Thälmann Group

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Ernst Thälmann (1932), namesake of the Thälmann Group

The Thälmann group around Max Friedemann was an international militia group that defeated the military coup on July 19, 1936 in Barcelona with CNT militia groups . The name was given after a consultation with KPD representatives in the Hotel Colón in Barcelona. She was thus the namesake of the Centuria-Thaelmann and the Thälmann battalion .

The actual formation of an important military unit, the Centuria-Thälmann , took place in August 1936 by Hans Beimler , Albert Schreiner and Sam Masters in the training barracks "Carlos Marx", the Catalan communist party PSUC ( Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya ) in Barcelona. This militia unit is also known as the Thälmann Group around Hans Beimler. In addition, another group called Thälmann fought in northern Spain under the command of Arthur Pfeiffer. Other Germans fought in the CNT militia units and in the Rovira militia unit of the Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista .

Thälmann group around Max Friedemann

Flag of the group Thälmann

The members of Gruppe-Thälmann were already in Barcelona at the beginning of the military coup on July 19, 1936. It was mainly German Jews who belonged to the Thälmann group. They either already lived in Spain or took part in the People's Olympiad in Barcelona . The group members named their group after Ernst Thälmann , a KPD leader who was interned as a prisoner in the Buchenwald concentration camp . The name was given after a consultation with KPD representatives in the Hotel Colón .

At the beginning of the military coup, the members of the group fought with the militiamen of the CNT , POUM and UGT / PSUC against the coup military in Barcelona. During these fighting, from July 19, 1936, the militia officers were able to successfully bring down the military coup in Barcelona. On July 25, 1936, the Thälmann group with 22 men and three women as a group of the UGT / PSUC Columna Trueba Del Barrio of the Carlos Marx militia moved towards Aragón . The Columna had a manpower of 2,000 militiamen. Within the Columna, groups of ten formed the smallest unit, which was led by an eleventh, the elected or appointed group leader. The commanders of the Columna Trueba Del Barrio were José del Barrio , Manuel Trueba and Gancedo. The Thälmann group fought as a militia unit between Huesca and Saragossa near Tardienta .

The Thälmann group was moved to Torralba de Aragón , a place in the immediate vicinity of Tardienta, on the night of August 5 to 6, 1936 . At this point in time, the Thälmann group had grown to around a hundred militiamen. The commander's adjutant was Franz Löwenstein and corporal Chaim Besser (Spanish: Jaime Besser). From August 18 to 31, 1936, the Thälmann group held an important height in front of Tardienta, at the hermitage of Santa Quiteria . The Columna's staff was in Grañén .

On August 31, 1936, the group received orders to take nationalist positions at Pompenilllo (Poleñino?) Near Huesca. After the capture of Pompenilllo, the front in this sector froze. The Thälmann group was embedded on the left by the anarchist Columna-Ascaso and on the right by a POUM militia unit.

At the end of August Werner Hermelin traveled to Barcelona to clarify whether the Thälmann Group has the sole right to the Thälmann name. After his return, Werner Hermelin reported that Hans Beimler and Albert Schreiner had formed a larger militia unit called Centuria-Thälmann on behalf of the party. When Gruppe-Thälmann was deployed on the same section of the front in the immediate vicinity of Gruppe-Thälmann, differences of opinion arose over the name and the integration of Gruppe-Thälmann into Centuria-Thälmann. Due to the differences of opinion, the Thälmann group was withdrawn from the front in October 1936.

On the evening of November 8, 1936, the Thälmann group received orders to march to Madrid . When the Thalmann group reached Madrid, the group took up position on a broad street that led to Manzanares . According to an eyewitness, the Swiss Käthe Hempel, no one knew where the units to which the Thälmann Group belonged were fighting. The following day the group intervened in the fighting over the Casa de Campo . On the evening of November 9th, General Kléber began with the XI. International Brigade launched an attack on the positions of the nationalists in the Casa de Campo. When the fighting subsided, the national troops had been pushed from their positions, the planned swift capture of Madrid had failed, and the XI. International Brigade had lost a third of its soldiers. On November 10th and 17th there were counter-attacks by the Republicans across the width of Madrid. The nationalists were pushed back in some places, with the Republicans suffering heavy losses.

Well-known members of the group were: Max Friedemann (called Mackie), the commandant of the group with his wife Golda Friedemann, Chaim Besser (Spanish: Jaime Besser), Franz Löwenstein, Werner Hermelin, Gustav (Scholem) Schnitzer, Egon Infeldt, Hessenthaler, Scholek (Salomon Weinrot), Martin Führer, Eisik Hoffmann, Edwald Maus, Erwin or Gert Wohlrath, Abrascha Krasnowiecki, Emanuel Mink, Walter Boch, Käthe Hempel, Fanny Schönheit and Sam Masters . Sam Master, Herrmann Toenns and Karl Jung asked on August 17, 1936 to be accepted into the Thälmann Group. Later the Englishwoman Liesel Hidden joined the Thälmann group as the first fighter.

Centuria-Thalmann

The Centuria-Thaelmann was formed in August as PSUC-Centuria by Hans Beimler , Albert Schreiner and Sam Masters in Barcelona , which at the beginning of the formation was also known as the Thälmann Group around Hans Beimler. The military training took place in the Carlos Marx barracks ( Monastery of Pedralbes ), the training barracks of the Catalan Communist Party PSUC ( Partit Socialista Unificat de Catalunya ). When in August 1936 the Centuria-Thälmann set up by Hans Beimler was deployed on the same section of the front in the immediate vicinity of the Gruppe-Thälmann around Max Friedemann, there were differences of opinion about the name as well as the integration of the Gruppe-Thälmann into the Centuria-Thälmann. In October 1936, the Thälmann group around Max Friedemann was withdrawn from the front.

Thälmann group around Arthur Pfeiffer

Another spleen unit called Thälmann fought in northern Spain. This Thälmann group was led by the then 53-year-old Social Democrat Arthur Pfeiffer , who was generally known by the nickname “Comrade Papa”. This Thalmann group probably consisted of a maximum of two dozen, mostly German militiamen.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Columna left Barcelona two days after the Columna Durruti , source of Spanish Wikipedia articles on the PSUC
  2. ↑ Hanns Maaßen : Brigada Internacional is our honorary name ... , Röderberg-Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt / Main 1976, ISBN 3-87682-515-6 , page 68
  3. ↑ a b c d Patrik von zur Mühlen: Spain was your hope. The German Left in the Spanish Civil War 1936–1939. Research institute of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Bonn, Verlag Neue Gesellschaft, Bonn 1983, ISBN 3-87831-375-6 , pp. 208ff.
  4. ↑ Hanns Maaßen: Brigada Internacional is our honorary name ... , Röderberg-Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt / Main 1976, ISBN 3-87682-515-6 , pages 110 to 115
  5. ↑ Hanns Maaßen: Brigada Internacional is our honorary name ... , Röderberg-Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt / Main 1976, ISBN 3-87682-515-6 , page 68
  6. ^ Hanns Maaßen: Brigada Internacional is our honorary name ..., Röderberg-Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt / Main 1976, ISBN 3-87682-515-6 , page 60
  7. ↑ Hanns Maaßen: Brigada Internacional is our name of honor ... , Röderberg-Verlag GmbH, Frankfurt / Main 1976, ISBN 3-87682-515-6 , pages 51 to 54