Rote Hilfe
Encyclopedia
- For the group founded in 1975, see Rote Hilfe e.V.Rote Hilfe e.V.Rote Hilfe e.V. is a German far-left prisoner support group. RH was founded in 1975, although localized groups calling themselves "Rote Hilfe" had begun to appear at the end of the 1960s. The group views itself as a successor to the Weimar-era Rote Hilfe...
The Rote Hilfe ("Red Aid") was the German affiliate of the International Red Aid
International Red Aid
International Red Aid was an international social service organization established by the Communist International...
. The Rote Hilfe was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
and existed between 1924 and 1936.
Origin
The Rote Hilfe was first organized as a result of the political repressionPolitical repression
Political repression is the persecution of an individual or group for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing their ability to take political life of society....
in April 1921 following bloody strikes and communist rebellions in central Germany in March of that year. It was formed after a decision the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(KPD). In November 1921, a "Berlin Committee" was created as a 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...
.
The Fourth World Congress of the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
from October 5 - November 12, 1922, called for "the creation of organizations to render material and moral aid to all captives of capitalism in prison." This effort later became the International Red Aid
International Red Aid
International Red Aid was an international social service organization established by the Communist International...
, (also known by its Russian abbreviation, MOPR). The Rote Hilfe Deutschlands (RHD) was founded on October 1, 1924 as an organization affiliated with the KPD. Artist Heinrich Vogeler
Heinrich Vogeler
Heinrich Vogeler was a German painter, designer, and architect.- Biography :He was born in Bremen, and studied at the academy of arts in Düsseldorf from 1890–95...
, was one of the founding members and was elected to the Central Committee. The first chairman was Wilhelm Pieck
Wilhelm Pieck
Friedrich Wilhelm Reinhold Pieck was a German politician and a Communist. In 1949, he became the first President of the German Democratic Republic, an office abolished upon his death. He was succeeded by Walter Ulbricht, who served as Chairman of the Council of States.-Biography:Pieck was born to...
, later the first and only president of the German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
. He was previously the leader of the Juristischen Zentralstelle of the Landtag
Landtag
A Landtag is a representative assembly or parliament in German-speaking countries with some legislative authority.- Name :...
of the Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
and the Reichstag
Reichstag (Weimar Republic)
The Reichstag was the parliament of Weimar Republic .German constitution commentators consider only the Reichstag and now the Bundestag the German parliament. Another organ deals with legislation too: in 1867-1918 the Bundesrat, in 1919–1933 the Reichsrat and from 1949 on the Bundesrat...
faction of the KPD. After 1925, Clara Zetkin
Clara Zetkin
Clara Zetkin was a German Marxist theorist, activist, and fighter for women's rights. In 1910, she organized the first International Women's Day....
assumed leadership of the RHD. After the death of Julian Marchlewski
Julian Marchlewski
Julian Baltazar Marchlewski was a Polish communist. He was also known under the aliases Karski and Kujawiak....
that same year, she also lead the MOPR.
In the beginning, the organization was active with the campaign, "Rote Hilfe for the victims of war and work", part of an international campaign to support war victims and those disabled at work. The main emphasis of the work was the support of arrested members of the Rotfrontkämpferbund
Rotfrontkämpferbund
Rotfrontkämpferbund was a paramilitary organization of the Communist Party of Germany created on 18 July 1924 during the Weimar Republic. Its first leader was Ernst Thälmann...
, the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany
Socialist Workers' Party of Germany
The Socialist Workers' Party of Germany was a political party in Germany. It was formed by a left-wing party with around 20,000 members which split off from the SPD in the autumn of 1931. In 1931 the remnants of USPD merged into the party, and in 1932 some Communist Party dissenters joined the...
, Communist Workers' Party of Germany, unionists, as well as unaffiliated individuals and their family members.
The Rote Hilfe proclaimed March 18, 1923 (anniversary of the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
) to be the "International Day of Aid for Political Prisoners" and observed this day till they were banned by the National Socialists in 1933.
In March 1930, the Rote Hilfe took part in the founding of a German section of the "International Juridicial Union", which dealt with penal, popular, constitutional and labor rights.
In 1933, the Rote Hilfe was banned, following the issuing of the Reichstag Fire Decree
Reichstag Fire Decree
The Reichstag Fire Decree is the common name of the Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of People and State issued by German President Paul von Hindenburg in direct response to the Reichstag fire of 27 February 1933. The decree nullified many of the key civil liberties of German...
. Hans Litten
Hans Litten
Hans Achim Litten was a German lawyer who represented opponents of the Nazis at important political trials between 1929 and 1932, defending the rights of workers during the Weimar Republic. During one trial in 1931, Litten subpoenaed Adolf Hitler, to appear as a witness, where Litten then...
, Felix Halle, Alfred Apfel and other lawyers were arrested the very night of the Reichstag fire
Reichstag fire
The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin on 27 February 1933. The event is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany....
. The organization tried to continue its work through 1934, directed by exiled leadership in Paris. By 1935-1936, the Rote Hilfe had been dissolved by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
. Some members continued to work underground to help threatened individuals go into exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
through the Saar (protectorate)
Saar (protectorate)
The Saar Protectorate was a German borderland territory twice temporarily made a protectorate state. Since rejoining Germany the second time in 1957, it is the smallest Federal German Area State , the Saarland, not counting the city-states Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen...
, then still an autonomous region. Wilhelm Beuttel took over the leadership of the organization from exile in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1933-1934.
Membership and statistics
The chapters of the Rote Hilfe consisted of factory and neighborhood cells and were led by district chairmen who worked under a central chairman. An "auditing commission" was adjunct to the Central Committee and monitored compliance with applicable law. Each chapter had a "relief commission", which was supposed to also involve local politicians. The Rote Hilfe employed 60-80 people full-time. There were annual national congresses, at which lawyers such as Kurt Rosenfeld, Felix Halle and Hilde BenjaminHilde Benjamin
Hilde Benjamin was an East German judge and Minister of Justice. She is best known for presiding over a series of political show trials in the 1950s....
gave lectures on criminal law
Criminal law
Criminal law, is the body of law that relates to crime. It might be defined as the body of rules that defines conduct that is not allowed because it is held to threaten, harm or endanger the safety and welfare of people, and that sets out the punishment to be imposed on people who do not obey...
and other legal issues.
International Red Aid
International Red Aid was an international social service organization established by the Communist International...
.
From 1924 to March 1929, the Rote Hilfe supported 27,000 people and 16,000 people in prison at a cost of four million Reichsmarks. There was a drop in membership in 1929, the result of partisan fighting. In 1932, the Rote Hilfe helped 9,000 political prisoners, 20,000 family members and 50,000 people on the left with preliminary investigations and trials. Its central committee was connected with the KPD's "juridicial central office" and also worked with the Berlin MOPR.
Beginning in 1923, the Rote Hilfe maintained the Barkenhoff children's home
Children's Home
Children's Home is a historic building at 427 Robeson Street in Fall River, Massachusetts.The Home was built in 1894 and added to the National Historic Register in 1983....
at the Worpswede artists' colony after Heinrich Vogeler
Heinrich Vogeler
Heinrich Vogeler was a German painter, designer, and architect.- Biography :He was born in Bremen, and studied at the academy of arts in Düsseldorf from 1890–95...
conveyed his property to them for a mere 15,000 goldmark
German gold mark
The Goldmark was the currency used in the German Empire from 1873 to 1914.-History:Before unification, the different German states issued a variety of different currencies, though most were linked to the Vereinsthaler, a silver coin containing 16⅔ grams of pure silver...
s. In 1925, they began also maintaining the MOPR Children's Home in Elgersburg
Elgersburg
Elgersburg is a municipality in the district Ilm-Kreis, in Thuringia, Germany....
, as well. The two homes were managed by a 46-person administrative board, which included such well-known members as Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
and Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann
Thomas Mann was a German novelist, short story writer, social critic, philanthropist, essayist, and 1929 Nobel Prize laureate, known for his series of highly symbolic and ironic epic novels and novellas, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and the intellectual...
.
The Rote Hilfe Deutschland community drew active support by about 600 notable individuals from democratic and leftist intellectual circles. Their campaigns, such as the amnesty for political prisoners in 1928, for freedom in the arts, or in favor of liberalizing the law on 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...
were supported by Albert Einstein, Kurt Tucholsky
Kurt Tucholsky
Kurt Tucholsky was a German-Jewish journalist, satirist and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser, Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel. Born in Berlin-Moabit, he moved to Paris in 1924 and then to Sweden in 1930.Tucholsky was one of the most important journalists of...
, Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz
Käthe Kollwitz was a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor whose work offered an eloquent and often searing account of the human condition in the first half of the 20th century...
, Heinrich Zille
Heinrich Zille
Rudolf Heinrich Zille , German illustrator and photographer, was born in Radeburg near Dresden, as the son of watchmaker Johann Traugott Zill and Ernestine Louise...
, Heinrich Mann
Heinrich Mann
Luiz Heinrich Mann was a German novelist who wrote works with strong social themes. His attacks on the authoritarian and increasingly militaristic nature of pre-World War II German society led to his exile in 1933.-Life and work:Born in Lübeck as the oldest child of Thomas Johann Heinrich Mann...
, Erich Mühsam
Erich Mühsam
Erich Mühsam was a German-Jewish anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic....
, Magnus Hirschfeld
Magnus Hirschfeld
Magnus Hirschfeld was a German physician and sexologist. An outspoken advocate for sexual minorities, Hirschfeld founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, which Dustin Goltz called "the first advocacy for homosexual and transgender rights."-Early life:Hirschfeld was born in Kolberg in a...
, Otto Dix
Otto Dix
Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of Weimar society and the brutality of war. Along with George Grosz, he is widely considered one of the most important artists of the Neue Sachlichkeit.-Early life and...
, Max Liebermann
Max Liebermann
Max Liebermann was a German-Jewish painter and printmaker best known for his etching and lithography.-Biography:...
, Erwin Piscator
Erwin Piscator
Erwin Friedrich Maximilian Piscator was a German theatre director and producer and, with Bertolt Brecht, the foremost exponent of epic theatre, a form that emphasizes the socio-political content of drama, rather than its emotional manipulation of the audience or on the production's formal...
, Carl von Ossietzky
Carl von Ossietzky
Carl von Ossietzky was a German pacifist and the recipient of the 1935 Nobel Peace Prize. He was convicted of high treason and espionage in 1931 after publishing details of Germany's alleged violation of the Treaty of Versailles by rebuilding an air force, the predecessor of the Luftwaffe, and...
, Heinrich Vogeler and others.
The lawyers
Hans LittenHans Litten
Hans Achim Litten was a German lawyer who represented opponents of the Nazis at important political trials between 1929 and 1932, defending the rights of workers during the Weimar Republic. During one trial in 1931, Litten subpoenaed Adolf Hitler, to appear as a witness, where Litten then...
was especially well-known for his activity with the Rote Hilfe. In a series of major political trials during the mid-1920s and into the early 1930s, he doggedly pursued justice for the leftist victims of the growing Nazi terror, once summoning even Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
to appear as a witness. By the end of the Weimar Republic, Litten was unable to go out in public without a bodyguard. This was provided by members of the Rotfrontkämpferbund
Rotfrontkämpferbund
Rotfrontkämpferbund was a paramilitary organization of the Communist Party of Germany created on 18 July 1924 during the Weimar Republic. Its first leader was Ernst Thälmann...
.
During the period of its activity, some 330 attorneys worked for the Rote Hilfe. Of these, 60% were of Jewish background, a fact that had special significance after August 7, 1933, when the Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service
Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service
The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service , also known as Civil Service Law, Civil Service Restoration Act, and Law to Re-establish the Civil Service, was a law passed by the National Socialist regime on April 7, 1933, two months after Adolf...
came into effect and many lost their license to practice in German courts. (First World War veterans were able to continue till the end of 1941 as lay lawyers.) Other lawyers were also affected by the law for reasons of "Communist activity", many becoming corporate lawyers after losing their license to practice in court.
According to Josef Schwarz, 22 of its lawyers were sent to Nazi concentration camps
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...
. Only a few of the Jewish lawyers who hadn't left Germany by 1942 survived the camps. Two lawyers who moved to the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
later became victims of the Stalinist purges. Some 30 of the lawyers who went into exile later returned to Germany, nine of them to the German Democratic Republic
German Democratic Republic
The German Democratic Republic , informally called East Germany by West Germany and other countries, was a socialist state established in 1949 in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany, including East Berlin of the Allied-occupied capital city...
.
Trials and campaigns
- "German ChekaChekaCheka was the first of a succession of Soviet state security organizations. It was created by a decree issued on December 20, 1917, by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently led by aristocrat-turned-communist Felix Dzerzhinsky...
Trial" (February-April 1925) against KPD members accused of high treasonHigh treasonHigh treason is criminal disloyalty to one's government. Participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state are perhaps... - Series of trials resulting from the Hamburg UprisingHamburg UprisingThe Hamburg Uprising was an insurrection during the Weimar Republic in Germany. It was begun on October 23, 1923 by the one of the most militant sections of the Hamburg district Communist Party , the KP Wasserkante. From a military point of view, the attempt was futile and it was over within 24...
(January-May 1925) - 1926 "Free Max Hoelz and all political Prisoners" – amnesty campaign
- 1929 Berlin "Blutmai" Trial
- 1931 Saxon "Weapons Cache Trial" on the leftist take-over of a StahlhelmStahlhelm, Bund der FrontsoldatenThe Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten also known in short form as Der Stahlhelm was one of the many paramilitary organizations that arose after the defeat of World War I in the Weimar Republic...
camp on ReichswehrReichswehrThe Reichswehr formed the military organisation of Germany from 1919 until 1935, when it was renamed the Wehrmacht ....
property - 1932 "Röntgenstraßen Trial" – involving a murdered SASturmabteilungThe Sturmabteilung functioned as a paramilitary organization of the National Socialist German Workers' Party . It played a key role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and 1930s...
man - 1932 "Felseneck Trial" – murder trial resulting from the SA attack of an arbor colony inhabited by SPD and KPD members
- Defense in other trials about "freedom of art", for the SPD and Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-GoldReichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-GoldThe Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold was a Social Democratic paramilitary force formed during the Weimar Republic in 1924....
members
Further reading
- Siegfried Bresler and others, Der Barkenhoff - Kinderheim der Roten Hilfe. Lilienthal (1991) ISBN 3-922516-91-2
- Hermann Weber, Die Wandlung des deutschen Kommunismus. Die Stalinisierung der KPD in der Weimarer Republik. Frankfurt am Main 1969