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Ernst Thälmann
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Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (German: [ɛʁnst ˈtɛːlman]; 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 communist, Thälmann sought to overthrow the liberal democracy of the Weimar Republic, especially during the instability of its final years, and replace it with a Marxist state. Under his leadership, the KPD became intimately associated with the government of the Soviet Union and the policies of Joseph Stalin. The KPD under Thälmann's leadership regarded the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as an adversary and the party adopted the position that the social democrats were "social fascists". This made it difficult for the two parties to form a united front against the Nazi Party.
Thälmann was leader of the paramilitary Roter Frontkämpferbund. After the Nazi regime began, he was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years. Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov originally sought Thälmann’s release; after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, efforts to that end were abandoned, while Thälmann's party rival Walter Ulbricht ignored requests to plead on his behalf. Thälmann was shot dead on Adolf Hitler's personal order in Buchenwald in 1944.
Thälmann was born in Hamburg on 16 April 1886, His parents, Johannes "Jan" Thälmann (11 April 1857, Weddern (Holstein) – 31 October 1933), a farmworker, and Mary-Magdalene (née Kohpeiss; 8 November 1857, Kirchwerder – 9 March 1927), married in 1884 in Hamburg. They had no party affiliation; in contrast to his father, his mother was deeply religious. After his birth, his parents took over a pub near the Port of Hamburg. On 4 April 1887, his sister Frieda was born (died 8 July 1967 in Hamburg). In March 1892, Thälmann's parents were convicted and sentenced to two years in prison because they had fenced stolen goods or had taken them for debt payment.
Thälmann and his sister Frieda were placed in separate foster families. Thälmann's parents were released early, his mother in May, and his father in October 1893. His parents' offense was used 36 years later in the campaign against him. From 1893 to 1900, Thälmann attended elementary school. He later described history, natural history, folklore, mathematics, gymnastics, and sports as his favorite subjects; he did not like religion. In the mid-1890s, his parents opened a vegetable, coal and wagon shop in Eilbek, a suburb of Hamburg. The young Thälmann worked in the business after school and did his schoolwork in the morning before classes started. Despite this burden, Thälmann was a good student who enjoyed learning. He wanted to become a teacher or to learn a trade but his parents refused to lend him financial support. He had to continue working in his parents' business, causing much sorrow and conflict with his parents. As a result, he sought a job as an unskilled worker in the port. The ten-year-old Thälmann came in contact with the port workers on strike from November 1896 till February 1897 in the bitter labor dispute known as the Hamburg Docker's Strike 1896–1897.
At the beginning of 1902, Thälmann left home. He first lived in an emergency shelter, later in a basement apartment, and in 1904 he was a fireman on the steam-powered freight ship AMERIKA, which also traveled to the United States. He became a Social Democratic Party (SPD) member in 1903. On 1 February 1904, at age 17, he joined the Central Union of Trade, Transport and Traffic Workers of Germany and ascended to the chairman of the Department Carters. In 1913, he supported a call of Rosa Luxemburg for a mass strike as a means of action of the SPD to enforce political demands. From 1913 to 1914, he worked for a laundry as a coachman. In January 1915, one day before he was called up for military service in World War I, Thälmann married Rosa Koch. He was posted to the artillery on the western front, where he stayed until the end of the war, taking part in the Battle of Champagne (1915–1916), the Battle of the Somme (1916), the Battle of Arras (1917), the Second Battle of the Aisne (1917), the Battle of Cambrai (1917), and the Battle of Soissons (1918). For his service, Thälmann received the Iron cross Second Class, the Hanseatic Cross and Wound Badge (twice).
Towards the end of 1917, Thälmann became a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). In late October 1918, while on home leave from the front, Thälmann deserted together with four fellow soldiers. On 9 November 1918, he wrote in his diary on the Western Front that he "did a bunk from the Front with 4 comrades at 2 o'clock."
After his desertion, Thälmann was active in the German Revolution of 1918–1919 in Hamburg that began on 29 October 1918. From March 1919, he was chairman of the USPD in Hamburg, a member of the Hamburg Parliament, and worked as a relief worker in the Hamburg city park before taking up a well-paying job at the employment office. There, he rose to the rank of Inspector. When the USPD split over the question whether to join the Communist International (Comintern), Thälmann sided with the pro-communist faction which merged with the KPD in November 1920, and in the following December he was elected to the KPD's Central Committee. In March 1921, he was fired from his job at the employment office due to his political activities. That summer Thälmann was a representative of the KPD to the 3rd Congress of the Comintern in Moscow and met Vladimir Lenin personally.
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Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (German: [ɛʁnst ˈtɛːlman]; 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 communist, Thälmann sought to overthrow the liberal democracy of the Weimar Republic, especially during the instability of its final years, and replace it with a Marxist state. Under his leadership, the KPD became intimately associated with the government of the Soviet Union and the policies of Joseph Stalin. The KPD under Thälmann's leadership regarded the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as an adversary and the party adopted the position that the social democrats were "social fascists". This made it difficult for the two parties to form a united front against the Nazi Party.
Thälmann was leader of the paramilitary Roter Frontkämpferbund. After the Nazi regime began, he was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years. Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov originally sought Thälmann’s release; after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, efforts to that end were abandoned, while Thälmann's party rival Walter Ulbricht ignored requests to plead on his behalf. Thälmann was shot dead on Adolf Hitler's personal order in Buchenwald in 1944.
Thälmann was born in Hamburg on 16 April 1886, His parents, Johannes "Jan" Thälmann (11 April 1857, Weddern (Holstein) – 31 October 1933), a farmworker, and Mary-Magdalene (née Kohpeiss; 8 November 1857, Kirchwerder – 9 March 1927), married in 1884 in Hamburg. They had no party affiliation; in contrast to his father, his mother was deeply religious. After his birth, his parents took over a pub near the Port of Hamburg. On 4 April 1887, his sister Frieda was born (died 8 July 1967 in Hamburg). In March 1892, Thälmann's parents were convicted and sentenced to two years in prison because they had fenced stolen goods or had taken them for debt payment.
Thälmann and his sister Frieda were placed in separate foster families. Thälmann's parents were released early, his mother in May, and his father in October 1893. His parents' offense was used 36 years later in the campaign against him. From 1893 to 1900, Thälmann attended elementary school. He later described history, natural history, folklore, mathematics, gymnastics, and sports as his favorite subjects; he did not like religion. In the mid-1890s, his parents opened a vegetable, coal and wagon shop in Eilbek, a suburb of Hamburg. The young Thälmann worked in the business after school and did his schoolwork in the morning before classes started. Despite this burden, Thälmann was a good student who enjoyed learning. He wanted to become a teacher or to learn a trade but his parents refused to lend him financial support. He had to continue working in his parents' business, causing much sorrow and conflict with his parents. As a result, he sought a job as an unskilled worker in the port. The ten-year-old Thälmann came in contact with the port workers on strike from November 1896 till February 1897 in the bitter labor dispute known as the Hamburg Docker's Strike 1896–1897.
At the beginning of 1902, Thälmann left home. He first lived in an emergency shelter, later in a basement apartment, and in 1904 he was a fireman on the steam-powered freight ship AMERIKA, which also traveled to the United States. He became a Social Democratic Party (SPD) member in 1903. On 1 February 1904, at age 17, he joined the Central Union of Trade, Transport and Traffic Workers of Germany and ascended to the chairman of the Department Carters. In 1913, he supported a call of Rosa Luxemburg for a mass strike as a means of action of the SPD to enforce political demands. From 1913 to 1914, he worked for a laundry as a coachman. In January 1915, one day before he was called up for military service in World War I, Thälmann married Rosa Koch. He was posted to the artillery on the western front, where he stayed until the end of the war, taking part in the Battle of Champagne (1915–1916), the Battle of the Somme (1916), the Battle of Arras (1917), the Second Battle of the Aisne (1917), the Battle of Cambrai (1917), and the Battle of Soissons (1918). For his service, Thälmann received the Iron cross Second Class, the Hanseatic Cross and Wound Badge (twice).
Towards the end of 1917, Thälmann became a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). In late October 1918, while on home leave from the front, Thälmann deserted together with four fellow soldiers. On 9 November 1918, he wrote in his diary on the Western Front that he "did a bunk from the Front with 4 comrades at 2 o'clock."
After his desertion, Thälmann was active in the German Revolution of 1918–1919 in Hamburg that began on 29 October 1918. From March 1919, he was chairman of the USPD in Hamburg, a member of the Hamburg Parliament, and worked as a relief worker in the Hamburg city park before taking up a well-paying job at the employment office. There, he rose to the rank of Inspector. When the USPD split over the question whether to join the Communist International (Comintern), Thälmann sided with the pro-communist faction which merged with the KPD in November 1920, and in the following December he was elected to the KPD's Central Committee. In March 1921, he was fired from his job at the employment office due to his political activities. That summer Thälmann was a representative of the KPD to the 3rd Congress of the Comintern in Moscow and met Vladimir Lenin personally.
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