| 11 | 1 | Wandsbek | x | ||
| 12 | 1 | Stellingen | x | ||
| 13 | 3 | Bramfeld, Sasel, Berne (3rd district) | x | ||
| 14th | 3 | Winterhude, Uhlenhorst, Barmbek | x | x | |
| 15th | Eilbek | x | |||
| 16 | 5 | Hammerbrook | x | ||
| 17th | Billstedt | x |
Altona and the Red Navy were most strongly represented, each with five comradeships. Eimsbüttel had two and Stellingen had one.
The development can be divided into four phases:
- Foundation and consolidation (November 1924 - August 1925)
- Constitution with flag consecration, red days and military exercises (August 1925 - July 1927)
- Expansion to military organization and prohibition on the acquisition and formation of new music groups (July 1927 - March 1929)
- Culture of agitation under the sign of prohibition (March 1929 - March 1933)
Agitation and propaganda culture of the RFB - Berlin guidelines and north German practice
The agitation culture of the RFB was centrally controlled by the federal leadership through work plans and circulars. An important practical example and role model for the regional meetings was the imperial meeting that she organized annually over Pentecost.
The first self-portrayals of the RFB in the Gau Wasserkante were the founding of the local groups, departments or comradeships, which in Hamburg initially took place rather modestly and rarely in public in the party bars of the KPD. Larger actions were mostly counter-events - the goal was usually the main opponent: the social democracy or the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold.
In addition to the necessary party support, the presentation of the Red Front Fighters, which was initially dedicated to the mother party, gained an increasingly independent character. After the first imperial meeting was combined with a flag consecration, the example in the province was followed in establishing groups. The agitation proceeded according to the principle: from the larger to the smaller residential units. In order to get impressive parades, especially at the Gau and Untergau meetings, the journey was planned centrally by the federal leadership. The flag consecration and Red (Front Fighter) Days were enthusiastically received on site, but after a short time they reached such proportions that the federal government ultimately demanded an immediate end to the haphazard implementation and ordered centralized planning in October 1925.
The mistrust of the leadership towards the province and the urge of some local groups for more independence reveals, however, that it was not just agitation reasons that led to this step.
Outstanding elements were, in addition to the propagandistic move, the arrival and departure or the pick-up of special guests from the train station. In the second phase of agitation, the approach and departure were perfected. The journey by water became popular - especially with the Red Navy. For the Red Day in Lauenburg z. B. around 2000 Hamburg communists with three steamers and a barge.
In the same phase, the event was extended to two days, which became the rule, especially for the red days and sometimes also for the flag consecration. The expansion of the agitation days naturally also led to an expansion of the event elements. One of the formative rituals was the Sunday wake-up call between 6 a.m. and 8 a.m., which has since become an integral part of the larger events in particular.
In addition, there was the move to the “fallen comrades” with their own event elements. Since autumn 1925, the parades in the darker season of the year have been celebrated with torches, and special torch-lit marches have even taken place.
"The red front fighters now have a cane pocket at the paddock where the military has the saber pocket , so that the cane is now carried like a dragged saber."
The most important components of the propaganda work were: marching in rows, escort and transport by cyclists and trucks that were as decorated as possible.
The events were also richly decorated with red flags and pennants, oak leaves and banners. Lenine corners were set up in the agitation bars and badges, stamps, newspapers, magazines and photos - mostly from the music bands - were sold.
The expansion of the agitation culture brought a real political tourism to light. The largest event in this context was the Reichstreffen in Berlin, which from the 2nd of its kind had become the most powerful propaganda show of the party and the federal government - from Hamburg alone, “approx. 2,000 comrades ”in“ 28 cars ”on the way.
The various meetings of the organization increasingly turned into a trade event. In May 1926, in good time before the Second Reich Meeting, the federal government had forbidden the individual local groups to “trade in their photos, postcards and other local peculiarities” because “the intensity of many local groups in this area” meant that “that the Reich meeting would become a fair to finance the local group fund ”. The trade at the Reich meeting should be organized exclusively by the federal administration. The advertisements in the program for the meeting provide information about the volume of 'commercial goods'. In addition to the usual RFB utensils such as musical instruments, Reichstreffen postcards in two-color printing, flags or banners, the sales office of the RFB GEBAGO in Prinzenstraße 74 in Berlin also sold decorative items, new types of runes, festival badges, paper garlands, paper lanterns, paper flags, hat signs and stick nails, brooches and pins Lenin and Frunze pictures, flag nails, flag loops and wreath loops. In the program, advertisements also offered red fires (kilograms 1.20 marks), fireworks, torches of all kinds “for removals at wholesale prices” and, on request, “production of Soviet stars and badges, as well as RFB and KJI” (p. 12). The metal goods factory Hermann Aurich (Dresden) praised itself as the “sole manufacturer of the Ges.gesch. Bundesabzeichen des ROTEN Frontkäufer-Bund ”and offered“ festival badges, badges in enamel and embossed execution ”in mass production.
While on the one hand the training courses were expanded, the conferences more frequent, the land propaganda - albeit inadequately - controlled and the federal celebrations more centralized, in 1927 a kind of privatization of the festival culture began to establish itself in the lower levels in addition to the official agitation calendar. After z. B. self-organized concerts in January were followed from May on by numerous “proletarian” or untitled “entertainment evenings”, comradeship meetings or “workers' parties”, occasionally supplemented by solstice celebrations (HVZ of June 25), garden parties (HVZ of August 20) and later Foundation festivals. The solstice celebrations were taken up by the federal leadership. Specifications now determined how these had to look and gave ready-made fire speeches for use by the combatants at the front.
Since August 1925, care was taken to ensure that a game team was on site as the venue. After the drummers and piper corps, brass bands and later shawm orchestras were founded. Especially with the meetings, which were increasingly being expanded into mass events, a uniform style of play was necessary across the empire. In 1927 at the latest, a separate Reich game management was established. After initial resistance from the ranks of the party, the RFB published its own songbooks and music books and the triumphal march of the agitprop troops began in its environment . The “Red Rockets” from Berlin (later “Sturmtrupp Alarm”), for example, toured the country as an advertising group for the RFB in an old car. The women in the RFMB developed their own, if modest, cultural life. In 1931 an own marching band and the Rosa Luxemburg women's agit prop troupe were formed.
The more aggressive the time became and the more demonstrations and assembly bans were imposed, the more important the chapels became. Open-air concerts were easier to organize and increasingly replaced political propaganda.
Thälmann and Leow attached great importance to the military forms and the symbolic actions. They had particularly pushed for uniform uniforms and flag consecration. There were various formulas for the flag consecration, which were taken according to a fixed procedure.
The two elements of agitation - the oath and the symbolism of internationalism - were also used formally for the main event. On the grandstand in Berlin's Schillerpark at III. Reichstreffen 1927, which was flanked left and right by flag blocks, was the first time a large number of foreign guests from the Soviet Union, France, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Switzerland, Denmark and Holland were in addition to the federal leadership. The second change was the solemn oath of the Red Front Warriors:
“I promise:
never to forget that world imperialism is preparing the war against the Soviet Union.
Never forget that the fate of the working class around the world is inextricably linked with the Soviet Union.
Never forget the experiences and sufferings of the working class in the imperialist world war, August 4th 1914 and the betrayal of reformism. Always and always to fulfill my revolutionary duty to the working class and socialism;
[I vow:]
To always remain a soldier of the revolution.
Always and always to be a pioneer of the irreconcilable class struggle in all mass organizations, in the trade union and in the company.
To work on the front and in the army of imperialism [only] for the revolution; to lead the revolutionary struggle for the overthrow of the class rule of the German bourgeoisie.
To defend the Russian and Chinese revolutions by all means;
I promise:
always and always - to fight for the Soviet Union and the victorious world revolution. "
Since about the middle of 1927, the Red Front Fighters' vows to fight had also been in abbreviated form in the membership book of the RFB. Instead of Liebknecht's “They don't bend us”, it was placed on the inside front cover page. An additionally expanded form of the combat vow was included in the brochure of the guidelines of the RFB decided at the 5th Reich Conference in 1928. While there is talk of "reformists" instead of "reformism", it then follows:
“Never forget - that the bourgeoisie u. their lackeys strive by all means to smash the Red Front. Always and always - to fulfill my revolutionary duty towards the working class and socialism. "
In the course of the united front from below and the increased militarization, general roll call and march past the leaders in the increasingly popular mass events were added from 1927.
Agitation calendar - appointment calendar Gau Wasserkante 1928 (reconstruction)
- 13.-28. January - Lenin-Liebknecht-Luxemburg (LLL) celebrations (div.)
- January 28th - 4th district conference of the RFMB (Höffler, Grohnenmarkt 41)
- 28/29 January - 5th district conference of the RFB
- February 24 - 10th anniversary of the Red Army (Sagebiel)
- 12-18 March - March squad of the RJ (various rallies)
- March 23rd - International Meeting (Sagebiel)
- 23-25 March - 5th Reich Conference in Hamburg and the Prussian Bramfeld
- March 25th - General roll call of the RFB on the Dulsberg site
- March 27th - Reich Unemployment Day
- April 15th - Untergau meeting in Harburg, Uelzen, Flensburg, Pinneberg, Eutin, Lüneburg and Tönning
- April 22nd - RJ meeting in Geesthacht
- May 1st - May demonstration
- 26.-28. May - IV. Reich meeting in Berlin
- June 13th - Wreath laying at the Ohlsdorf cemetery
- 1-10 August - Anti-War Week
- August 18 - Northwest German meeting in Bremen
- 18./19. August - 1st Red Women's Meeting in Neumünster
- 25./26. August - Untergau meeting in Elmshorn
- September 30th - Red Day in Buxtehude
- October 5th - Reichpietsch-Cöbes-Gedenkfreier of the RM (Wulf, Vaterland)
- 20./21. October - Gau meeting of the RJ in Kiel
- 21-23 October - October rallies
- 7-18 November - 11th anniversary of the proletarian dictatorship (various revolutionary celebrations)
- December 4th - 5th RFB leaders' conference in Berlin
- December 21st - Ten years of the Communist Party of Germany
With the annual program for 1927, the RFB presented a systematically structured agitation plan for the first time. In addition to the main events of the federal government, the Reich Conference (March 5th / 6th) and the Reichstreffen were also central events on the one hand the Reichsferienlager of the RJ (July 1st - 21st) and the Reichsfuhrer School of the RFB for the end of August, and on the other hand the following national ones Meeting planned:
- 5th / 6th March - West German meeting m. Reich Conference in Düsseldorf,
- March 27th - Central German meeting in Magdeburg,
- April 3 - South German meeting in Stuttgart,
- July 24th - North German meeting in Hamburg,
- August 21 - Saxon meeting in Dresden and
- September 4th - Reichsmarinetag in Stettin.
In the guidelines for the summer work of the Red Young Front already submitted by the federal leadership in autumn 1926, it was ordered that fewer parades and Red Days should be carried out in the summer of 1927, as “participation in the meetings often left something to be desired”. The reason for this was the uniformity of the program during the Red Days ("reception in the evening, wake-up in the morning, open concert at noon, demonstration in the afternoon and then marching out"), and some changes were recommended to overcome this. As “the most essential thing that distinguishes our marches from those of other organizations, including the KJVD ”, “our uniform, tight demeanor” was named in the first place. This impression must be reinforced by wearing the same clothes, the same step and keeping the group and train distances well. The agitational character of the RFB changed visually and organizationally with the return to the strictly united front from below. In addition to the more frequent emphasis on discipline, the training of the RFB as a combat force with military ceremonies was particularly strengthened. "That is why it is good if a roll call is scheduled before every march, a general roll call is scheduled before every major march and every major campaign [...] Such appeals must not become a gimmick, but must have a serious character."
The federal leadership recommended the districts and local groups to grant the Jungfront's wish "rather to drive on trucks than by train" if "it is financially possible and the distance is not too far".
The second propaganda arrangement related to the invitation of local groups and departments of other organizations (explicitly named: Reich banners, workers-athletes, cyclists, RFMB, Internationaler Bund, Jungspartakus, workers' rifle associations, workers singers) on the one hand and company delegations from large companies on the other. At this point, a finding of the Central Committee of the KPD (not only) from the last Reich meeting was used, which also brought up the questionable nature of the debate about the 'Reichsbanner Delegation' at the time:
The return to the policy of a strictly united front from below in the spring of 1927 was not a real turning point, it only consistently continued what had already begun in 1926 with the increasing militarization of the federal government. In practice, however, the shift in emphasis to exercises in military sports, command regulations, military simulation games and large-scale events with a military character, which should lead to the accession of an international Red Army under the leadership of the Soviet Union, became clear. However, in the province of the Gaues Wasserkante it is evident that stagnation had already been recorded there, although it is not clear whether this can be explained by a lack of interest on the part of members, internal ideological or personal controversies.
At a leadership meeting of the RFB in Hamburg at the beginning of December 1927, a ban on acquisitions and the formation of new music groups and a reduction in the number of Red Days was announced.
"In the future there will be no more street politics and demonstration politics, but more practical work to be done."
The reason is that the RFB "should be converted into a defense organization" which, as a "tightly disciplined fighting organization in the hands of the CP, should fight against imperialism, the fascists and the social democrats". "The Red Front Fighters of Austria, Switzerland, France, Belgium, England and Germany would form an army."
The calendar of events of the HVZ gives indications of possible resistance in the ranks of the RFB in the form of requests to hand over instruments by individuals to exclusions "for behavior that is harmful to the organization".
From December 1927, the RFB set up a photo service with the help of the KPD and the Red Aid. Advertising agencies with Lenine corners and “house and court propaganda” enriched the agitation of the RFB from 1928 onwards. "A group of eight with a bugler in the yard - signal - short speech - the comrades go from door to door - sell and advertise - invite you to our events."
Instead of musical instruments and their own speech, gramophones with shellac records were increasingly used, on which, for example, shawm bands and speeches by communist politicians were used.
The agitational changes - in addition to the accompanying greater aggressiveness of the Red Front Fighters - primarily a strengthening of the military forms and a stronger emphasis on the international character of the movement. At the 5th Reich Conference, for example, which took place in Hamburg - but was mainly held in Bramfeld in Schleswig-Holstein due to a ban by the Hanseatic City - the general roll call was drilled as "something completely new of its kind". The fact that the troops marched past the leaders gave it almost state political importance. The usual meeting at Sagebiel was now called the “International Meeting”.
The targeted path to the mass event was already in full swing. The last major meeting of the RFB, the Central German Meeting on August 18 and 19, 1928 in Leipzig, reflects the last stage of the RFB's agitation culture most clearly:
- 6 am–8am - wake-up calls by bands and marching bands within the departmental areas.
- 10.30 am - Line up on all department rack spaces with the assigned districts and sub-districts
- 11.30 am - march from the main stand to Augustusplatz
- 12.30 - On Augustusplatz:
- Mass singing by the workers' choir on the museum stairs and at the New Theater
- Speeches by 10 speakers from the federal leadership u. of all participating districts.
- 13.30 - march through the east to the stadium of the Vfl. Southeast. Oststrasse (Stötteritz).
- 15.30 - march in of the flag delegation; Mass play of the entire drum trains.
- 16.30 - Speeches by the federal leadership of the RFB through loudspeakers
- 17.00 - Demonstration of military sports by the Association for Physical Exercise Southeast.
- 17.30 - mass scenes and speaking choir of the agitprop department of the KPD
- 18.00 - Concert performed by the shawm and brass bands of the RFB.305
As an additional attraction, a red Soviet star was dropped from an airplane which a Leipzig comrade had rented for 75 Mk. The "Rote Flieger" should emphasize the technological strength of the communist movement and at the same time praise the transition to socialism.
From military sport to the "proletarian military international"
In his political lecture at the 2nd Reich Conference in May 1925, Thälmann emphasized the beginning of the so-called “relative stabilization of capitalism”, which he described with a picture from nature: “We stand between two waves of revolution at a time of ebb and don't know when the tide will come. ”The preparation for the second wave should be used to train the comrades and strengthen the organization.
Even in the first phase, social democracy was a main opponent. In addition to the “Workers' Party” (meaning the KPD), the agitation partners were the “proletarian war-disabled organizations” as well as the International Union of War Disabled Persons and the Reichsbund.
The month before, the Thälmann / Leow federal leadership had provided the Gaue with basic papers. Among them was the "draft of command regulations". It was 99% a takeover of the old imperial drill regulations with one exception: the greeting. (Raised fist - "Red Front") The command regulations are today - if they are mentioned at all - seen as evidence of the pure propaganda character of the RFB (Mallmann). Not only Thälmann's assessment at the 2nd Reich Conference, but also a look at practice and later developments make it necessary to revise this interpretation.
From the program for the 2nd Reich Meeting in May 1926:
“We live, we fight and we die for the flag of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg. But all attempts by the enemies of the proletariat to inhibit the revolutionary development of the working class and to break up the ever-widening red front will fail and rebound from the unity of the proletarian ranks.
With the proletarian fists the workers of Berlin and the Reich will crush the capitalist world and forge the truly red republic.
Then the red flag will once again announce the victory of the German proletariat over the capital of the Reich! "
The II. Reich meeting from 23./24. May 1926 brought a success that was noticed from all sides. In assessing the Reichstreffen as a "probably successful military drama", there was astonishing agreement in the various statements (except for the usual number disputes regarding participation and occasional hostility by opposing associations). While one of the police officers watching, referring to Thälmann's formulations of “soldiers of the revolution” and those in the program for the Reich meeting such as “The Red Front Fighter is a soldier of the Red Class Front” or the “Red Front Fighter Battalions”, spoke of militarism, the demonstration itself opened him "a very well-disciplined impression". He particularly emphasized the good "military posture and good uniform adjustment of the Red Front Fighters from the districts of Halle-Magdeburg, East and West Saxony, Lower Saxony and Thuringia" and put an important thought on record:
"One got the impression that the RFB actually represents a military combat organization and, what is perhaps the most important thing, that every front-line fighter feels like a 'soldier'."
In the Rote Fahne No. 116a of May 25, 1926, Otto Steinicke wrote in his report Die Masse marschiert! from a "military stream" that moved to the Volkspark in Neukölln, from the "flag company" that marched up and from the parade that Thälmann took. Elsewhere it says: "The whole army is moving forward in lockstep, today they are marching on the army parade of the Red Soldiers".
The ceremonial handover of a flag donated by the Moscow trade unions and the delegations from France, Czechoslovakia and Austria should not only demonstrate an "international solidarity" in connection with "congratulatory addresses" which, according to the police report, were "allegedly" sent from Russia, " so u. a. von Bulhenny and Voroshilov ”, Thälmann was given something statesmanship . In addition, "parts of the Red Army would want to take over the command of individual districts of the RFB", and representatives of the RFB should be posted to Moscow to "promote military training" for the purpose of taking part in the military courses of the Soviet Union.
The success and the relatively widespread recognition after the Second Reich Meeting had created a victorious mood in the governing bodies, which had consequences. In September 1926, in addition to even greater inflexibility on the lower level, the term “leader” was changed to “leader”, so to speak as a verbal confirmation of the “Führer principle”. The hierarchical functionary structure was as follows:
Group leaders, platoon leaders, comradeship leaders, department leaders, local group leaders, Untergau leaders, Gauf leaders and federal leaders.
With the - attached to the circular - draft guidelines on the structure of the RFB u. the tasks of the individual formations of September 8, 1926, after the already existing numbering of a group of eight men and one group leader, the train with four groups of eight and one train leader was now specified in detail. The group was defined solely by its leader. His role was described with the words that he had to "be a guide, friend and advisor to every member of his group" (from 1927 he was only to be a guide and advisor, not a friend). A distinction was made between a political and a technical leader. The former had "overall responsibility for leading the formations under him". The technical leader, on the other hand, was mainly responsible for the military training of the members (command regulations and military sports) and the thorough organization (strict discipline) of the formations.
In addition, the "discipline" was given its own section in which its importance for the "character" of the organization and its tasks was emphasized. The military discipline referred to as "cadaver obedience" was opposed to the "proletarian" one, the characteristic of which is the "voluntary classification and compliance with instructions when approaching and marching".
In the guidelines for the summer work of the Red Young Front already submitted by the federal leadership in autumn 1926, it was ordered that fewer parades and Red Days should be carried out in the summer of 1927, as “participation in the meetings often left something to be desired”. The reason for this was the uniformity of the program during the Red Days ("reception in the evening, wake-up in the morning, open concert at noon, demonstration in the afternoon and then marching out"), and some changes were recommended to overcome this. As “the most essential thing that distinguishes our marches from those of other organizations, including the KJVD”, “our uniform, tight demeanor” was named in the first place. This impression must be reinforced by wearing the same clothes, the same step and keeping the group and train distances well. The agitational character of the RFB changed visually and organizationally with the return to the strictly united front from below (decided at the 4th Reich Conference in Düsseldorf). In addition to the more frequent emphasis on discipline, the training of the RFB as a combat force with military ceremonies was particularly strengthened.
"That is why it is good if a roll call is scheduled before every march, a general roll call is scheduled before every major march and every major campaign [...] Such appeals must not become a gimmick, but must have a serious character."
Especially in the first two phases of the RFB agitation, intensive exercises were organized. From March 1928, the RJ decided to introduce its own military sports group for all members between the ages of 16 and 28. The military sports guidelines included "order exercises, baggage marches, relay of all kinds, reporting service, map reading, compass studies, meteorology, terrain studies in general, health service (first aid in the event of accidents), etc." The shooting was not officially listed in the plan of the Reich leadership because of the legality of the organization to endanger. In addition, there were military simulation games by the RFB, which increasingly practiced regular war strategies (e.g. red versus white troops).
The “united front from below” was increasingly taking on a military-strategic sense. Kurt Finker describes the situation of comparable combat units in other European countries. After that, there was a republican association of former combatants ARAC in France, which Fritz Selbmann had already visited on May 26, 1926 as the first official representative of the RFB, and in Czechoslovakia uniformed steward guards acted in the service of the Communist Party. After the III. At the Reichstreffen, the foreign representatives took part in a conference of the federal leadership in Berlin on June 6, 1926, at which Thälmann proposed the establishment of a "proletarian military international". Towards the end of the year, a workers' protection group was founded in Switzerland in autumn, a Revolutionary League of former soldiers and front-line fighters in England, and Austria's Red Front-Line Warriors in Vienna in December.
The "proletarian military international" was honored in the oversized advertising booklet "5 years RFB" with greetings addresses, pictures of the "International Red Front". The federal government, whose task in Section 3 of its statutes was to maintain “war memories for the purpose of defending against nationalist-military propaganda for new imperialist wars”, reformulated the already questionable “anti-war” formula “war against war” into “civil war against imperialist” War". Russia and the Soviet Union were stylized as the "fatherland of the working people" and the Red Front Fighters were supposed to be ready to fight for a "Soviet Germany".
Prohibition and successor organizations
The conversion, or rather the return of the RFB to a pure defense organization, brought a more aggressive stance in the struggle for the streets, not only of the party press, but also of the members. The looming escalation was inevitable. With the state's increasingly repressive policies, the increase in violent confrontations and bans was predetermined. After the agitation culture of the RFB had already been greatly reduced in 1928, a continuation of external advertising in 1929 only took place to a limited extent. Most of the LLL celebrations, which were held in Hamburg from January 15th to 29th, were organized by the KPD itself.
With a decree of the Upper President of the Province of Schleswig-Holstein on March 9, 1929, “all moves” were forbidden.
After the HVZ had called the RFB leadership meeting in February as a “red mobilization for the international meeting”, the latest reports in the newspaper in April about the arrests of RFB members urged those responsible to “be on the alert”.
The advertising campaigns for the RFB, which under the new conditions stood between increased willingness to confront and defiant will to assert themselves or purely demonstrative representation of existence, also bore clear signs of an impending test of strength. The claim to dominate the street on the one hand and to appear peaceful on the other makes the contradicting attitude of the RFB activists clear and shows the absurdity between confrontation and a continuation of the legality course.
Under the influence of the blood maize in Berlin, the Minister of the Interior in the Müller government , Carl Severing (II 1420v; Berlin), issued a ban on RFB, RJ and Red Navy with effect from May 6, 1929 “according to the Laws for the protection of the republic, the law of March 22, 1921 (Reichsgebl. P. 235) and the Reich Association Law for the area of the Free State of Prussia ”.
The RFB became agitationally irrelevant by the end of 1929 at the latest. Its members - as long as they did not move to other associations - took part in the actions of the other communist groups. This also included the RFMB, which as an independent organization did not fall under the ban.
The last major "leaders' conference of the banned RFB" was organized by the districts of Wasserkante and Mecklenburg together with the cities of Bremen and Hanover on February 16, 1930 in Lübeck. There the “worsening capitalist crises” were steadfastly contrasted with the “implementation of the five-year plan in the Soviet Union”.
The few demonstrations against the RFB ban that were organized from 1930 onwards looked extremely modest. Only in Hamburg did such an event take place at Sagebiel on April 23, 1930. A demonstration in Berlin on the occasion of the "One year RFB ban" led to the Berlin Combat Committee being banned.
RFB successor organizations
After the RFB was banned, there were different reactions from members. A hard, not very large core of the Red Front Fighters continued to work illegally and took demonstrative actions to bring the RFB to the fore (e.g. Altonaer or Geesthacht “Bloody Sunday”). A larger number of the frontline fighters participated in mostly regional attempts to establish a new one. In addition, individual and sometimes entire bands switched to the National Socialist SA.
The first RFB successor organization appeared on May 19, 1929 on the occasion of a party meeting of the Kiel KPD. A shawm band with newly dressed musicians in blue trousers, white sports shirts with red ties and blue peaked caps on which, next to anchor and Soviet star, the abbreviation RMVRK was emblazoned, which stood for Red Marine Association Reichpietsch-Köbes and represented a new formation of the Red Navy. In the march two banners were held up with the words “Red Front - In spite of everything” and “Down with the coalition government of the social fascist Müller”.
At the regular meetings "in the previous traffic bars of the forbidden RFB" in Altona, the successor organization in June was the Brothers to the Sun hiking club, from which the North German Workers' Protection Association (NASB) developed around mid-July 1929. In Kiel, the RFB was given the name Wandererklub Deutsche Eiche, which held a meeting in July 1929 together with the Arbeiter-Schutzbund (ASB). Local groups of the NASB, which at that time was sometimes only called ASB, existed in Heide and Itzehoe - despite the threat to also dissolve the successor organizations. In Flensburg, the former RFB members joined the ASB as one body, and the district leadership on the water edge of the KPD called for the establishment of local groups. The RJ was continued in the anti-fascist Young Guard.
The groups striving for independence liked to go back to their regional corner and often gave themselves additional names like the RMVRK. There was z. B. the "Liebknecht Group", a workers' protection association "Freedom", a "Budjonny Storm Brigade" or a "Combat International of Seafarers and Dock Workers". As another successor organization to the Red Navy, the International Seafarers' Club was identified under the additional designation International Seafarers and the Red Sea Guard.
While the RFB and KPD evidently did not come to a conclusion on the question of a new establishment, the Prussian Minister of the Interior gave a. a. known that, “as soon as there is reasonable cause to assume the unlawful continuation of the dissolved RFB. is present ”, the police would prevent this“ with all means at their disposal ”.
On October 18, 1929, for example, the Revolutionary Seaman's Association in Stettin was dissolved and on November 9, 1929 criminal proceedings were initiated by the authorities in Hamburg, Altona and Harburg on the grounds of "suspicion of the illegal continued existence of the dissolved RFB, the Red Navy and the Red Young Front, uz for the Altona-Hamburg-Harburg district and the neighboring districts under the new names: North German Workers' Protection Association, Red Sea Guard and Antifascist Young Guard ”.
In addition to the unemployed initiatives that had also emerged, which apparently were also recruited from former Red Front fighters (the HVZ of February 13, 1930 even reported the establishment of an unemployed defense in Charlottenburg), music bands with innocent-sounding names suddenly appeared - at least from 1929 possibly even from 1930 - should represent continuations of comparable RFB formations. For many they are still considered to be the most important keepers of the RFB tradition.
The Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus ( Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus) also had a brief existence, the planned institutionalization of which was featured on the front page of the HVZ alongside a report on the establishment of the Battle International of Seafarers. Since then, the Kampfbund has repeatedly appeared in the headlines of the HVZ as the organizer of demonstrations. A statute dated October 10th regulated the life of the federation in nine paragraphs, the main aim of which was “to organize all anti-fascist forces into a broad anti-fascist mass movement, to train the members for the fight against fascism and to fight with the appropriate ones to lead political and organizational means ”.
The most concise requirement was the members, who could be individuals as well as “collectively” affiliated associations or organizations. "To preserve the proletarian class solidarity" and could be excluded in addition to "gross violations of the statutes of the federation" and "in case of payment arrears of more than three months", especially in the case of violation of the above-mentioned solidarity and "repeated gross violations of proletarian morality". The federal government was made up of district associations, local groups, departments and squadrons. The latter should be divided into "groups of 8 members each". The “company fire brigades” mentioned in the first place were followed - in keeping with the times - by the unemployed, as well as the adult and youth relays (§ 3, d 1–4). A Reich conference as the highest authority should elect the Reich leadership, whose seat was Berlin, and decide on "all federal matters with a simple majority" (§ 4, 1a / b). The hierarchy was followed accordingly by the district association conference and management (§ 4, 2 a / b) and district conference and management (§ 4, 2 a / b). The group leadership, which consisted only of “the leader and the cashier”, was not entitled to a “right of decision” (§ 4, 3–5), although it was supposed to determine public life through agitation. "Revision commissions" should review the "financial management" at every level of the federal government (§ 4, 6).
Since June 1931, the appearance of a Young Guard showed on the one hand that a youth organization was assigned to the Kampfbund, and on the other hand that it had been subdivided into districts under the HVZ category mass organizations. There was invited to pennant consecrations. In the following year (1932) hardly any events were mentioned.
Conditionally serious continuations of a culture of agitation that would be comparable to that of the RFB can only be proven for the NASB and the Kampfbund against fascism.
Transfer of military expressions
In addition to the standard military forms of expression of the RFB (uniform, parade, etc.), which were essentially transferred not only to its successor organizations, but also to most of the other groups operating in the KPD environment, the language remained militaristic on the one hand and became the General roll call retained. In 1929 it took place mainly in connection with the celebrations for the 11th anniversary of the Red Army, which were celebrated from February 21 to 22. The leaders' conference held in Lübeck on the 24th of the month to mark this (odd) anniversary was not only accompanied by a military sports meeting of the RJ, but also by a special "General Roll Call of the RFB, Gau Wasserkante". In addition, an “Appeal of the Red Front Fighters League of the Water Edge” was sent to “the workers of the whole world” to turn the “International Meeting” - as the Reich Meeting was now called - into a massive “combat deployment of the international proletariat against the imperialist war” (see Fig. 24). The term “red mobilization”, as it was on one of the front pages of the HVZ, was used - annually - until 1932 (February 29, 1932, March 4, 1932 even “general mobilization”).
The general roll call, which took place on March 20 as part of the “March contingent” u. a. was also carried out by the Red Navy, was mainly used until 1933 for this special operation originally introduced for the RJ. Occasionally, however, it also had a more general character, such as on April 16, 1932, when the call for house and court propaganda with the headline “Tomorrow out for the general roll call in the Wasserkante district” was introduced (HVZ of April 16, 1932). On December 16, 1929, it was adopted by a number of organizations. Next to the NASB u. a. also KJVD, JSB, RFMB, RH, IBdK, freethinkers and sports organizations (HVZ of December 13, 1929).
From hunger demonstrations to defense against the unemployed
Another field of activity of former Red Front fighters were unemployment initiatives. The party and the federal government had sporadically agitated the unemployed as early as 1927. At Christmas in particular, the police found that there was “immediate strong agitation”, and that there was a. Dissatisfaction that “the Christmas allowance paid was insufficient”. On March 27, 1928, the first “Unemployment Day” was celebrated. After demonstrations in January 1929, a district unemployment conference was held on March 3 at Valentinskamp 42 in Hamburg. The hunger demonstration of the unemployed four days later was the last of its kind for around nine months.
In the course of the global economic crisis in 1929 and with the rise in unemployment, the political importance of the unemployed also increased. In December the “hunger marches” got a new quality together with the winter relief campaigns of the Red Aid - especially since they started around Christmas time. In addition to Berlin and Frankfurt, Wandsbek also reported "mass marches against hunger" on December 20. On Christmas Eve, Berlin and Cologne followed again, and on the 28th of the month the Hamburger Volkszeitung (HVZ) even said: “Hunger demonstrations throughout the Reich”.
As early as February 13, 1930, the establishment of an unemployment service in Charlottenburg was reported (HVZ of February 13, p. 2), and on the 20th of the same month, actions by the police against the demonstrations of the unemployed were not only a provocation against them, but also against them denotes the USSR (HVZ of February 20) - the connection to the 12th anniversary of the Red Army is obvious.
After spring and summer had been relatively free from the unemployment problem - at least in terms of propaganda - shortly before another “unemployment day” on September 10, the topic - in connection with the election campaigns - hit the headlines again. “For no less than 5 hours marched” according to HVZ, the “non-wanting ranks of starving columns” under “the flag of the RGO” ( Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition ), which had particularly taken up the problem.
“Coming from the individual districts, the unemployed passed through the quarters of the tenements and united on the Lübecker-Tor-Feld. It was over half an hour before the last demonstrators could leave the square. Via St. Georg you got to Hammerbrook, a typical Reichsbannerviertel. SPD banners hang on the balconies, which are somewhat less opposed to List 4. In the speaking chorus, pointing with the fingers at the false promises that are being made on the SPD banners, the marchers can hear from the mouths of the marchers:
'Who betrayed us?
The Social Democrats!
Who makes us free?
The Communist Party! '
Other groups shout:
'Death to the fascists!
Vote Communists, List 4! '
There was more proletarian language in countless caricatures than can be explained. The workers in the inner city had the anti-working class parties deployed one after the other: List 1, depicting a gallows that is based on Zörgiebel's commissary boot ; List 5, a capitalist with a chimney sticking out of its cylinder and making profits; List 9, the white terror, etc. Other groups carried banners in large block letters: Vote KPD, List 4!
Propaganda cars followed them. One of these drives up the bourgeois press, on which the flies got stuck like a flycatcher. Underneath it says:
'If you don't want to get caught out like these flies, then read the Hamburger Volkszeitung!' "
On August 31, the KPD's struggle was the “hunger dictatorship”, and on the day after the special day of action for the unemployed it was the “hunger battalions” that marched (high season on September 11). In addition to purely political propaganda (“Instead of begging soups - fight for work and bread!”), The “Hunger Christmas 1931” (HVZ of December 5) were determined by cultural events with expressions of solidarity. Hunger demonstrations continued until 1932.
The RFB in the Spanish Civil War and as a model for the armed GDR organs
Many Red Frontline fighters followed "the call of the party and fight in the ranks of the International Brigades" (Finker) against Franco as well as against anarchists. People like Richard Staimer from Nuremberg, Albert Schreiner from Berlin and the Hamburg RFB man Wilhelm Fellendorf fought in the “ Centuria Thälmann ” . Some fought alongside the Red Army during World War II .
After the end of the war, according to Finker, many “activists from the very beginning” were ready to “create the conditions for the socialist revolution”. It has to be further researched which positions z. B. the People's Police (from 1945), the Barracked People's Police (from 1948), the "Wehrsportgemeinschaften" of the FDJ in 1950/51, the " Society for Sport and Technology " (GST) or later the National People's Army (NVA) the former Occupied red front fighters. The position of Erich Honecker and Erich Mielke is well known , who like many leading members of the SED were in the RFB or in the RJ during the Weimar Republic.
greeting
The greeting form of the Red Front Fighters Association was a spoken "red front", whereby the person greeting lifted his right forearm jerkily (jagged) up to head level and formed a clenched fist with his hand, with the back of the hand facing away from the viewer, i.e. pointing backwards.
The raised and closed fist symbolized the “concentrated power of the working class” and therefore also associated strength and resilience.
In Russia
"Rot Front" is also the name of a Moscow confectionery factory. The oldest company of its kind in Russia, founded in 1826, was renamed in honor of the RFB after Ernst Thälmann visited the Soviet Union in 1931.
literature
- Kurt Finker: History of the Red Front Fighter League . Dietz, Berlin (East) 1981.
- Kurt GP Schuster: The Red Front Fighter League 1924–1929. Contributions to the history and organizational structure of a political fighting union . (Contributions to the history of parliamentarism and political parties, vol. 55). Droste, Düsseldorf 1975, ISBN 3-7700-5083-5 . (At the same time: Göttingen, Univ., Diss.)
- Hermann Weber : The change in German communism. The Stalinization of the KPD in the Weimar Republic . 2 volumes. European Publishing House, Frankfurt am Main 1969.
- Werner Hinze: The sounds of shawms in the torchlight. A contribution to the war culture of the interwar period . (Tonsplitter, Archive for Music and Social History, Vol. 1). Tonsplitter, Hamburg 2002, ISBN 3-936743-00-2 . (At the same time: Bremen, Univ., Diss., 2002)
- Werner Hinze: The shawm. From the emperor's signal to the marching song of the KPD and NSDAP . (Writings of the Fritz Hüser Institute for German and Foreign Workers 'Literature of the City of Dortmund, Series 2: Research on Workers' Literature, Vol. 13). Klartext, Essen 2003, ISBN 3-89861-113-2 . (At the same time: Bremen, Univ., Diss., Part 2)
- Carsten Voigt: Combat leagues of the labor movement. The Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold and the Red Front Fighter League in Saxony 1924–1933. (History and Politics in Saxony, Vol. 26). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2009, ISBN 978-3-412-20449-5 .
- Günter Bers: Düren in red, the demonstration of the Red Front Fighters Federation (RFB) on the occasion of the "Red Day" in the city of Düren in 1926, a documentation, publisher: Joseph-Kuhl-Gesellschaft eV Jülich, ISBN 978-3- 932903-50-2 , 49 pages
Web links
- Klaus-Peter Merta, Burkhard Asmuss : “ The Red Front Fighter League ” on LeMO
- Friedbert Mühldorfer: Red Front Fighter League, 1924–1929. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria.
- On May 31, 1924, the KPD headquarters decided to found the Red Front Fighter League
- Showcase in the Thälmann Memorial Red Front Fighters Association (RFB)
supporting documents
- ↑ Bu.A. Koblenz, files of the Reich Chancellery, R 43 I Fasz. 2671 B. 68, 'The lessons of the German events'. The Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International on the German Question, January 1924, Hamburg (1924), here based on Schuster, p. 20.
- ↑ Bu.A. Koblenz, files of the Reich Chancellery, R 43 I Fasz. 2671 B. 68, 'The lessons of German events'. The Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International on the German Question, January 1924, Hamburg (1924), here based on Schuster, p. 20.
- ↑ Bu.A. Koblenz, files of the Reich Chancellery, R 43 I Fasz. 2671 B. 68, 'The lessons of the German events'. The Presidium of the Executive Committee of the Communist International on the German Question, January 1924, Hamburg (1924), here based on Schuster, p. 20.
- ↑ Bremer Volkszeitung No. 74 of March 28, 1925. See also StaHB 4.65-1287 / 13, Bl. 12a-gR, N. -stelle No. 1646/25 Pol.ZF v. June 23, 1925.
- ↑ BL circular. No. 12/26, of April 9, 1926.
- ↑ Program for the 2nd Reich Meeting on 23/24 May 1926, p. 35.
- ↑ See Finker, p. 138.
- ↑ Membership book 1927 (LAS 309-22666 / 3).
- ↑ SAPMO FBS 310/13142, I 4/2/7, Bl. 35.)
- ↑ LAS 301-4548 / 14, RKo No. 4707/27 II, Berlin, June 2, 1927.
- ↑ Guideline for summer work of the RJ 1927; Finker, p. 142 omits these positively portrayed military attributes.
- ↑ Guideline for summer work of the RJ 1927, p. 1.
- ↑ BF-Rundschr. 5/27 BC February 18, 1927, p. 4f.
- ↑ See Werner Hinze, Schalmeienklänge, p. 116ff.
- ↑ LAS 301-4548 / 15 and 309-22703 / 20, pole B of. December 11, 1927. It gave a lecture in the Flensburg trade union building under the chairmanship of the local KPD leader Schierdewahn to 16 and later 23 people from the Untergau leader Bartels from Kiel.
- ↑ LAS 301-4548 / 1, sheet no. II G. 7/28, Pol.B, Flensburg, February 13, 1928. On February 2nd, Wohlmeier reported on a concretization of the changed RFB policy for 1928 at a function meeting [sic!] In the Flensburg trade union building.
- ↑ Hinze, Schalmeienklänge, p. 130.
- ↑ Hinze, Schalmeienklänge, pp. 131f.
- ↑ Work plan for the March contingent of the RJ 1928, p. 5.
- ^ Report to the Central Committee of the KPD on the Central German Meeting v. 23 August 1928, p. 3.
- ↑ SAPMO, IML Si 82c / 236.
- ↑ Quoted from Schuster, p. 95.
- ↑ For Finker, p. 43, the period of development and consolidation of the RFB was over at this point in time.
- ↑ Program for the 2nd Reich Meeting, May 1926, p. 19.
- ↑ Bremer Volkszeitung to AZ (Bremen) No. 119 v. May 26, 1926 (StaHB 4,65-1247 / 3, Bl. 126).
- ↑ StaHB 4.65-1247 / 5, Bl. 146-147, N.-Stelle 1806/26geh., Pol.B No. 118 v. June 9, 1926.
- ↑ StaHB 4.65-1247 / 5, Bl. 146-147, N.-Stelle 1806/26geh., Pol.B No. 118 v. June 9, 1926.
- ↑ Finker, p. 93.
- ↑ StaHB 4.65-1247 / 5, Bl. 146-147, N.-Stelle 1806/26geh., Pol.B No. 118 v. June 9, 1926.
- ↑ StaHB 4.65-1247 / 5, Bl. 146-147, N.-Stelle 1806/26geh., Pol.B No. 118 v. June 9, 1926.
- ↑ See Schuster, p. 97.
- ↑ BL circular. v. September 8, 1926.
- ↑ BL circular. v. September 8, 1926.
- ↑ The department of the political and technical leader in: Der Rote Führer , functionary newspaper of the RFB and the RJ, Volume 2, No. 10, October 1928, pp. 204ff. See also Schuster, p. 101.
- ↑ Guidelines for the summer work of the RJ 1927.
- ↑ LAS 301-4548 / 14, RKo No. 4707/27 II, Berlin, June 2, 1927.
- ↑ Guideline for summer work of the RJ 1927; Finker, p. 142 omits these positively portrayed military attributes.
- ↑ Finker, pp. 139f.
- ↑ See Werner Hinze: Schalmeienklänge im Fackelschein , Hamburg 2002, p. 148ff.
- ↑ LAS 301-4546 / 1
- ↑ Hinze: Schalmeienklänge p. 130ff. refers u. a. on BF-Rundschr. Dept. RJ of July 11, 1928: 'RJ Antimilitarist Week of August 4 - 12, 1928'.
- ↑ LAS 301-4549 / 5, Pol.B Voß, Neumünster, March 16, 1929; LAS 301-4549 / 2, No.IPP 270-6, Pol.B Grimpe v. March 23, 1929 also mentions a ban on moving in Kiel by the President of the Province of Schleswig-Holstein.
- ↑ HVZ v. February 27 and April 29, 1929.
- ↑ LAS 301-4548 / A1, LAS 301-4549 / 21, complaint against Karl Rokohl v. October 24, 1929.
- ↑ HVZ v. February 16 and 18, 1930.
- ↑ HVZ v. April 22, 1930.
- ↑ HVZ v. May 14, 1930.
- ↑ Magical Sweets (for the 180th anniversary of the oldest confectionery factory in Russia “Red Front”). In: Voice of Russia . November 1, 2006, accessed August 3, 2014 .