Willi Münzenberg
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Wilhelm Münzenberg (14 August 1889 – June 1940) was a German
Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...
and publisher who served as the first head of the
Young Communist International The Young Communist International (YCI) was the parallel international youth organization affiliated with the Communist International (Comintern). History International socialist youth organization before World War I After failed efforts to fo ...
from 1919 to 1921 and as a member of the Reichstag from 1924 to 1933. He also founded the famine relief and
propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded l ...
organization
Workers International Relief The Workers International Relief (WIR) — also known as Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe (IAH) in German and as Международная рабочая помощь (Mezhdunarodny Rabochy Komitet Pomoshchi Golodayushchim Rossii − Mezhrabpom) in R ...
in 1921. He was a leading propagandist for the
Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...
(KPD) during the Weimar Era, but later grew disenchanted with the
USSR The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
due to
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
's
Great Purge The Great Purge, or the Great Terror (), also known as the Year of '37 () and the Yezhovshchina ( , ), was a political purge in the Soviet Union that took place from 1936 to 1938. After the Assassination of Sergei Kirov, assassination of ...
of the 1930s. Condemned by Stalin to be purged and arrested for treason,Koch, Stephen, ''Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Münzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals'', New York: Enigma Books (2004), Revised Edition, pp. 14, 20, 77, 90–91, 333, 362 Münzenberg left the KPD and in Paris became a leader of the German émigré
anti-fascism Anti-fascism is a political movement in opposition to fascist ideologies, groups and individuals. Beginning in European countries in the 1920s, it was at its most significant shortly before and during World War II, where the Axis powers were op ...
and anti-Stalinist community until forced to flee the Nazi advance into France in 1940. Arrested and imprisoned by the Daladier government in France, he escaped prison camp only to be found dead a few months later in a forest near the commune of Saint-Marcellin, France.Mora, Henri. ''Les vérités qui dérangent parcourent des chemins difficiles'', 29 Septembre 2008 (retrieved 26 July 2011), p. 2: ''"On le retrovera mort une corde autour de cou, au pied d'un chêne, le 17 Octobre 1940 (selon le rapport de gendarmerie), dans le bois de Caugnet entre
Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye Saint Antoine l'Abbaye (, before 1991: ''Saint-Antoine''), also Saint-Antoine-en-Viennois, is a Communes of France, commune in the Isère departments of France, department in southeastern France. On 31 December 2015 the former commune of Diona ...
et Montagne, près de Saint Marcellin."''
Walter Laqueur described him as "a cultural impresario of genius".


Early years

Münzenberg was born 14 August 1889 in
Erfurt Erfurt () is the capital (political), capital and largest city of the Central Germany (cultural area), Central German state of Thuringia, with a population of around 216,000. It lies in the wide valley of the Gera (river), River Gera, in the so ...
, in the Prussian
Province of Saxony The Province of Saxony (), also known as Prussian Saxony (), was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia and later the Free State of Prussia from 1816 until 1944. Its capital was Magdeburg. It was formed by the merger of various territories ceded ...
(present-day
Thuringia Thuringia (; officially the Free State of Thuringia, ) is one of Germany, Germany's 16 States of Germany, states. With 2.1 million people, it is 12th-largest by population, and with 16,171 square kilometers, it is 11th-largest in area. Er ...
). The son of a tavern keeper and grandson of a baron from the House of Seckendorff, Münzenberg grew up in poverty. As a young man working in a shoe factory, he became involved with trade unions and in the
Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany ( , SPD ) is a social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the party's leader since the 2019 leadership election together w ...
(SPD). He gained his first experience as an organiser in 1907, when he attempted to organise apprentices in Erfurt with the local branch of the Union of Young German Workers, an activity which led to his brief imprisonment. He subsequently travelled through Germany in search of work, eventually reaching
Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
in Switzerland in 1910, where he stayed for the following eight years. Whilst there he initially gravitated towards anarchist politics, and studied the works of
Peter Kropotkin Pyotr Alexeyevich Kropotkin (9 December 1842 – 8 February 1921) was a Russian anarchist and geographer known as a proponent of anarchist communism. Born into an aristocratic land-owning family, Kropotkin attended the Page Corps and later s ...
and
Mikhail Bakunin Mikhail Alexandrovich Bakunin. Sometimes anglicized to Michael Bakunin. ( ; – 1 July 1876) was a Russian revolutionary anarchist. He is among the most influential figures of anarchism and a major figure in the revolutionary socialist, s ...
. He subsequently shifted back towards social democracy. When the SPD split in 1914 between the moderate Majority SPD ( MSPD) and the radical Independent SPD (USPD) over the issue of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, Münzenberg sided with the USPD. In 1915, having already become leader of the Swiss socialist youth movement, he was elected secretary of the International Union of Socialist Youth Organizations, and was elected to the executive of the
Social Democratic Party of Switzerland The Social Democratic Party of Switzerland (, SP; ), also called the Swiss Socialist Party (; , PS), is a List of political parties in Switzerland, political party in Switzerland. The SP has had two representatives on the Federal Council (Switzerl ...
the following year. The same year he was also appointed editor of the publication of the International, '' Jugend-Internationale'' based in Zurich. During World War I, Münzenberg often visited
Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...
at his home in Zürich, Switzerland. His activism would eventually come to the attention of the Swiss authorities, who imprisoned him twice before deporting him to Germany in November 1918. After arriving in Germany, Münzenberg joined the
Spartacus League The Spartacus League () was a Marxism, Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. It was founded in August 1914 as the International Group by Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Clara Zetkin, and other members of the So ...
, and soon thereafter became one of the earliest members of the KPD. He was initially associated with the party's left wing, and at the party's founding congress in December 1918 he acted as spokesman for the opposition to
Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg ( ; ; ; born Rozalia Luksenburg; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary and Marxist theorist. She was a key figure of the socialist movements in Poland and Germany in the early 20t ...
and Paul Levi's proposal for the party to contest the
1919 German federal election Federal elections were held in Weimar Republic, Germany on 19 January 1919 to elect a national constituent assembly that would write a new constitution for Germany following the collapse of the German Empire at the end of World War I. The elect ...
. Münzenberg subsequently played a leading role in the
Spartacist uprising The Spartacist uprising (German: ), also known as the January uprising () or, more rarely, Bloody Week, was an armed uprising that took place in Berlin from 5 to 12 January 1919. It occurred in connection with the German Revolution of 1918 ...
in
Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...
, leading a demonstration alongside Clara Zetkin and Edwin Hoernle against the city's Social Democratic government which declared it overthrown in favour of a
Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
. Following the failure of the uprising he was arrested and spent five months in prison before being tried alongside the other leaders of the Stuttgart Spartacist rebellion, which ended in their acquittal. Shortly afterwards he became chairman of the state KPD in
Württemberg Württemberg ( ; ) is a historical German territory roughly corresponding to the cultural and linguistic region of Swabia. The main town of the region is Stuttgart. Together with Baden and Province of Hohenzollern, Hohenzollern, two other histo ...
. In November 1919, Münzenberg convened a congress of the Socialist Youth International which voted to affiliate to the Comintern as the
Young Communist International The Young Communist International (YCI) was the parallel international youth organization affiliated with the Communist International (Comintern). History International socialist youth organization before World War I After failed efforts to fo ...
, with Münzenberg remaining at its head. He was also the delegate of the YCI to the 2nd World Congress of the Communist International in 1920. However, he was removed from his leadership role with the YCI the following year.


Political career

In 1924, Münzenberg was elected to the '' Reichstag'' as a KPD member. He served until the KPD was banned in 1933. However, his parliamentary work was low profile: he did not play a leading role in debates and avoided factional struggle in public, preferring to concentrate on his propaganda work. Münzenberg was one of the few KPD leaders in 1933, and one of the few of working-class origin, which was a source of immense pride for him. During the Weimar period, Münzenberg earned the reputation of a brilliant propagandist. His first major success was an effort to raise money and food for the victims of the
Russian famine of 1921 Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
, a task which had been entrusted to him by Lenin after he was removed from the leadership of the Communist Youth International. Münzenberg was reputed to have raised millions of dollars for aid to the Soviet Union during the famine through his famous organization ''Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe'' (IAH; "
Workers International Relief The Workers International Relief (WIR) — also known as Internationale Arbeiter-Hilfe (IAH) in German and as Международная рабочая помощь (Mezhdunarodny Rabochy Komitet Pomoshchi Golodayushchim Rossii − Mezhrabpom) in R ...
"), based in Berlin. IAH's efforts were valuable not only for the practical help they offered in terms of famine relief, but also due to their propaganda value for the communist movement in Germany and around the world. IAH also owned the Moscow-based film studio Mezhrabpomfilm, which employed 400 members of staff and produced films by Soviet directors including
Vsevolod Pudovkin Vsevolod Illarionovich Pudovkin ( rus, Всеволод Илларионович Пудовкин, p=ˈfsʲevələt ɪl(ː)ərʲɪˈonəvʲɪtɕ pʊˈdofkʲɪn; 28 February 1893 – 30 June 1953) was a Soviet film director, screenwriter and acto ...
and Nikolai Ekk. Their films, as well as other Soviet productions, were distributed in Germany by its subsidiary Prometheus-Filmgesellschaft, including '' Battleship Potemkin'', which became a major hit in Germany after receiving a poor reception in the Soviet Union. Prometheus also produced films in Germany, such as '' Kuhle Wampe'', whose script was co-written by
Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a p ...
. In 1924 he launched '' Arbeiter-Illustrierte-Zeitung'', an illustrated weekly which became the most widely read socialist pictorial newspaper in Germany, achieving a circulation of almost half a million. ''AIZ'' was the most popular of a range of publications produced by Münzenberg, some of which were aimed at the Communist Party membership, but most of which were intended for a broader audience. After directing the Comintern's handling of the
Sacco and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (; April 22, 1891 – August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (; June 11, 1888 – August 23, 1927) were Italian immigrants and anarchists who were controversially convicted of murdering Alessandro Berardelli and Frederick Parm ...
case in 1925, Münzenberg took charge of the
League against Imperialism The League Against Imperialism and Colonial Oppression (; ) was a transnational anti-imperialist organisation in the interwar period. It has also been referred to as the League of Oppressed People, and the World Anti-Imperialist League, or simp ...
, created in
Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...
in 1927. In addition, Münzenberg worked closely with the
Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...
and the Soviet secret police (known as the
Cheka The All-Russian Extraordinary Commission ( rus, Всероссийская чрезвычайная комиссия, r=Vserossiyskaya chrezvychaynaya komissiya, p=fsʲɪrɐˈsʲijskəjə tɕrʲɪzvɨˈtɕæjnəjə kɐˈmʲisʲɪjə, links=yes), ...
in 1917–22 and as the
OGPU The Joint State Political Directorate ( rus, Объединённое государственное политическое управление, p=ɐbjɪdʲɪˈnʲɵn(ː)əjə ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əjə pəlʲɪˈtʲitɕɪskəjə ʊprɐˈv ...
in 1922–34) to advance the Communist cause internationally. To broaden the Comintern's influence, Münzenberg created numerous
front organization A front organization is any entity set up by and controlled by another organization, such as intelligence agencies, organized crime groups, terrorist organizations, secret societies, banned organizations, religious or political groups, advocacy ...
s, which he termed "Innocents' Clubs".Wilford, Hugh, ''The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America'', Harvard University Press, 2008; pp. 12–13 These front groups, such the Friends of Soviet Russia, the
League Against Imperialism The League Against Imperialism and Colonial Oppression (; ) was a transnational anti-imperialist organisation in the interwar period. It has also been referred to as the League of Oppressed People, and the World Anti-Imperialist League, or simp ...
and Workers International Relief were superficially devoted to an undeniably benign cause such as famine relief, anti-imperialism or peace, but Münzenberg created them to enlist the support of liberals and moderate socialists in defending the Bolshevik revolution. As he told a fellow Comintern member, "These people have the belief they are actually doing this themselves. This belief must be preserved at any price." The front organizations, in turn, helped fund the acquisition of the Münzenberg Trust, a collection of small newspapers, publishing houses, movie houses, and theatres in locations around the world. Münzenberg, referred to by some as the "Red Millionaire", used the businesses to pay for a limousine and an elegantly furnished apartment for himself. Although Münzenberg's network of organisations received funding from the Comintern and KPD, they were organisationally separate: publicly, Münzenberg argued that the IAH was a politically independent organisation, and more generally his enterprises rejected the use of Communist jargon and focused on communicating with potential sympathisers, deploying a range of
propaganda techniques Propaganda techniques are methods used in propaganda to convince an audience to believe what the propagandist wants them to believe. Many propaganda techniques are based on social psychology, socio-psychological research. Many of these same tech ...
which would subsequently become more widespread during the 20th century, including
sound truck A sound truck is a vehicle equipped with a public address system and loudspeakers, typically used to play recorded messages at high volume to the public while driving through residential areas. They are used in many countries by groups to dissem ...
s, radio broadcasts,
phonograph record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...
s, and use of music and films. Whilst generally supporting the Communist Party line, his tactical approach in his propaganda work was more flexible than that of the party, in order to attract as broad a range of people as possible to his endeavours - although this was in conflict with the more sectarian approach of the Communist Party at the time, it foreshadowed the popular front tactic endorsed by Stalinists in the 1930s. Münzenberg defended his strategy against attacks by more orthodox Communists by arguing that it sought "to interest those millions of apathetic and indifferent workers, who take no part in political life... who simply have no ear for the propaganda of the Communist Party". After the fracturing of the KPD's leading triumvirate of Ernst Thälmann, Heinz Neumann and Hermann Remmele in 1931, Münzenberg participated in a behind-the-scenes factional struggle, allying with Neumann, Remmele and Leo Flieg to advocate a refocusing of the party's attacks away from the Social Democrats and towards the
Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party ( or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported the ideology of Nazism. Its precursor ...
, in opposition to Thälmann and
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 republic, Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later in the early development ...
. The World Congress Against War was held in Amsterdam on 27–29 August 1932 and was attended by more than 2,000 delegates from 27 countries. Following the meeting, Münzenberg formed the permanent World Committee Against War and Fascism, based in Berlin. The
Executive Committee of the Communist International The Executive Committee of the Communist International, commonly known by its acronym, ECCI (Russian acronym ИККИ - for ), was the governing authority of the Comintern between the World Congresses of that body. The ECCI, established by the Fo ...
was uncomfortable with Münzenberg's views and replaced him with Bulgarian Communist leader
Georgi Dimitrov Georgi Dimitrov Mihaylov (; ) also known as Georgiy Mihaylovich Dimitrov (; 18 June 1882 – 2 July 1949), was a Bulgarian communist politician who served as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party from 1933 t ...
. Early the next year,
Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...
was appointed chancellor of Germany. The World Committee had to move its headquarters to Paris and Münzenberg resumed the leadership. Dimitrov, along with fellow Communists Blagoy Popov, Vasil Tanev,
Ernst Torgler Ernst Torgler (25 April 1893 – 19 January 1963) was the last chairman of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) faction in the German Reichstag before he worked for the Nazis. Early life Torgler was born the son of an urban resident in Berlin ...
and
Marinus van der Lubbe Marinus van der Lubbe (; 13 January 1909 – 10 January 1934) was a Dutch communist who was tried, convicted, and executed by the government of Nazi Germany for setting fire to the Reichstag building—the national parliament of Germany—on ...
were arrested and tried on a charge of responsibility for the 1933
Reichstag fire The Reichstag fire (, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday, 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany. Marinus van der Lubbe, ...
. In response, Münzenberg published '' The Brown Book of the Reichstag Fire and Hitler Terror'', which argued that the defendants were innocent and that responsibility for the fire lay with
Hermann Göring Hermann Wilhelm Göring (or Goering; ; 12 January 1893 – 15 October 1946) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician, aviator, military leader, and convicted war criminal. He was one of the most powerful figures in the Nazi Party, which gov ...
and
Joseph Goebbels Paul Joseph Goebbels (; 29 October 1897 – 1 May 1945) was a German Nazism, Nazi politician and philologist who was the ''Gauleiter'' (district leader) of Berlin, chief Propaganda in Nazi Germany, propagandist for the Nazi Party, and ...
, who planned to use the event to help consolidate Nazi power. The book also examined Van der Lubbe's mental health, disputed the forensic evidence presented regarding the fire, and discussed the Nazi regime's suppression of trade unions and artistic expression, anti-Semitic persecution, and use of torture against prisoners. By 1935 the book had been translated into 23 languages and had sold 600,000 copies. The book was published shortly before a counter-trial organised by The League Against Imperialism, which concluded that the Nazis had set the fire themselves. The counter-trial attracted sympathetic press coverage, and the German government unsuccessfully pressured the British government to intervene and halt the proceedings. The counter-trial concluded one day before the trial began, and under the pressure of international public opinion, the court found Dimitrov, Popov, Tanev and Torgler not guilty. As he was barred from entering Britain at the time of the trial, Münzenberg went to the United States instead, where he spoke about and raised money for the campaign to free Thälmann from imprisonment. He toured the northeastern and midwestern US in June 1934 with his wife Babette Gross, sister of author Margarete Buber-Neumann; Welsh Labour figure
Aneurin Bevan Aneurin "Nye" Bevan Privy Council (United Kingdom), PC (; 15 November 1897 – 6 July 1960) was a Welsh Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician, noted for spearheading the creation of the British National Health Service during his t ...
; and SPD lawyer Kurt Rosenfeld. Speaking at well-attended rallies at venues like
Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as the Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh and Eighth Avenue (Manhattan), Eig ...
and the Bronx Coliseum, he appeared alongside
Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and playwright. In 1930 Nobel Prize in Literature, 1930, he became the first author from the United States (and the first from the America ...
and
Malcolm Cowley Malcolm Cowley (August 24, 1898 – March 27, 1989) was an American writer, editor, historian, poet, and literary critic. His best known works include his first book of poetry, ''Blue Juniata'' (1929), and his memoir, ''Exile's Return'' ( ...
. Pennybacker, Susan Dabney. ''From Scottsboro to Munich: Race and Political Culture in 1930s Britain''. pages 216-217 Later in 1934, Münzenberg's influence reached the antipodes when his Comintern machine sent
Egon Kisch Egon Erwin Kisch (29 April 1885 – 31 March 1948) was an Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak writer and journalist, who wrote in German. He styled himself ''Der Rasende Reporter'' (The Racing Reporter) for his countless travels to the far corners ...
to the All-Australian Conference of the Movement Against War and Fascism (an Australian Communist Party front organization). What could have been a low-key visit from an unknown Czech writer quickly polarized Australian society when the
Joseph Lyons Joseph Aloysius Lyons (15 September 1879 – 7 April 1939) was an Australian politician who served as the tenth prime minister of Australia, from 1932 until his death in 1939. He held office as the inaugural leader of the United Australia Par ...
government declared Kisch as "undesirable as an inhabitant of, or visitor to, the Commonwealth" and attempted to exclude Kisch from Australia. With the government unable to produce any legal proof that Kisch was a communist, its case collapsed, and Kisch became a popular speaker disseminating Münzenberg's Comintern message. However, attempts to foster a United Front against fascism in Australia eventually came to nothing. Münzenberg instructed his assistant, fellow Comintern agent Otto Katz, to travel to the United States to garner support for various pro-Soviet and anti-Nazi causes, as part of the 1935 Comintern Seventh World Congress' proclamation of a "Peoples' Front Against Fascism", aka the Popular Front. Katz made his way to Hollywood, and in July 1936 he formed the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League with
Dorothy Parker Dorothy Parker (née Rothschild; August 22, 1893 – June 7, 1967) was an American poet and writer of fiction, plays and screenplays based in New York; she was known for her caustic wisecracks, and eye for 20th-century urban foibles. Parker ros ...
.Doherty, Thomas. ''Hollywood's Censor: Joseph I. Breen and the Production Code Administration''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007; pp. 206–207 Many artists and writers in the U.S. flocked to join the Popular Front, the Anti-Nazi League, and related groups such as the League of American Writers, and movie stars such as Paul Muni,
Melvyn Douglas Melvyn Douglas (born Melvyn Edouard Hesselberg, April 5, 1901 – August 4, 1981) was an American actor. Douglas came to prominence in 1929 as a suave leading man, perhaps best typified by his performance in the romantic comedy '' Ninotchka'' ( ...
, and
James Cagney James Francis Cagney Jr. (; July 17, 1899March 30, 1986) was an American actor and dancer. On stage and in film, he was known for his consistently energetic performances, distinctive vocal style, and deadpan comic timing. He won acclaim and maj ...
all agreed to sponsor the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League. Münzenberg lived intermittently in Paris from 1933 to 1940. He took a common-law wife, Babette Gross, a party member who had separated from her husband shortly after her marriage. Among the solidarity work he was involved with in the mid-1930s were the campaign to free Thälmann, the German Popular Front and organising aid for the Republicans during the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
. Münzenberg continued his publishing activities whilst in exile, founding Editions du Carrefour in Paris as a successor to his German publishing firm Neuer Deutscher Verlag. ''AIZ'' continued to be published, initially in Prague, whilst Carrefour published around a hundred books and many more pamphlets between 1933 and 1936. It has been suggested that during his years in exile, Münzenberg had some role in recruiting
Kim Philby Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby (1 January 191211 May 1988) was a British intelligence officer and a double agent for the Soviet Union. In 1963, he was revealed to be a member of the Cambridge Five, a spy ring that had divulged British secr ...
to work for the
Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
, but there is no clear evidence. The argument for the theory is that Philby was recruited to work for Soviet intelligence by one of the Münzenberg Trust's front organizations, the World Society for the Relief of the Victims of German Fascism based in Paris.


Defection

Until 1936, Münzenberg remained loyal to
Joseph Stalin Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
and to the aims of
Soviet foreign policy After the Russian Revolution, in which the Bolsheviks took over parts of the collapsing Russian Empire in 1918, they faced enormous odds against the German Empire and eventually negotiated terms to pull out of World War I. They then went to war ...
. In the autumn of 1936 he travelled to the Soviet Union at the behest of the Comintern's executive, in order to discuss taking up the role of the Comintern's head of
agitprop Agitprop (; from , portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in the Soviet Union where it referred to popular media, such as literatu ...
with Dmitry Manuilsky. The visit occurred shortly after the first of the Moscow Trials, and shook his faith in Stalinism: on the same trip he was reprimanded by the Comintern's International Control Commission (ICC) for laxness in security and his political independence. He persuaded Manuilsky to allow him to return to Paris in order to complete the solidarity work he had begun in aid of the Spanish Republicans before starting the position with the Comintern: however, he ran into further problems when attempting to leave the country, and was only given his passport and an exit visa after the intervention of
Palmiro Togliatti Palmiro Michele Nicola Togliatti (; 26 March 1893 – 21 August 1964) was an Italian politician and statesman, leader of Italy's Italian Communist Party, Communist party for nearly forty years, from 1927 until his death. Born into a middle-clas ...
. According to Louis Fischer, a friend of Münzenberg's, he was afraid of possible reprisals if he returned to the USSR and was disturbed by the victimisation of figures such as
Nikolai Bukharin Nikolai Ivanovich Bukharin (; rus, Николай Иванович Бухарин, p=nʲɪkɐˈlaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪdʑ bʊˈxarʲɪn; – 15 March 1938) was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and Marxist theorist. A prominent Bolshevik ...
. In late 1936, fellow KPD exile
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 republic, Weimar-era Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and later in the early development ...
urged him to take up an offer from Dimitrov, then residing in Moscow, to return there and assume other missions on behalf of the Comintern.Braskén, Kasper
"''Hauptgefahr jetzt nicht Trotzkismus, sondern Münzenberg:'' East German Uses of Remembrance and the Contentious Case of Willi Münzenberg
, Åbo Akademi University (2011), retrieved 24 July 2011
Dimitrov, Georgi. ''The Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 1933-1949''. Yale University Press, 2003. Münzenberg refused, as a result becoming ''persona non grata'' in the Communist movement. In early 1937 he was forced to yield control of the organisations he used for propaganda work to Bohumír Šmeral. The Communist Party press reported his expulsion from the party in April 1939 after the Comintern ICC had held hearings earlier in the year. Having been expelled from the German Communist Party (KPD), Münzenberg finally moved into open opposition to Stalin. A final article on the disgraced propagandist in the Comintern journal ''
Die Internationale Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...
'' warned, ''"Unser fester Wille, die Einheit unter den Antifaschistischen herzustellen, unser Gefühl der Verantwortlichkeit vor dem deutschen Volk macht es uns daher zur Pflicht, vor Münzenberg zu warnen. Er ist ein Feind!"'' ("Our unshaking determination to unify anti-Fascists, our sense of duty before the German people, obliges us to warn them about Münzenberg. ''He is an enemy!"'') Münzenberg was an outspoken critic of the
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Ge ...
, accusing Stalin of being a "traitor" to the working class and the cause of peace. Back in Paris, Münzenberg became a leader of German émigré antifascism. The most important publication of his post-Communist Party period was '' Die Zukunft'', a weekly whose contributors included German literary ''émigrés'' such as
Alfred Döblin Bruno Alfred Döblin (; 10 August 1878 – 26 June 1957) was a German novelist, essayist, and doctor, best known for his novel '' Berlin Alexanderplatz'' (1929). A prolific writer whose œuvre spans more than half a century and a wide variety of ...
, Arnold Zweig,
Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...
and
Heinrich Mann Luiz Heinrich Mann (; March 27, 1871 – March 11, 1950), best known as simply Heinrich Mann, was a German writer known for his sociopolitical novels. From 1930 until 1933, he was president of the fine poetry division of the Prussian Academy ...
,
Franz Werfel Franz Viktor Werfel (; 10 September 1890 – 26 August 1945) was an Austrian-Bohemian novelist, playwright, and poet whose career spanned World War I, the Interwar period, and World War II. He is primarily known as the author of '' The Forty ...
,
Ernst Toller Ernst Toller (1 December 1893 – 22 May 1939) was a German author, playwright, left-wing politician and revolutionary, known for his Expressionist plays. He served in 1919 for six days as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, ...
and
Lion Feuchtwanger Lion Feuchtwanger (; 7 July 1884 – 21 December 1958) was a German Jewish novelist and playwright. A prominent figure in the literary world of Weimar Republic, Weimar Germany, he influenced contemporaries including playwright Bertolt Brecht. ...
, as well as international writers including
Ignazio Silone Secondino Tranquilli (1 May 1900 – 22 August 1978), best known by the pseudonym Ignazio Silone (, ), was an Italian politician, novelist, essayist, playwright, and short-story writer, world-famous during World War II for his powerful anti-fasci ...
,
Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the ...
,
François Mauriac François Charles Mauriac (; ; 11 October 1885 – 1 September 1970) was a French novelist, dramatist, critic, poet, and journalist, a member of the'' Académie française'' (from 1933), and laureate of the 1952 Nobel Prize in Literature, Nobel Pr ...
, George Peabody Gooch,
H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...
, Julien Benda and
Kingsley Martin Basil Kingsley Martin (28 July 1897 – 16 February 1969) usually known as Kingsley Martin, was a British journalist who edited the left-leaning political magazine the ''New Statesman'' from 1930 to 1960. Early life He was the son of (Dav ...
, and global political and social figures such as
Léon Jouhaux Léon Jouhaux (1 July 1879 – 28 April 1954) was a French trade union leader who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1951. Biography Jouhaux was born in Pantin, Seine-Saint-Denis, France. Jouhaux's father worked in a match factory in Aubervillie ...
, Pietro Nenni,
Francesco Saverio Nitti Francesco Saverio Vincenzo de Paola Nitti (; 19 July 1868 – 20 February 1953) was an Italian economist and statesman. A member of the Italian Radical Party, Nitti served as Prime Minister of Italy between 1919 and 1920. An opponent of the ...
,
Carlo Sforza Count Carlo Sforza (24 January 1872 – 4 September 1952) was an Italian nobility, Italian nobleman, diplomat and Anti-fascism, anti-fascist politician. Life and career Sforza was born in Lucca, the second son of Count Giovanni Sforza (184 ...
,
Clement Attlee Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee (3 January 18838 October 1967) was a British statesman who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951 and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955. At ...
, Georges Bidault,
Jawaharlal Nehru Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...
, Norman Angell and
Harold Macmillan Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton (10 February 1894 – 29 December 1986), was a British statesman and Conservative Party (UK), Conservative politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1957 to 1963. Nickn ...
. ''Die Zukunft'' continued to be published until the
Battle of France The Battle of France (; 10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign (), the French Campaign (, ) and the Fall of France, during the Second World War was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of the Low Countries (Belgium, Luxembour ...
in May 1940. It has been cited as the intellectual forerunner of '' Encounter'' and other
Cold War The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
publications. Münzenberg continued to work on behalf of antifascist causes throughout Western Europe, where he played a role in recruiting volunteers and acquiring Soviet arms for the
International Brigades The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...
which fought for the Republican side in the
Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
. He also established a committee to provide aid to the Republican refugees who were held at
Gurs internment camp Gurs internment camp (, ) was an internment camp and prisoner of war camp constructed in 1939 in Gurs, a site in southwestern France, not far from Pau. The camp was originally set up by the French government after the fall of Catalonia at t ...
at the end of the Civil War.


Death

In June 1940, Münzenberg fled from Paris, where he had been making anti-Nazi broadcasts, to escape the advance of German forces. While in the south of France, he was imprisoned by the Daladier government at , an
internment camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...
located in the (Chambaran Forest, in the ) near the commune of Roybon, in southeastern France.McMeekin, Sean. ''The Red Millionaire: A Political Biography Of Willi Münzenberg''. New Haven: Yale University Press (2004), pp. 304–305 There, another camp inmate, unknown to Münzenberg and his colleagues, befriended Münzenberg and proposed that the two of them escape in the chaos of the
Armistice An armistice is a formal agreement of warring parties to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, as it may constitute only a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace. It is derived from t ...
.''Willi Münzenberg, Un Homme Contre: Actes, Colloque International'', La Bibliothèque Méjanes, Institut de l'image, Aix-en-Provence (March 1992), pp. 179–181 Some sources believe the unknown Communist was actually an agent of
Lavrentiy Beria Lavrentiy Pavlovich Beria ka, ლავრენტი პავლეს ძე ბერია} ''Lavrenti Pavles dze Beria'' ( – 23 December 1953) was a Soviet politician and one of the longest-serving and most influential of Joseph ...
's
NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...
. Münzenberg agreed, and he, the stranger, and several of Münzenberg's colleagues (including , a former SPD official, and Hans Siemsen, Münzenberg's '' Brown Books'' collaborator) fled southward, in the direction of the Swiss border . Münzenberg disappeared a few days later; on 21 June he left his travelling companions to look for a car which would take him to the Gurs internment camp, where his partner was being held. It was the last anyone saw of him alive. On October 17, 1940, in the between
Saint-Antoine-l'Abbaye Saint Antoine l'Abbaye (, before 1991: ''Saint-Antoine''), also Saint-Antoine-en-Viennois, is a Communes of France, commune in the Isère departments of France, department in southeastern France. On 31 December 2015 the former commune of Diona ...
and Montagne, near , French hunters discovered Münzenberg's partially decomposed corpse at the foot of an oak tree. The initial newspaper report stated that the cause of death was strangulation caused by a "knotted cord" but other sources state that the cause of death was a
garrote A garrote ( ; alternatively spelled as garotte and similar variants)''Oxford English Dictionary'', 11th Ed: garrotte is normal British English spelling, with single r alternate. Article title is US English spelling variant. or garrote vil () is ...
(a weapon usually formed from a knotted rope or cord). The body was found resting upright on the knees, with a knotted cord draped over the skull. The knotted cord had apparently snapped soon after the body had been suspended from an overhead branch. The police investigation of the circumstances of his death, including the brief coroner's report, did not interrogate Münzenberg's fellow camp inmates, and cause of death was listed officially as suicide. However, several eyewitnesses at the prison camp, including Valentin Hartig and Hans Siemsen, reported that Münzenberg remained in high spirits both during his days at Chambaran and in the first days of his flight to freedom after which they lost sight of their comrade. Another theory is that Münzenberg was killed by German agents working for the
Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...
, who had apparently infiltrated his organization in 1939. One of the most notable documents in the (Federal Commission For
Stasi The Ministry for State Security (, ; abbreviated MfS), commonly known as the (, an abbreviation of ), was the Intelligence agency, state security service and secret police of East Germany from 1950 to 1990. It was one of the most repressive pol ...
Documents) archive is a letter referring to information obtained from the prewar files in
Potsdam Potsdam () is the capital and largest city of the Germany, German States of Germany, state of Brandenburg. It is part of the Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region. Potsdam sits on the Havel, River Havel, a tributary of the Elbe, downstream of B ...
. On 10 June 1969, the head of , Generalmajor Kleinjung ( de), wrote to
Erich Mielke Erich Fritz Emil Mielke (; 28 December 1907 – 21 May 2000) was a German communist official who served as head of the East Germany, East German Ministry for State Security (''Ministerium für Staatsicherheit'' – MfS), better known as the Sta ...
, then Minister of State Security, The letter stated that there was proof that a secret agent of the Gestapo with the code name V 49 had infiltrated Münzenberg's group in 1939. The identity of the agent remains unknown. The widely circulated theory that he was executed by the NKVD was also countered by the theory of Wilhelm Leo's son, Gerhard, in his reminiscences of the French Resistance: that Wilhelm Leo escaped the Chambaran Internment Camp with Münzenberg and confirmed that he committed suicide, as confirmed by French investigators.
Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler (, ; ; ; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and was educated in Austria, apart from his early school years. In 1931, Koestler j ...
wrote in 1949 about the death of Willi Münzenberg: He "was murdered in the summer of 1940 under the usual lurid and mysterious circumstances; as usual in such cases, the murderers are unknown and there are only indirect clues, all pointing in one direction like magnetic needles to the pole."'' The God that Failed'', Harper & Brothers, New York, 1949, p. 63


Further reading

* Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, ''KGB: The Inside Story of its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev.'' London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1990. * Babette Gross, ''Willi Münzenberg: A Political Biography.'' Translated by Marian Jackson. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1974. * Arthur Koestler, ''The Invisible Writing. The Second Volume of an Autobiography: 1932–40.'' (1954) London: Vintage, 2005; pp. 250–259, 381–386. * Leo, Gerhard, ''Frühzug nach Toulouse''. Verlag der Nation, Berlin 1988. * Green, John, ''Willi Münzenberg: Fighter against Fascism and Stalinism'', Routledge, London 2019. * Martin Mauthner, ''German Writers in French Exile, 1933–1940'', London:
Vallentine Mitchell Vallentine Mitchell is a publishing company based in Elstree, Hertfordshire, England. The company publishes books on Jewish-related topics. One of its earliest books was the first English-language edition of '' The Diary of Anne Frank''. Fr ...
, 2007. * Sean McMeekin, ''The Red Millionaire: A Political Biography of Willi Münzenberg, Moscow's Secret Propaganda Tsar in the West, 1917–1940.'' New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004. * Henri Mora, ''Les vérités qui dérangent parcourent des chemins difficiles'', 29 September 2008 * Stephen Koch, ''Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Munzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals.'' New York: Free Press, 1994. * Fredrik Petersson
"In Control of Solidarity? Willi Münzenberg, the Workers’ International Relief and League against Imperialism, 1921–1935"
Comintern Working Paper 8, Åbo Akademy University, 2007. * Fritz Tobias, ''The Reichstag Fire.'' Arnold J. Pomerans, trans. New York: Putnam, 1963. * Boris Volodarsky, ''The Orlov KGB File: The Most Successful Espionage Deception of All Time.'' New York: Enigma Books, 2009.
"Wilhelm Munzenberg, International Secretary YPSL"
, ''The Young Socialists' Magazine'', vol. 12, no. 4 (April 1918), pp. 2, 15. Sephorad,Antonio Muño Molina,2001,English translation from Spanish 2003 by Margaret Sayers Peden,chapter entitled münzenberg,pages 123-152,ISBN 0-15-10090-5.


Footnotes


External links



at marxists.org
"''Breitbart'' for the Left"
''Jacobin''. 25 March 2017. * Jacoby, Russell, "Willi the Red", ''The Nation,'' 29 January 2004 * Koch, Stephen
"Lying for the truth: Münzenberg & the Comintern"
''The New Criterion'', retrieved 27 July 2011 * Mora, Henri
''Les vérités qui dérangent parcourent des chemins difficiles''
retrieved 27 July 2011 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Munzenberg, Willi 1889 births 1940 deaths Politicians from Erfurt People from the Province of Saxony Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Independent Social Democratic Party politicians Communist Party of Germany politicians Members of the Reichstag 1924 Members of the Reichstag 1924–1928 Members of the Reichstag 1928–1930 Members of the Reichstag 1930–1932 Members of the Reichstag 1932 Members of the Reichstag 1932–1933 Executive Committee of the Communist International German Comintern people Soviet spies German propagandists Exiles from Nazi Germany Suicides by hanging in France Death conspiracy theories