Walter Ulbricht and "Third Period Stalinism"

[Die Neue Zeit]

Just as I worked on some critical correspondence elsewhere, I found this related letter:

http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/780/letters.php

Airbrushed

Ben Lewis makes useful reference to some of the many ‘joint’ meetings held by Communist and Nazi parties in pre-Hitler Germany. Of course, there was a ‘darker’ side to this alleged ‘unity’ - of party bureaucrats rather than workers - which culminated in the massive Berlin transport strike of 1932, where swastika and hammer and sickle banners jointly decorated numerous working class localities.

I visited the German Democratic Republic on many occasions during the 1950s and 1960s. Following his residence in the USSR during wartime, Walter Ulbricht had emerged as general secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany - a so-called coalition under communist control - which made him, in effect, ‘head of state’. His face appeared on virtually all East German postage stamps. His picture decorated every public building and hung on the wall of every party member whose home I visited.

There was really only one picture of Ulbricht dating from pre-war years and it could be found in virtually every souvenir book prepared for visitors and every history book issued to school children (I still have several of them). The text beneath just referred to him as a “leading speaker of the struggling working people” during the 1930s.

Never reported, however, was that this picture was taken when he was a ‘guest’ speaker at a National Socialist meeting held in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin on January 22 1931. The ‘main’ speaker, awaiting his turn to address the same meeting, his hand to his face, was none other than Dr Joseph Göbbels! Göbbels was sometimes, but only sometimes, brushed out of the reproduced photograph.

Bob Potter
email

[Das war einmal]

Just as I worked on some critical correspondence elsewhere, I found this related letter:

http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/780/letters.php

Airbrushed

Ben Lewis makes useful reference to some of the many ‘joint’ meetings held by Communist and Nazi parties in pre-Hitler Germany. Of course, there was a ‘darker’ side to this alleged ‘unity’ - of party bureaucrats rather than workers - which culminated in the massive Berlin transport strike of 1932, where swastika and hammer and sickle banners jointly decorated numerous working class localities.

I visited the German Democratic Republic on many occasions during the 1950s and 1960s. Following his residence in the USSR during wartime, Walter Ulbricht had emerged as general secretary of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany - a so-called coalition under communist control - which made him, in effect, ‘head of state’. His face appeared on virtually all East German postage stamps. His picture decorated every public building and hung on the wall of every party member whose home I visited.

There was really only one picture of Ulbricht dating from pre-war years and it could be found in virtually every souvenir book prepared for visitors and every history book issued to school children (I still have several of them). The text beneath just referred to him as a “leading speaker of the struggling working people” during the 1930s.

Never reported, however, was that this picture was taken when he was a ‘guest’ speaker at a National Socialist meeting held in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin on January 22 1931. The ‘main’ speaker, awaiting his turn to address the same meeting, his hand to his face, was none other than Dr Joseph Göbbels! Göbbels was sometimes, but only sometimes, brushed out of the reproduced photograph.

Bob Potter
email

Ehm what does this have to do with the later rule of Walter Ulbricht? Ofcourse its not reported, but know that the nazi war criminals were really prosecuted in the GDR unlike in West Germany

I have not heard about communist-nazi cooperations like this before. It is actually the case that Social-democrats have made use of SA troops to break down communist-supported strikes in a few cases. (source: Blackshirts and Reds, Michael Parenti)

[Bankotsu]

I have not heard about communist-nazi cooperations like this before. It is actually the case that Social-democrats have made use of SA troops to break down communist-supported strikes in a few cases. (source: Blackshirts and Reds, Michael Parenti)

I read that Stalin restrained the German Communist Party from joining forces with SPD against the Nazi party, so this can be considered indirect aid to Hitler.

Source:
http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=_eeqfWOo_L8C&pg=PA71&lpg=PA71&dq=germany+communist+party+stalin+nazi+1933+spd&source=bl&ots=2vh0VZkvQW&sig=_OJ8iKlSkurZBWX6A5JoMLf6Nak&hl=en&ei=RmF2SoH9EaaK6AOm8cDCCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=germany%20communist%20party%20stalin%20nazi%2019 33%20spd&f=false


After the Nazis came to power in January 1933, Thälmann proposed that SPD and KPD should organise a general strike to topple Hitler, but this was not achieved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Th%C3%A4lmann

Could it be due to the intervention of Stalin that prevented the strike?

[Bankotsu]

Never reported, however, was that this picture was taken when he was a ‘guest’ speaker at a National Socialist meeting held in the Friedrichshain district of Berlin on January 22 1931. The ‘main’ speaker, awaiting his turn to address the same meeting, his hand to his face, was none other than Dr Joseph Göbbels! Göbbels was sometimes, but only sometimes, brushed out of the reproduced photograph.

Here is some information on that period when Nazis and communists collaborated against the SPD:


At the same time, Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), under leadership of German chancellor Hermann Müller, agreed with anti-communist parties that "red equals brown".

This led to mutual hostility between social democrats and communists, which were additionally intensified in 1929 when Berlin's police, under control of the SPD government, shot down communist workers demonstrating on May Day (Berlin's Bloody May).

This, and the repressive legislation against the communists that followed, served as further evidence to communists that social democrats were indeed "social fascists".

In 1931 in Prussia, the largest state of Germany, Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which referred to the Nazis as "working people's comrades", united with them in unsuccessful attempt to bring down the state government of SPD. German Communists continued to deny any essential difference between Nazism and Social Democracy even after elections in 1933...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_fascism#Overview

[ComradeOm]

I comment on the KPD/SPD relationship here (http://www.revleft.com/vb/showpost.php?p=1409657&postcount=2). As for that picture, I've heard, though can't confirm, that Ulbricht was speaking at that meeting to convince the workers that their future lay with the KPD and not the NSDAP


Could it be due to the intervention of Stalin that prevented the strike?No, the proposal of a general strike was rejected by the SPD. Stalin was not involved

[Andy Bowden]

I remember reading in Richard Evans The Coming of the Third Reich that there was a debate between Thalmann and Hitler in a beer hall once, which inevitably degenerated into a massive fight between SA and Red Front Fighters. So I'd imagine something similar happened with Ulbricht.

[SocialismOrBarbarism]

I just found this by accident:

http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/images/ulbr/ulbr04.jpg


To win back workers confused by Nazi lies, Walter Ulbricht went to Nazi meetings and revealed the Nazi leaders for what they were. On 22 January 1931, a Nazi meeting in Friedrichshain ended with the complete defeat of the Nazi Gauleiter of Berlin, Goebbels. In this meeting, Walter Ulbricht told the workers:
The victory of the working people over the exploiters and slave holders is at the same time the victorious struggle for liberation by the German people. It is the way to prosperity, work and freedom, it means tearing up the Young Plan [a plan to deal with German WW I reparations payments]. Look to the Soviet Union, which has freed itself from every enemy! Long live the united front of the fighting proletariat and all workers against exploitation, Young Plan enslavement, and Fascism!"

[Soviet]

What do you want to prove,you fastidious persons?
Nazism was killed by communists and nothing can cancel out this fact,is it over your heads?

[Bankotsu]

In 1931 in Prussia, the largest state of Germany, Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which referred to the Nazis as "working people's comrades", united with them in unsuccessful attempt to bring down the state government of SPD. German Communists continued to deny any essential difference between Nazism and Social Democracy even after elections in 1933...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_fascism#Overview (http://www.anonym.to/?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_fascism#Overview)


To win back workers confused by Nazi lies, Walter Ulbricht went to Nazi meetings and revealed the Nazi leaders for what they were. On 22 January 1931, a Nazi meeting in Friedrichshain ended with the complete defeat of the Nazi Gauleiter of Berlin, Goebbels.


Okay, now I am confused, there are contradicting sources of information here, did the KPD collaborate with Nazis to bring down the SPD state regime in 1931?

[Die Neue Zeit]

They did.

[Ismail]

Okay, now I am confused, there are contradicting sources of information here, did the KPD collaborate with Nazis to bring down the SPD state regime in 1931?Yes, the KPD viewed Nazis as petty-bourgeois socialists united with Communists against a social-fascist government that was persecuting both the Communists and 'National Socialists.' Both groups had a love-hate relationship (similar to how the New Black Panther Party interacts with various 'White Nationalist' groups today) due to the ruling Social-Democrats being against both, and both the KPD and NSDAP tried to get workers to go over to their sides.

Check these out, many are quite "Communistic" in rhetoric: http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/pre1933.htm

Remember, this was when Nazism had not yet taken power and the 'left-wing' of the party (look up Ernst Röhm and the Strasser brothers) were gaining a following among the proletariat. Also keep in mind that Fascism was seen as distinct from Nazism. Fascists claimed that both capitalism and socialism were corrupt and that one must "move beyond" them to achieve the "people's state." Nazism claimed that Marxism corrupted socialism and enslaved the German people, and that the German people (workers and petty-bourgeoisie) must unite under socialism and defeat the "parasitic" elements of society. (Bourgeois Jews, and later on just Jews themselves) Both operated in a similar fashion once in power though: State-Capitalism, class conciliation, etc.

Fascism was based more on the syndicalist movement (look up National Syndicalism). The Falange in Spain are a good example of this. According to Arthur H. Landis in his book Spain: the Unfinished Revolution, the Falange even attracted some CNT-FAI members due to having such effective rhetoric. Nazism by contrast didn't really have any syndicalist base. Basically, back in the 1920's and early 30's no one would be confusing Fascism for Nazism or vice-versa.

It should be noted that by the time Mussolini came to power, Social-Democracy was seen as throughly reactionary by Communists. The Social-Democrats were pro-WWI and, for example in Germany, supporting the killing of Luxemburg. Their goal was reformism; to promote better living conditions and concessions for workers so that they would not rebel against the state. Fascism, as Stalin said, was a 'radical' variant of this trend.

[Die Neue Zeit]

Speaking of tragedy and farce, I wonder what is to be said of the relationship between Sorel's general strike mythos (ripped from Bakunin) and the rise of fascism out of cheap syndicalism (http://www.revleft.com/vb/conspiracism-and-prophet-t108012/index.html), on the one hand, and on the other Trotsky's emphasis on "action" ("agitate" within the slogan "educate, agitate, organize") and the rise of neo-conservatism from some of his key Anglo-American followers (from Irving Kristol to Christopher Hitchens). :rolleyes:

[Random Precision]

Speaking of tragedy and farce, I wonder what is to be said of the relationship between Sorel's general strike mythos (ripped from Bakunin) and the rise of fascism out of cheap syndicalism (http://www.revleft.com/vb/conspiracism-and-prophet-t108012/index.html), on the one hand, and on the other Trotsky's emphasis on "action" ("agitate" within the slogan "educate, agitate, organize") and the rise of neo-conservatism from some of his key Anglo-American followers (from Irving Kristol to Christopher Hitchens). :rolleyes:

Nothing is to be said. No one cares. Please don't spam threads in my forum with your irrelevant concerns again or I'll be happy to start with the warnings.