Communist League of West Germany
Encyclopedia
The Communist League of West Germany (Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschland; KBW) was a Maoist organization in West Germany
which existed from 1973 until 1985. The KBW contested the general elections in 1976 and 1980 in West Germany and was rated as the strongest of the German Maoist parties from 1974 until 1981. After 1982 the KBW was virtually inactive and was finally dissolved completely in 1985.
in June 1973 as a fusion of various local communist groups from Heidelberg
, Bremen, Göttingen
, Freiburg
etc. At its inaugural conference the KBW adopted a programme advocating the revolutionary overthrow
of capitalism
and the bourgeois state and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat
in order to achieve a classless society
and communism
. In its programme the KBW demanded the arming of the people (”Allgemeine Volksbewaffnung“).
One of the main efforts of the KBW was the struggle against the Bundeswehr
(Federal Armed Forces). It organized youth camps dedicated to ideological and practical training for the revolutionary struggle. Members of the KBW participated in violent demonstrations against nuclear power plant
s in West Germany (Brokdorf
, Grohnde
).
On September 21, 1975 the KBW and his Committees against § 218 organized a demonstration of 25,000 people in Bonn
towards the German law prohibiting abortion
.
The KBW contested the general elections in 1976 and 1980 and several land (German Bundesland) and local elections. The organization obtained 20,018 votes or 0,1 % in the 1976 elections (8,285 votes 1980). It won one seat in the Heidelberg city council in 1975 which got lost later. Strongholds of the KBW were university towns.
The KBW headquarters moved from Mannheim
to Frankfurt am Main in April 1977. When the Minister-President of Lower Saxony, Ernst Albrecht, proposed a ban on three maoist groups in 1977, KBW, the maoist Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD/AO) and the Communist Party of Germany/Marxist-Leninist (KPD/ML) demonstrated together in Bonn with about 16,000 supporters.
The Zimbabwe African National Union
(ZANU) was supported in its armed struggle by contributions from the KBW. ZANU politicians Ndabaningi Sithole
, Robert Mugabe
and Edgar Tekere
visited West Germany several times at invitation of the KBW.
The organization split in the summer of 1980 when about a quarter of the membership formed the League of West German Communists (Bund Westdeutscher Kommunisten; BWK), which continued to work on the basis of the KBW programme of 1973.
In 1982 the KBW abandoned its objective of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat and started to infiltrate The Greens
(Die Grünen). The official weekly KVZ and the theoretical organ KuK ceased publication at the end of 1982. Their successor, the monthly Kommune was not a KBW magazine anymore.
.
Since 1977 the organization was divided into three regional (Nord, Mitte, Süd) and 40 district units. It had in the beginning a 13-member (later expanded) Central Committee
and a five-member Standing Committee (Ständiger Ausschuss).
The KBW had 900 members in 1973 and about 5,000 (with affiliated organizations) in 1977. Membership declined later due to the high demands the party made on their members, lack of success and the dramatic changes in the politics of the People's Republic of China
.
Secretary of the Central Committee's Standing Committee from 1973 until 1982 was Hans-Gerhart (”Joscha“) Schmierer.
The KBW had its biggest success in the communal elections of Baden-Württemberg
in April 1975, when Helga Rosenbaum was voted onto the Heidelberg city council and used this as a platform to call for the violent overthrow of the Federal Republic. On September 16, 1976 she was expelled from this body by a vote of the majority parties.
, Friedrich Engels
, Vladimir Lenin
, Joseph Stalin
and Mao Zedong
whose writings were distributed through KBW bookshops (or later party offices). It sided with the politics of the Communist Party of China
until 1980. Condolences and greetings of KBW secretary Hans-Gerhart (”Joscha“) Schmierer were published frequently since 1976 in the Peking Review (later Beijing Review). It sent delegations to China several times and to the Democratic Kampuchea
of Pol Pot
in late 1978.
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
which existed from 1973 until 1985. The KBW contested the general elections in 1976 and 1980 in West Germany and was rated as the strongest of the German Maoist parties from 1974 until 1981. After 1982 the KBW was virtually inactive and was finally dissolved completely in 1985.
History
The KBW was formed at a conference held in BremenBremen
The City Municipality of Bremen is a Hanseatic city in northwestern Germany. A commercial and industrial city with a major port on the river Weser, Bremen is part of the Bremen-Oldenburg metropolitan area . Bremen is the second most populous city in North Germany and tenth in Germany.Bremen is...
in June 1973 as a fusion of various local communist groups from Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, Bremen, Göttingen
Göttingen
Göttingen is a university town in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is the capital of the district of Göttingen. The Leine river runs through the town. In 2006 the population was 129,686.-General information:...
, Freiburg
Freiburg
Freiburg im Breisgau is a city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In the extreme south-west of the country, it straddles the Dreisam river, at the foot of the Schlossberg. Historically, the city has acted as the hub of the Breisgau region on the western edge of the Black Forest in the Upper Rhine Plain...
etc. At its inaugural conference the KBW adopted a programme advocating the revolutionary overthrow
Revolution
A revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
of capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
and the bourgeois state and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat
Dictatorship of the proletariat
In Marxist socio-political thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a socialist state in which the proletariat, or the working class, have control of political power. The term, coined by Joseph Weydemeyer, was adopted by the founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the...
in order to achieve a classless society
Classless society
Classless society refers to a society in which no one is born into a social class. Such distinctions of wealth, income, education, culture, or social network might arise and would only be determined by individual experience and achievement in such a society.Since these distinctions are difficult to...
and communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
. In its programme the KBW demanded the arming of the people (”Allgemeine Volksbewaffnung“).
One of the main efforts of the KBW was the struggle against the Bundeswehr
Bundeswehr
The Bundeswehr consists of the unified armed forces of Germany and their civil administration and procurement authorities...
(Federal Armed Forces). It organized youth camps dedicated to ideological and practical training for the revolutionary struggle. Members of the KBW participated in violent demonstrations against nuclear power plant
Nuclear power plant
A nuclear power plant is a thermal power station in which the heat source is one or more nuclear reactors. As in a conventional thermal power station the heat is used to generate steam which drives a steam turbine connected to a generator which produces electricity.Nuclear power plants are usually...
s in West Germany (Brokdorf
Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant
Brokdorf Nuclear Power Plant is close to the municipality of Brokdorf in Steinburg, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It started in October 1986 by a first-of-its-kind joint venture between PreussenElektra and Hamburgische Electricitäts-Werke...
, Grohnde
Grohnde Nuclear Power Plant
The Grohnde Nuclear Power Plant is located in Hamelin-Pyrmont in Lower Saxony. It has one reactor that uses 193 fuel assemblies and utilizes both Enriched Uranium and MOX fuel...
).
On September 21, 1975 the KBW and his Committees against § 218 organized a demonstration of 25,000 people in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
towards the German law prohibiting abortion
Abortion
Abortion is defined as the termination of pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo prior to viability. An abortion can occur spontaneously, in which case it is usually called a miscarriage, or it can be purposely induced...
.
The KBW contested the general elections in 1976 and 1980 and several land (German Bundesland) and local elections. The organization obtained 20,018 votes or 0,1 % in the 1976 elections (8,285 votes 1980). It won one seat in the Heidelberg city council in 1975 which got lost later. Strongholds of the KBW were university towns.
The KBW headquarters moved from Mannheim
Mannheim
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. With about 315,000 inhabitants, Mannheim is the second-largest city in the Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, following the capital city of Stuttgart....
to Frankfurt am Main in April 1977. When the Minister-President of Lower Saxony, Ernst Albrecht, proposed a ban on three maoist groups in 1977, KBW, the maoist Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD/AO) and the Communist Party of Germany/Marxist-Leninist (KPD/ML) demonstrated together in Bonn with about 16,000 supporters.
The Zimbabwe African National Union
Zimbabwe African National Union
The Zimbabwe African National Union was a militant organization that fought against the standing government in Rhodesia, formed as a split from the Zimbabwe African People's Union...
(ZANU) was supported in its armed struggle by contributions from the KBW. ZANU politicians Ndabaningi Sithole
Ndabaningi Sithole
Ndabaningi Sithole founded the Zimbabwe African National Union, a militant organization that opposed the government of Rhodesia, in July 1963. A member of the Ndau ethnic group, he also worked as a Methodist minister. He spent 10 years in prison after the government banned ZANU...
, Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe
Robert Gabriel Mugabe is the President of Zimbabwe. As one of the leaders of the liberation movement against white-minority rule, he was elected into power in 1980...
and Edgar Tekere
Edgar Tekere
Edgar Zivanai Tekere was a Zimbabwean politician. He was a president of the Zimbabwe African National Union who organised the party during the Lancaster House talks and served in government before his popularity as a potential rival to Robert Mugabe caused their...
visited West Germany several times at invitation of the KBW.
The organization split in the summer of 1980 when about a quarter of the membership formed the League of West German Communists (Bund Westdeutscher Kommunisten; BWK), which continued to work on the basis of the KBW programme of 1973.
In 1982 the KBW abandoned its objective of establishing the dictatorship of the proletariat and started to infiltrate The Greens
The Greens
The Greens is the name of several different green parties:* Australian Greens, also known as The Greens* The Greens – The Green Alternative, Austria* The Greens * The Greens * The Greens * The Greens...
(Die Grünen). The official weekly KVZ and the theoretical organ KuK ceased publication at the end of 1982. Their successor, the monthly Kommune was not a KBW magazine anymore.
Structure
The organizational principle of the KBW was democratic centralismDemocratic centralism
Democratic centralism is the name given to the principles of internal organization used by Leninist political parties, and the term is sometimes used as a synonym for any Leninist policy inside a political party...
.
Since 1977 the organization was divided into three regional (Nord, Mitte, Süd) and 40 district units. It had in the beginning a 13-member (later expanded) Central Committee
Central Committee
Central Committee was the common designation of a standing administrative body of communist parties, analogous to a board of directors, whether ruling or non-ruling in the twentieth century and of the surviving, mostly Trotskyist, states in the early twenty first. In such party organizations the...
and a five-member Standing Committee (Ständiger Ausschuss).
The KBW had 900 members in 1973 and about 5,000 (with affiliated organizations) in 1977. Membership declined later due to the high demands the party made on their members, lack of success and the dramatic changes in the politics of the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
.
Secretary of the Central Committee's Standing Committee from 1973 until 1982 was Hans-Gerhart (”Joscha“) Schmierer.
Activity
For a KBW activist a normal week looked as follows: Monday from 5.30am-7.30am the selling of the weekly Communist Peoples Newspaper (KVZ) in front of a factory gate or at the railway station, followed by a branch meeting on Monday evening. Tuesday started early again with KVZ sales, as did Wednesday. On Wednesday evening there was usually a training course based on an article from the theoretical organ "Communism and Class Struggle". On Saturday there was various public activity (mostly information stands with newspaper sales), and the whole of Sunday was devoted to the study of Marxist-Leninist classics. On free afternoons leaflets were distributed and more extensive training courses took place.Electoral work
The KBW also took part in elections. In general elections, the KBW only got around 0.1 percent of the votes. More important was the actual number of people voting for the KBW (20,018). This gave a relative good indication of how many people of the time actually approved of the violent overthrow of the capitalist system. Other smaller revolutionary parties also got about 25,000 votes at this time (1976).The KBW had its biggest success in the communal elections of Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg is one of the 16 states of Germany. Baden-Württemberg is in the southwestern part of the country to the east of the Upper Rhine, and is the third largest in both area and population of Germany's sixteen states, with an area of and 10.7 million inhabitants...
in April 1975, when Helga Rosenbaum was voted onto the Heidelberg city council and used this as a platform to call for the violent overthrow of the Federal Republic. On September 16, 1976 she was expelled from this body by a vote of the majority parties.
Finances
Contrary to most political parties, KBW had no major financial problems, with KVZ and other publications giving the party a healthy income. Another important factor was financial contributions from party members. There were no set party dues as such, rather, in each cell it was specified, what the individual member had to pay. Members in employment generally contributed one-third of their income. Added to that were the various donations that came in. Individual members brought in entire fortunes and inheritances. In the mid-1970s annual contributions and donations amounted to around 5 million DM and the income from the sales of the various publications was a further 2 million DM.Orientation
The KBW subscribed to the ideas of Karl MarxKarl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
, Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels
Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...
, Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
and Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
whose writings were distributed through KBW bookshops (or later party offices). It sided with the politics of the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
until 1980. Condolences and greetings of KBW secretary Hans-Gerhart (”Joscha“) Schmierer were published frequently since 1976 in the Peking Review (later Beijing Review). It sent delegations to China several times and to the Democratic Kampuchea
Democratic Kampuchea
The Khmer Rouge period refers to the rule of Pol Pot, Nuon Chea, Ieng Sary, Son Sen, Khieu Samphan and the Khmer Rouge Communist party over Cambodia, which the Khmer Rouge renamed as Democratic Kampuchea....
of Pol Pot
Pol Pot
Saloth Sar , better known as Pol Pot, , was a Cambodian Maoist revolutionary who led the Khmer Rouge from 1963 until his death in 1998. From 1976 to 1979, he served as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea....
in late 1978.
Party slogan
Vorwärts im Kampf für die Rechte der Arbeiterklasse und des Volkes - Vorwärts im Kampf für den Sieg des Sozialismus (Forward in the struggle for the rights of the working class and the people - Forward in the struggle for the victory of socialism)Affiliated organizations
- Gesellschaft zur Unterstützung der Volkskämpfe, (GUV), (Society for Support of People's Struggles) for intellectuals
- Komitees und Initiativen gegen den § 218 (Committees against the [German abortion law] § 218)
- Kommunistische Hochschulgruppe (KHG), Kommunistischer Studentenbund (KSB) for university students
- Kommunistischer Jugendbund (KJB), the 1976 merger of Kommunistische Schülergruppe (KSG), Kommunistischer Oberschülerbund (KOB) and Kommunistischer Arbeiterjugendbund (KAJB), for young people
- Soldaten- und Reservisten Komitees (SRK), (Soldiers' and Reservists' Committees) for the antimilitaristic struggle
- Vereinigung für revolutionäre Volksbildung - Soldaten und Reservisten (Association of revolutionary People's education - Soldiers and Reservists) was the 1979 merger of GUV, § 218 Komitees and SRK following the substantial membership losses in the auxiliary organizations of the KBW
Publications
- Kommunistische Volkszeitung [Communist Peoples Newspaper], KVZ, 1973, July — 1982, biweekly, later weekly official organ of KBW central committee
- Kommunismus und Klassenkampf [Communism and Class Struggle], KuK, 1972 — 1982, monthly theoretical organ
- Kommune, 1983, January ff., monthly (individual editors)
- Programme of the Kommunistischer Bund Westdeutschland, Mannheim 1975 (English translation of Programm und Statut des Kommunistischen Bundes Westdeutschland, 1973)
Former members of the KBW
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- Winfried Kretschmann
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- Frieder NakeFrieder NakeFrieder Nake is a professor for computer graphics at the department for computer science at the University of Bremen and visiting professor for hypermedia design at the University of the Arts Bremen. He lives and works in Bremen, Germany.He has taught in Stuttgart, Toronto and Vancouver, and has...
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Literature
- VerfassungsschutzberichtVerfassungsschutzberichtThe Annual Report on the Protection of the Constitution is published by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior since 1968. In the Annual Report details of the activities of far right, far left, Islamic extremists foreign and domestic, in Germany, as well as espionage, are given...
, issues 1973 until 1985 - Yearbook on International Communist Affairs, ed. by Hoover InstitutionHoover InstitutionThe Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then future U.S. president, Herbert Hoover, an early alumnus of Stanford....
, 1973 ff. - Political parties of the world; Compiled and edited by Alan J. Day and Henry W. Degenhardt, Harlow: Longman, 1980 (p. 126)
- Ulrich Probst: The communist parties in the Federal Republic of Germany, Frankfurt/Main: Haag + Herchen, 1981 (German: Die kommunistischen Parteien in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland)) ISBN 3-88129-451-1
- Communist and Marxist parties of the world; comp. and written by Charles Hobday, Harlow: Longman, 1986 (pp. 71–72)
- Robert J. Alexander: Maoism in the developed world; Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2001 (pp. 84–86)