THE ERNST THAELMANN

Ernst Thaelmann, 'the transport worker from Hamburg', was leader of the Communist Party of Germany when Hitler came to power in 1933.

Thrown into a concentration camp, he was quickly built up by the Stalinists as a martyr for the proletarian cause. His reputation was assured when the Nazis killed him 12 years later.

The Stalinist bureaucrats of the Socialist Unity Party in East Germany make every possible use of the legend of the heroic leader and great political genius to conceal their own mediocrity.

Speaking at a recent rally in East Berlin to commemorate victims of fascism, a party functionary called Sindermann gave a typical eulogy of Thaelmann:

'One of the greatest revolutionaries of the German workers' movement. Our comrade Ernst Thaelmann, ms leader of the German munist Party, gave the party and the fighting working class its international character' And Sindermann went on to credit Thaelmann with, if not actually • the invention of the united front, at least keen support for it.

'He taught the fighting alliance of all progressive forces in the world to oppose warmongering and chauvinism.

And later he added: 'In the name of Ernst Thaelmann, we are entitled to declare that we will always honour the fraternal alliance between the Soviet Union and the German Democratic Republic, that no one will prevent us going our way with the Soviet Union.' Rise to power as leader of CP The legend of Thaelmann is useful to the East German bureaucracy and appears from time to time in the Stalinist press of other countries.

But the reality hardly measures up to the propaganda presentation. A great favourite of Stalin, Thaelmann rose to prominence in the period after the defeat of the Left Opposition in the 1920s when the communist parties were brought under Stalin's control.

belonged to same France, in Togliatti in Italy or promotion as Thorez Pollitt in Britain. In intelligence and political acumen he was inferior to all three. His rise to power as leader of the powerfu German Communist Party, which had once been lec Liebknesht and Ibur was an Rosa Luxemburg, Karl index of its degeneration.

In the early 1920s Thaelmann, who came from Hamburg, rose to prominence as leader of the left wing in alliance with Ruth Fischer's faction. Even at that time he was opposed to a united front with the Social Democrats, which was as It was an error by Thaelmann which resulted in the Hamburg communists going through with the insurrection in October 1923 after a decision had been taken to call it off. He prematurely told the couriers who were waiting to know the decision of the conference called at Chemnitz that the insurrection would take place. All except Remmele from Hamburg were repressed with heavy loss of lite. called. rising Thaelmann's strength lay in the fact that he represented the CP's powerful Hamburg organization. Despite his theoretical backwardness, he rose quietly to prominence much as Stalin had done. By 1925 he was sufficiently well-known nationally to stand as presidential candidate—he won 6.3 per cent of the votes.

In the 'Bolshevization' which followed, both the left wing of Fischer-Maslow and the right wing of Brandler-Thalheimer were defeated. Thaelmann emerged as a faithful supporter of Moscow, following its right and left zig-zags without question, having no political ideas of his own.

It was after the leftward turn known as 'the third period, launched by Stalin, in 1928 that Thaelmann's hold on the Party became complete.

His career almost came to an abrupt end when he was involved in a case of embezzlement of Party funds by his brother-in-law, Wittorf. Thaelmann's attempt to cover up the scandal was formally disapproved by the Central Committee in September 1928 and he was removed from his Party offices.

Reinstatement came rapidly —on direct orders from Stalin. A Central Committee delegation was summoned to Moscow and a purge was launched in the German Party against those who had 'exploited' the Wittorf affair against Thaelmann. Flanked by Remmele and Heinz Neumann, he became undisputed leader.

From then on Thaelmann was built up in Germany, much as Stalin was in the Soviet Union with a massive personality cult as the great leader of the German proletariat. At the 12th Congress in June 1929 he was greeted by an organized ovation without precedent in the history of the German movement, but now to become standard in all the communist parties.

Casting all principle aside, the German Communist Party tried to answer the propaganda of the Nazis for Adolf Hitler by showing that they had a 'Fuehrer' of their own-Ernst Thaelmann. His picture was everywhere and the Party press was liberally sprinkled with tributes to his genius.

The adventurist policy which the German Communist Party pursued in the last years of the Weimar republic, under instructions from Stalin, was accepted by Thaelmann without question. Thaelmann bears full responsibility for the defeat which followed in 1933.

No one was louder in his denunciation of the Social Democrats as 'social fascists. All the disastrous policies of those years, going as far as cooperation with the Nazis, were fully endorsed by him.

Thaelmann tried to outbid the Nazis in appeals to nationalism, •romise to the easantry and a further buil up of his own personality cult. In the first ballot of the presidential elections of March 1932 he won 13.2 per cent of the votes against 30.1 per cent for Hitler and 49.6 per cent for Hindenburg. In the second ballot his share fell to a little over 10 per cent.

While the Nazi vote was growing growing rapidly- Hitler had per cent in second ballot-Thaelmann discovered the main danger in Catholic Centre Party.

'It is probable,' he wrote in January 1933, when the Centre Party leader Brüning was Chancellor, 'that the exercise Tune dictatorship of the bourgeoisie whatever its methods, particularly they are fascist methods -will be above all and for long time in the hands of the Centre Party'.

\ few months later Hinden urg dismissed Brüning. who later disappeared into obscurity in this pred States of Thaelmann's was typical quality as a political thinker. He displayed it again when he declared that the Communist Party was the only party to have gained from the Reichstag elections of July 1932 and suggested that the Nazi tide was on the turn. More accurately, he declared to Thpi Plenum of the Executive Committee ot the Comintern: 'With the fate of the German revolution the fate of the revolution in vestern and centra Europe will be decided Thaelmann, the typical Stalinist bureaucrat, magnified every small gain for the Communist Party into a great victory and saw every slight setback for the Nazis as a sign of their coming defeat. Unable to warn or prepare the working class to meet the dangers, Thaelmann persisted to the end with the policy of 'social fascism' which prevented a united working-class struggle against Nazism.

The obedient functionary Although it still retained 12 per cent of the votes in the March 1933 elections after Hitler had become Chancellor, the Communist Party was not able to organize any effective resistance. The Party was made illegal, thousands of its members were arrested, tortured by the Gestapo and executed or sent to concentration camps. While some leaders were able to escape, Thaelmann was arrested and spent the remaining years of his life as a prisoner of the Nazis.

The defeat of the German working class and of the Communist Party cannot, of course, be blamed onto Thaelmann alone. He was a thick-headed and obedient functionary who faithfully and without question carried out Stalin's bidding.

Knowing that he was Stalin's man, the Nazis at least allowed nim to, live until their own defeat was certain, perhaps hoping to use him in some future deal. Even during the period of the Stalin-Hitler pact, however, Thaelmann was not permitted his freedom.

Perhaps Stalin did not relish his return to Moscow. Perhaps he feared the recriminations of the man who led the Party he had guided to defeat.

Some troublesome colleagues and friends of Thaelmann had been 'liquidated' during the purges. The legend of Thaelmann could best be preserved if he stayed in Hitler's concentration camp; the Stalinists were perhaps secretly pleased that he died there. Better an heroic martyr than anuncomfortable ghost from the past. Ernst Thaelmann, handpicked by Stalin to promote his fatal policies in Germany In the 1920s and early 1930s which led to the defeat of the German working class and the rise of fascism. Above: Thaelmann In 1932. Below: imprisoned by Nazis.

His death permits the bureaucrats of the Socialist Unity Party, successor of the Communist Party in East Germany, to preserve the legend. In the light of the true Thaelmann story, their exploitation of his name is as cynical as their attribution to him of the policy of the united or popular front is a brazen lie.

But, after all, Thaelmann was a Stalinist of the same hue who used the same methods himself—the price which the working class paid was heavy indeed.

The prophets of doom, those September 1972 26,