A list of notable politicians of the defunct

Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was establish ...

A

Karl Aderhold Karl Aderhold (30 June 1884, in Stolberg, Province of Saxony – 20 June 1921, in Hanover) was a German politician. He represented the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. The son of a miner, he came from the Harz Mountains The H ...

* Lore Agnes * Marie Ahlers *

Martha Arendsee Hulda Martha Arendsee (29 March 1885 – 22 May 1953) was a German politician (Communist Party of Germany, KPD) and Feminism, women's rights activist. Life Early years Martha Arendsee was born in Wedding (Berlin), Wedding, a quarter to the north ...

* Karl Artelt *

Rosa Aschenbrenner Rosa Aschenbrenner (born ''Rosa Lierl'': 27 April 1885 – 9 February 1967) was a German politician (KPD / SPD). After the Second World War, she became increasingly marginalised from the political mainstream because of her opposition to rearmam ...

* Siegfried Aufhäuser * Elise Augustat

B

* Maria Backenecker * Bernhard Bästlein *

Johannes R. Becher Johannes Robert Becher (, 22 May 1891 – 11 October 1958) was a German politician, novelist, and poet. He was affiliated with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) before World War II. At one time, he was part of the literary avant-garde, writin ...

Eduard Bernstein Eduard Bernstein (; 6 January 1850 – 18 December 1932) was a German social democratic Marxist theorist and politician. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Bernstein had held close association to Karl Marx and Friedr ...

Rudolf Breitscheid Rudolf Breitscheid (2 November 1874 – 28 August 1944) was a German politician and leading member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) during the Weimar Republic. Once leader of the liberal Democratic Union, he joined the SPD in ...

* Hermann Brill * Hans Brodmerkel * James Broh * Albert Buchmann

C

* Arthur Crispien

D

Franz Dahlem Franz Dahlem (14 January 1892 – 17 December 1981) was a German politician. Dahlem was a leading official of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and, after 1945, of East Germany's ruling Socialist Unity Party (SED). By the early 1950s he had ...

* Ernst Däumig * Wilhelm Dittmann

E

* Hugo Eberlein * Emil Eichhorn * Kurt Eisner * August Enderle

F

* Alfred Faust *

Max Fechner Max Fechner (27 July 1892 – 13 September 1973) was a German politician who served as Minister of Justice of East Germany from 1949 to 1953 Life and career Fechner was born in Berlin and was a trained tool maker. He joined the SPD in 1910, was ...

* Josef Felder * Hermann Fleissner * Wilhelm Florin *

Paul Franken Paul Franken (27 June 1894 – Autumn 1944) was a German Socialist politician. Following Nazi seizure of power in January 1933, his party was banned and he fled. He lived in various countries before settling in the Soviet Union, where in 1936 ...

* Walter Freitag * Philipp Fries

G

* Herta Geffke * Anna Geyer * Ernst Goldenbaum *

Arthur Goldstein Arthur Goldstein (18 March 1887 in Lipine, German Empire – 1943 in Auschwitz, German-occupied Poland) was a German Jewish journalist and communist politician. Life Goldstein joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1914, and was ...

* Hugo Gräf * Gregor A. Gregorius *

Otto Grotewohl Otto Emil Franz Grotewohl (; 11 March 1894 – 21 September 1964) was a German politician who served as the first prime minister of the German Democratic Republic (GDR/East Germany) from its foundation in October 1949 until his death in Septembe ...

Karl Grünberg Karl Grünberg (died 1921, in Rostock) was a German entomologist specialising in Lepidoptera. Karl Grünberg was a professor at the University of Rostock. He wrote the Palearctic Notodontidae section of Adalbert Seitz Friedrich Joseph Adalbert ...

* Anton Grylewicz * Ketty Guttmann

H

* Hugo Haase *

Georg Ulrich Handke Georg Ulrich Handke (born Hanau 22 April 1894: died Berlin 7 September 1962) was a German politician ( Communist party of Germany/Socialist Unity Party of Germany). In 1958 he became one of the 111 members of the Party Central Committee in the ...

Fritz Heckert Friedrich (Fritz) Carl Heckert (born 28 March 1884 in Chemnitz – died 7 April 1936 in Moscow) was a German politician, co-founder of the Spartacus League and the Communist Party of Germany and a leading member of the Communist International (Co ...

* Alfred Henke *

Carl Herz Carl Herz (21 December 18318 May 1897, Aschaffenburg) was a German lawyer, and, between 1871 and 1883, Member of Parliament (''Reichstagsabgeordneter''). Life The lawyer Carl Herz was born into a catholic family in Würzburg, where he attended s ...

* Rudolf Hilferding * Max Hoelz * Adolf Hofer * Oskar Hoffmann *

Martin Hoop Martin Hoop (born ''Carl Martin Hoop''; 14 April 1892, in Lägerdorf, District of Steinburg, Schleswig-Holstein – 11 May 1933, in Zwickau) was a district leader in the Communist Party of Germany in Saxony and a supporter of the Weimar Republi ...

J

* Mathilde Jacob *

Hans Jendretzky Gustav Ernst Hans Jendretzky (20 July 1897 – 2 July 1992) was a German Communist politician. He was a prominent politician of the Socialist Unity Party (SED) in the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). He became a member of the Ind ...

K

Karl Kautsky Karl Johann Kautsky (; ; 16 October 1854 – 17 October 1938) was a Czech-Austrian philosopher, journalist, and Marxist theorist. Kautsky was one of the most authoritative promulgators of orthodox Marxism after the death of Friedrich Engels ...

* Luise Kautsky *

Hans Kippenberger Hans Kippenberger (15 January 1898 – 3 October 1937) was a German politician (KPD). Between 1928 and 1933 he sat as a member of the National Parliament (''Reichstag''). Like many Communist Party members at the time, he also operated under " ...

* Erich Knauf * Bernard Koenen * Wilhelm Koenen * Olga Körner *

Karl Korsch Karl Korsch (; August 15, 1886 – October 21, 1961) was a German Marxist theoretician and political philosopher. Along with György Lukács, Korsch is considered to be one of the major figures responsible for laying the groundwork for Wester ...

* Hedwig Krüger * Marie Kunert * Otto Kühne *

Franz Künstler Franz Künstler ( hu, Künstler Ferenc, 24 July 1900 – 27 May 2008) was, at age 107, the last known surviving veteran of the First World War who fought for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Following the death of 110-year-old Ottoman veteran Yakup S ...

L

* Fritz Lange * Antonie Langendorf *

Georg Ledebour Georg Ledebour (7 March 1850, Hanover – 31 March 1947) was a German socialist journalist and politician. He served as a stretcher bearer in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. He worked as a journalist on several newspapers after 1875. He joined ...

Rudolf Leonhard Rudolf Leonhard (27 October 1889, in Lissa, German Empire (today Leszno, Poland) – 19 December 1953, in East Berlin) was a German author and communist activist. Life Leonhard came from a family of lawyers and studied law and Philology in Berlin ...

* Willy Leow * Paul Levi *

Eugen Leviné Eugen Leviné (russian: Евгений Левине; 10 May 1883 – 5 June 1919), also known as Dr. Eugen Leviné, was a German communist revolutionary and one of the leaders of the short-lived Second Bavarian Soviet Republic. Backgroun ...

* Alfred Levy *

Theodor Liebknecht Theodor Karl Ernst Adolf Liebknecht (19 April 1870 – 6 January 1948) was a German socialist politician and activist. Biography Born in Leipzig in 1870 as the son of Wilhelm Liebknecht and the brother of Karl Liebknecht, Theodor Liebknecht studi ...

* Hermann Liebmann * Richard Lipinski *

Kurt Löwenstein Kurt Löwenstein (18 May 1885 – 8 May 1939) was a German Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, USPD/Social Democratic Party of Germany, SPD politician, socialist reform pedagogue and one of the founders of Socialist Youth of Germany ...

M

* Hans Marchwitza *

Herbert Marcuse Herbert Marcuse (; ; July 19, 1898 – July 29, 1979) was a German-American philosopher, social critic, and political theorist, associated with the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Born in Berlin, Marcuse studied at the Humboldt University ...

N

Ernst Niekisch Ernst Niekisch (23 May 1889 – 23 May 1967) was a German writer and politician. Initially a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), he later became a prominent exponent of National Bolshevism. Early life Born in Trebnitz (Silesia), and b ...

Emmy Noether Amalie Emmy NoetherEmmy is the '' Rufname'', the second of two official given names, intended for daily use. Cf. for example the résumé submitted by Noether to Erlangen University in 1907 (Erlangen University archive, ''Promotionsakt Emmy Noeth ...

P

* Agnes Plum * Lothar Popp

R

* Siegfried Rädel * Heinrich Rau * Bernhard Reichenbach * Minna Reichert * Anna Reitler *

Hermann Remmele Hermann Remmele (15 November 1880 – 7 March 1939) was a German communist politician of the SPD, USPD and KPD. During exile in Moscow he carried the code name ''Herzen'' ( en, "Hearts"). Biography Early years Born in Ziegelhausen near He ...

* Karl Retzlaw *

Ernst Reuter Ernst Rudolf Johannes Reuter (29 July 1889 – 29 September 1953) was the mayor of West Berlin from 1948 to 1953, during the time of the Cold War. Biography Early years Reuter was born in Apenrade (Aabenraa), Province of Schleswig-Holstei ...

* Julius Rosemann *

Arthur Rosenberg Arthur Rosenberg (19 December 1889 – 7 February 1943) was a German Marxist historian and writer. Biography Early years Arthur Rosenberg was born into a German Jewish middle-class family in Berlin on 19 December 1889, yet he was baptized as a C ...

Kurt Rosenfeld Kurt Rosenfeld (1 February 1877 – 25 September 1943) was a German lawyer and politician (SPD). He was a member of the national parliament () between 1920 and 1932. Early life Kurt Samuel Rosenfeld was born at Marienwerder, a mid-sized town near ...

* Katharina Roth

S

* Willy Sachse * Willi Sänger *

Werner Scholem Werner Scholem (29 December 1895 – 17 July 1940) was a member of the German Reichstag in 1924 to 1928 and a leading member of the Communist Party of Germany. Scholem and his wife, Emmy, were portrayed in the 2014 documentary "Between Utopia an ...

Hermann Schubert __NOTOC__ Hermann Cäsar Hannibal Schubert (22 May 1848 – 20 July 1911) was a German mathematician. Schubert was one of the leading developers of enumerative geometry, which considers those parts of algebraic geometry that involve a finite n ...

* Ernst Schwarz * Max Sievers * Max Silbermann * Gustav Sobottka * Fritz Soldmann * Siegmund Sredzki * Anna Stiegler * Karl Wilhelm Stolle *

Heinrich Ströbel Heinrich Ströbel (7 June 1869 – 1 September 1944) was a socialist German journalist, poet, publicist, SPD and later USPD politician who was the editor in chief of the newspaper ''Vorwärts'' from 1905 to 1907. Biography Ströbel came from a ...

T

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 ...

* Ernst Torgler *

Kurt Tucholsky Kurt Tucholsky (; 9 January 1890 – 21 December 1935) was a German journalist, satirist, and writer. He also wrote under the pseudonyms Kaspar Hauser (after the historical figure), Peter Panter, Theobald Tiger and Ignaz Wrobel. Tucholsky was o ...

U

Walter Ulbricht Walter Ernst Paul Ulbricht (; 30 June 18931 August 1973) was a German communist politician. Ulbricht played a leading role in the creation of the Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later (after spending the years of Nazi rule in ...

W

* Walter Weidauer * Mathilde Wurm

Z

Clara Zetkin Clara Zetkin (; ; ''née'' Eißner ; 5 July 1857 – 20 June 1933) was a German Marxist theorist, communist activist, and advocate for women's rights. Until 1917, she was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She then joined the ...

* Anna Ziegler * Luise Zietz * Fritz Zubeil {{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Independent Social Democratic Party Politicians