Revolution as Realpolitik

Florian Wilde is a historian and Research Fellow for Trade Union Politics at the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung. He is co-editor of Politische Streiks im Europa der Krise (2012) and editor of the German editions of books by U.S. trade union organizer Jane McAlevey (2019, 2021, 2023).

• Foreword Preface List of Figures Translators’ Note 1 Introduction 2 Radicalisation in the Pre-War SPD (1908–14) 1 Childhood, Youth, Student Days and Joining the SPD 2 The SPD in the Pre-War Years and the Emergence of the Radical Left Wing 3 In Steglitz with the Radicals 4 The Pub as Nucleus 5 Editor at Vorwärts 6 Convicted of Lèse-majesté 3 With Spartacus Against the War (1914–18) 1 4 August 1914: Horror, Despair and Resistance 2 The International Group between Cooperation and Demarcation 3 The International against the War: At the Zimmerwald Conference in 1915 4 The Founding of the Spartacus Group 5 The International against the War, Part II: The Kienthal Conference of 1916 6 Termination from Vorwärts and the Dues Boycott Campaign 7 In Prison 8 The Founding of the USPD 9 Preliminary Retreat from the Spartacus Leadership in 1917 10 The October Revolution and Debates on Bolshevik Politics 11 On the Path towards Revolution: Leader of the Spartacus Group in 1918 12 Important Actor of the November Revolution 4 In the KPD Leadership (1919–20) 1 At the Founding Party Congress 2 The Ill-Fated Uprising 3 Murdered Friends and a Decapitated Party Leadership 4 Nine Months in Preventative Detention 5 The Heidelberg Party Congress and the KPD Split 6 Resisting the Kapp Putsch 5 Exponent of the Left Wing (1920–1) 1 ‘Revolutionary Offensive’ over ‘Anti-Putschist Cretinism’ 2 At the Second World Congress of the Comintern 3 Finally a Mass Party: Unification with the USPD 4 Editor-in-Chief of the Rote Fahne des Ostens 5 Chairman of the KPD Group in the Prussian Landtag (1921–4) 6 Back to the Zentrale and into the Uprising: The March Action of 1921 7 Party Crisis and a Departure from the Theory of the Offensive 8 The Turn towards the United Front Policy 6 Party Chairman and Protagonist of the United Front (1921–2) 1 Parting Ways with the Left Wing: At the Jena Party Congress 2 Driven by Work: The Tasks of a Party Chairman 3 Divorce and New Love 4 The United Front as Revolutionary Realpolitik 5 The Necessity of Inner-Party Democracy 6 On Equal Footing with Moscow? Meyer, the KPD and the Comintern 7 Successful Consolidation of the Party 8 Meyer’s Ousting 7 Hoping for Revolution, Experiencing Defeat (1923) 1 ‘For Once, Out of the German Party Row’: For the KPD in France 2 Director of the Super-District Southwest 3 Meyer in ‘German October’ 4 After the Retreat: The Crisis of the Party 8 At the Centre of the Opposition to the Ultra-Left Course (1924–5) 1 Ernst, Rosa and their Children 2 The Left-Wing Takeover of the Party 3 ‘Insane Party Debates, Nasty Personal Differences’: Opponents of the Fischer–Maslow Leadership 4 Total Isolation: At the Tenth Party Congress of the KPD 9 The Struggle for a Return to the United Front (1925–6) 1 ‘Struck Like an Unexpected Bomb’: The Comintern’s Intervention 2 In Factional Struggles 3 On the Upswing 4 The United Front during the Referendum on the Expropriation of the Princes 5 ‘If Mohammed Won’t Come to the Mountain’: The Rocky Road to a Consolidated Leadership 6 ‘A Drama that Broke Ernst’s Spirit’: Meyer’s Moscow Declaration 7 The Splitting of the Meyer Group 8 ‘I Almost Regret My Diligence’: Between Self-Doubt and Integrity 10 Leading the Party with Thälmann 1 ‘Not an Acutely Revolutionary Situation’: Meyer’s Assessment of the Political Climate 2 The Essen Congress: Meyer Returns to the Helm 3 Struggling for the United Front: Heated Debate over the SPD’s Left Wing 4 Debates on Inner-Party Democracy and a Programme of Action 5 Struggle against the Threat of War, ‘Ten Years of the Soviet Union’ Campaign, and Historiographical Disputes 6 Taking Stock of Meyer’s Work in the Party Leadership in 1927 7 To the Sanitorium with Illness and Burnout 11 Meyer’s Final Stand: Fighting Stalinism with His Last Ounce of Strength (1928–30) 1 Stalin and the Comintern’s Ultra-Left Turn 2 Between the Fronts in December 1928 3 Back to the Wall against Stalinisation 4 Meyer’s Final Struggle 5 Illness, Death, Funeral 6 The Fate of those Left Behind: Resistance and Exile 12 Epilogue Bibliography Index