HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''Antifaschistische Aktion'' () was a militant anti-fascist organisation in the
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
started by members of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) that existed from 1932 to 1933. It was primarily active as a KPD campaign during the July 1932 German federal election and the
November 1932 German federal election Federal elections were held in Germany on 6 November 1932.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p762 The Nazi Party saw its vote share fall by four percentage points, while there were slight increases f ...
and was described by the KPD as a "red united front under the leadership of the only anti-fascist party, the KPD." In the postwar era, the historical organisation inspired new groups and networks, known as the wider antifa movement, many of which use the aesthetics of ''Antifaschistische Aktion'', especially the '' antifa'' moniker and a modified version of its logo. During the Cold War, ''Antifaschistische Aktion'' had a dual legacy in
East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
and
West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...
, respectively. In East Germany, it was considered part of the history and heritage of the KPD's successor, the
Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East German ...
. In West Germany, its aesthetics and name were embraced by
Maoists Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Chi ...
and later
autonomists The Autonomists (french: Autonomistes; it, Autonomisti) was a Christian-democratic Italian political party active in the Aosta Valley. It was founded in 1997 by the union of the regional Italian People's Party with For Aosta Valley, and some ...
from the 1970s.


Background

The late 1920s and early 1930s saw rising tensions mainly between three broad groups, the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) on one side, the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...
on another and a coalition of governing parties, mainly
social democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...
and liberals, on the other side.
Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
in particular was the site of regular and often very violent clashes. Both the Communists and the Nazis explicitly sought to overthrow the
liberal democracy Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into ...
of the
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
while the social democrats and liberals strongly defended the republic and its constitution. As part of this struggle, all three factions organized their own paramilitary groups. Under the leadership of
Ernst Thälmann Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (; 16 April 1886 – 18 August 1944) was a German communist politician, and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933. A committed Marxist-Leninist and Stalinist, Thälmann played a major r ...
, the KPD became a Stalinist party that was fiercely loyal to the
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
government. Since 1928, the KPD was largely controlled and funded by the Soviet government through the Comintern. Up until 1928, the KPD pursued a
united front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political ...
policy of working with other working class and socialist parties to combat
fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...
. It was in this period, in 1924, that the ''
Roter Frontkämpferbund The (, translated as "Alliance of Red Front-Fighters" or "Red Front Fighters' League"), usually called (RFB), was a far-left paramilitary organization affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the Weimar Republic. It was of ...
'' ("Red Front Fighters League"; RFB), the KPD's paramilitary and propaganda organisation and first anti-fascist front, had been formed. The RFB was often involved in violent clashes with the police. However, after the Comintern's abrupt
ultra-left The term ultra-leftism, when used among Marxist groups, is a pejorative for certain types of positions on the far-left that are extreme or uncompromising. Another definition historically refers to a particular current of Marxist communism, where ...
turn in its
Third Period The Third Period is an ideological concept adopted by the Communist International (Comintern) at its Sixth World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928. It set policy until reversed when the Nazis took over Germany in 1933. The Comint ...
from 1928, the KPD regarded the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) as its main adversary and adopted the position that the SPD was the main fascist party in Germany. This was based on the theory of
social fascism Social fascism (also socio-fascism) was a theory that was supported by the Communist International (Comintern) and affiliated communist parties in the early 1930s that held that social democracy was a variant of fascism because it stood in the way ...
that had been proclaimed by
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili; – 5 March 1953) was a Georgian revolutionary and Soviet political leader who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until his death in 1953. He held power as General Secretar ...
 and that was supported by the Comintern during the late 1920s and early 1930s, which held that
social democracy Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote s ...
was a variant of fascism. Consequently, the KPD held that it was "the only anti-fascist party" in Germany and stated that "fighting fascism means fighting the SPD just as much as it means fighting
Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
and the parties of Brüning." In KPD and Soviet usage, ''fascism'' was primarily viewed as the final stage of capitalism rather than a specific group or movement such as the Italian Fascists or the German
Nazis Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in N ...
and, based on this theory, the term was applied quite broadly. In 1929, the KPD's banned public
May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. Tr ...
rally in Berlin was broken up by police; 33 people were killed in the clash and subsequent rioting. The RFB was then banned as extremist by the governing Social Democrats. In 1930, the KPD established the RFB's ''de facto'' successor, known as ' ("Fighting Alliance against Fascism"). In late 1931, local ''Roter Massenselbstschutz'' ("Red Mass Self-Defence") units were formed by Kampfbund members as autonomous and loosely organized structures under the leadership of, but outside the formal organization of the KPD as part of the party's
united front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts and/or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political ...
policy to work with other working class groups to defeat "fascism" as interpreted by the party. During the Third Period, the KPD viewed the Nazi Party ambiguously. On one hand, the KPD considered the Nazi Party to be one of the fascist parties. On the other hand, the KPD sought to appeal to the
Strasserite Strasserism (german: Strasserismus or ''Straßerismus'') is a strand of Nazism calling for a more radical, mass-action and worker-based form of the ideology, espousing economic antisemitism above other antisemitic forms, to achieve a national ...
-wing of the Nazi movement by using nationalist slogans. The KPD sometimes cooperated with the Nazis in attacking the SPD. In 1931, the KPD had united with the Nazis, whom they referred to as "working people's comrades", in an unsuccessful attempt to bring down the SPD state government of Prussia by means of a referendum. In the usage of the Soviet Union, and of the Comintern and its affiliated parties in this period, including the KPD, the epithet '' fascist'' was used to describe capitalist society in general and virtually any anti-Soviet or anti-Stalinist activity or opinion. The formation of ''Antifaschistische Aktion'' in 1932 indicated a shift away from the Third Period policies, as fascism came to be recognised as a more serious threat (the two red flags on its logo symbolized Communists in unity with socialists), leading up to the 1934 and 1935 adoption of a
popular front A popular front is "any coalition of working-class and middle-class parties", including liberal and social democratic ones, "united for the defense of democratic forms" against "a presumed Fascist assault". More generally, it is "a coalition ...
policy of anti-fascist unity with non-Communist groups. In October 1931, a coalition of right-wing and far-right parties established the Harzburg Front, which opposed the government of the Centre Party's Heinrich Brüning. In response, the SPD and affiliated group established the
Iron Front The Iron Front (german: Eiserne Front) was a German paramilitary organization in the Weimar Republic which consisted of social democrats, trade unionists, and liberals. Its main goal was to defend liberal democracy against totalitarian ide ...
to defend
liberal democracy Liberal democracy is the combination of a liberal political ideology that operates under an indirect democratic form of government. It is characterized by elections between multiple distinct political parties, a separation of powers into ...
 and the constitution of the
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
. ''Antifaschistische Aktion'' was formed partly as a counter-move to the SPD's establishment of the Iron Front, which the KPD regarded as a "social fascist terror organisation."Lokatis, Siegfried. ''Der rote Faden. Kommunistische Parteigeschichte und Zensur unter Walter Ulbricht''. Böhlau Verlag, Köln 2003, (''Zeithistorische Studien'' series, vol. 25). p. 60. However, from the mid-1930s, the term ''anti-fascist'' became ubiquitous in Soviet, Comintern, and KPD usage, as Communists who had been attacking democratic rivals were now told to change tack and engage in coalitions with them against the fascist threat.


Establishment

After a brawl in the
Landtag of Prussia The Landtag of Prussia (german: Preußischer Landtag) was the representative assembly of the Kingdom of Prussia implemented in 1849, a bicameral legislature consisting of the upper House of Lords (''Herrenhaus'') and the lower House of Represent ...
between members of the Nazi Party and the KPD left eight people severely injured, the KPD under Thälmann's leadership reacted to the establishment of the Harzburg Front and the Iron Front with a call for their own Unity Front which they shortly after renamed ''Antifaschistische Aktion''. The KPD formally announced the establishment of ''Antifaschistische Aktion'' in the party's newspaper ''
Die Rote Fahne ''Die Rote Fahne'' (, ''The Red Flag'') was a German newspaper originally founded in 1876 by Socialist Worker's party leader Wilhelm Hasselmann, and which has been since published on and off, at times underground, by German Socialists and Communi ...
'' (''The Red Flag'') on 26 May 1932. The new organisation was based on the principle of a
communist front A communist front is a political organization identified as a front organization under the effective control of a communist party, the Communist International or other communist organizations. They attracted politicized individuals who were not p ...
, but it remained an integral part of the KPD. The KPD described ''Antifaschistische Aktion'' as a "red united front under the leadership of the only anti-fascist party, the KPD." The organisation held its first rally in Berlin on 10 July 1932, then capital of the
Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic (german: link=no, Weimarer Republik ), officially named the German Reich, was the government of Germany from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is ...
. Its two-flag logo, designed by
Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists The Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists of Germany (German: ''Assoziation revolutionärer bildender Künstler Deutschlands'', or ARBKD) was an organization of artists who were members of the Communist Party of Germany (''Kommunistische Parte ...
members and , remains a widely used symbol of militant anti-fascism.Loren Balhorn
"The Lost History of Antifa"
''Jacobin'', May 2017.
How many people belonged to ''Antifaschistische Aktion'' is difficult to determine because there were no membership cards. Rather, it developed out of the practical participation. The Red Mass Self-Defense (RMSS) units were absorbed into ''Antifaschistische Aktion'', forming the nuclei of the latter's Unity Committees, organised on a micro-local basis, e.g. in apartment buildings, factories or allotments. As well as being involved in political streetfights, the RMSS and ''Antifaschistische Aktion'' used their militant approach to develop a comprehensive network of self-defence for communities targeted by the Nazis such as in "tenant protection" (''Mieterschutz''), action against evictions. Initially, the RMSS units had minimal formal membership, but in the second half of 1932 local executive boards were created to co-ordinate the activities of the KPD, the Kampfbund, the RMSS and the now illegal
Roter Frontkämpferbund The (, translated as "Alliance of Red Front-Fighters" or "Red Front Fighters' League"), usually called (RFB), was a far-left paramilitary organization affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the Weimar Republic. It was of ...
, with the RMSS given a more distinct and almost paramilitary defence role, often co-operating on an ad hoc basis with the Reichsbanner. With ''Antifaschistische Aktion'', the KPD not only wanted to create a cross-party collection movement dominated by KPD, but they also aimed specifically at the Reichstag election on 31 July 1932. The election campaign for the July election is regarded as the most violent in German history. In particular between KPD and Nazi supporters, it came to massive clashes and even shootings. After the forced dissolution in the wake of the Machtergreifung in 1933, the movement went underground.


Legacy

In the postwar era, the historical ''Antifaschistische Aktion'' inspired a variety of different movements, groups and individuals in Germany as well as other countries which widely adopted variants of its aesthetics and some of its tactics. Known as the wider antifa movement, modern antifa groups have no direct organisational connection to ''Antifaschistische Aktion''. Grunenberg, Antonia (1993). ''Antifaschismus – ein deutscher Mythos''. Freiburg: Rowohlt. . Groups called ''Antifaschistische Aktion'', ''Antifaschistische Ausschüsse'', or ''Antifaschistische Kommittees'', all typically abbreviated to ''antifa'', spontaneously re-emerged in Germany in 1944, mainly involving veterans of the pre-war
KPD The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...
, KPO, and
SPD The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been t ...
. Krieger, Leonard.
The Inter-Regnum in Germany: March-August 1945
''Political Science Quarterly'', Volume 64, Number 4, December 1949. pp. 507–532.
Some members of other democratic political parties and Christians who opposed the Nazi régime also participated. In 1945, the anti-fascist committee in the city of Olbernhau included "three Communists and three Social Democrats" while the antifascist committee in
Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...
"had nine members, including three liberals and progressive Christians." In the American, British, and French zones, antifa groups began to recede by the late summer of 1945, marginalized by Allied bans on political organization and by re-emerging divisions within the movement between Communists and others. In
East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...
, antifa groups were absorbed into the new Stalinist state. On 11 July 1945, the Soviets permitted the formation of the United Front of the Antifascist-Democratic Parties which included representatives from the "Communist KPD, the Social Democratic SPD, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), and the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP)." In the United States, antifa of the early 21st-century has drawn its aesthetics and some of its tactics from ''Antifaschistische Aktion''.


See also

*
Anti-Germans (political current) Anti-German (german: Antideutsch, yi, אַנטי-דײַטש, Anti-Daytsh) is the generic name applied to a variety of theoretical and political tendencies within the left mainly in Germany and Austria. The Anti-Germans form one of the main cam ...
*
German resistance to Nazism Many individuals and groups in Germany that were opposed to the Nazi regime engaged in active resistance, including attempts to remove Adolf Hitler from power by assassination or by overthrowing his established regime. German resistance was ...
* Conny Wessmann


References


Further reading

* Autonome Antifa (M) (April 1995)
"Die Geschichte der Antifaschistischen Aktion"
. Antifaschistischen Aktion/Bundesweite Organisation. * Karl, Heinz; Kücklich, Erika, eds. (1965). ''Die Antifaschistische Aktion. Dokumentation und Chronik, Mai 1932 Bis Januar 1933'' . Berlin: Dietz. * Knütter, Hans-Helmuth (2010). ''Antifaschismus: der geistige Bürgerkrieg'' . Foreword by
Heinrich Lummer Heinrich Lummer (21 November 1932 – 15 June 2019) was a German politician and member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Life At the Free University of Berlin, Lummer studied German law and philosophy. He became a member of the Germa ...
. Hamburg: Die Dt. Konservativen e.V. * Lein, Albrecht (1978)
"Antifaschistischen Komitees nach 1945"
''Antifaschistische Aktion 1945: d. "Stunde Null" in Braunschweig''. Musterschmidt. . * Michelmann, Jeannette
''Die Aktivisten der ersten Stunde: Die Antifa 1945 in der sowjetischen Besatzungszone zwischen Besatzungsmacht und Exil-KPD''
. Vorgelegt dem Rat der Philosophischen Fakultät der Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. * Moreau, Patrick (1996). ''Linksextremismus: eine unterschätzte Gefahr'' . With Jürgen P. Lang. Bonn.


External links


Antifaschistische Aktion – Germany
.
Autonomen_Antifa_[M
{{in_lang.html" ;"title="">Autonomen Antifa de. 1932_establishments_in_Germany Anti-fascist_organisations_in_Germany.html" ;"title="
{{in lang">de. 1932 establishments in Germany Anti-fascist organisations in Germany">
{{in lang">de. 1932 establishments in Germany Anti-fascist organisations in Germany Communist Party of Germany Organizations established in 1932