Heinrich Laufenberg (19 January 1872 – 3 February 1932) was a leading 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 ...

and one of the first to develop the idea of

National Bolshevism National Bolshevism, whose supporters are known as National Bolsheviks and colloquially as Nazbols, is a syncretic political movement committed to combining ultranationalism and Bolshevik communism. History and origins In Germany Natio ...

. Laufenberg was a history academic by profession and was also known by the pseudonym Karl Erler.

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 ...

Left-Wing Communism: an Infantile Disorder
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SPD activism

Initially a member of the Centre Party, Laufenberg joined 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) in the early 1900s. He became associated with a faction on the left of the party led by Wilhelm Schmitt and Peter Berten and when this group gained the upper hand within the

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in the state after Cologne and the List of cities in Germany with more than 100,000 inhabitants, seventh-largest city ...

party in 1904 Laufenberg was appointed editor of the party organ ''Volkszeitung''. Laufenberg also worked as an educationalist within the party, offering basic courses on

socialism Socialism is an economic ideology, economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse Economic system, economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes ...

to party members of Düsseldorf. At this point in his career Laufenberg endorsed

orthodox Marxism Orthodox Marxism is the body of Marxist thought which emerged after the deaths of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in the late 19th century, expressed in its primary form by Karl Kautsky. Kautsky's views of Marxism dominated the European Marxis ...

and supported

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 Inde ...

in her ideological struggles with revisionists like Gerhard Hildebrand. He left the city in 1908 when he moved to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

, leaving the Düsseldorf group without their leading intellectual.

Hamburg leadership

In Hamburg Laufenberg continued to work on the left of the SPD before becoming a member of the

Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (, USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the German Empire and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of anti-war members of t ...

(USPD), which broke from the SPD following the SPD's support for German involvement in the

First World War 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 ...

. Laufenberg's popularity grew as the war dragged on and people began to tire of involvement in the conflict.Chris Harman, ''The Lost Revolution: Germany 1918-1923'', Haymarket Books, 2008, p. 121 On 30 November 1918, during the

German Revolution German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, he was elected President of the Council of the Workmen and Soldiers of Hamburg. As head of this group Laufenberg oversaw the dissolution of Hamburg's Senate and Bürgerschaft and their replacement with Workers' Council government. Before long however he agreed to bring the two institutions back in what was seen as a concession to the city's business interests. Indeed, the banks in the city had threatened to withdraw credit to the city authorities if these institutions were not re-established. Under Laufenberg's lead the city suffered from severe food shortages and widespread strikes, resulting in his power base being eradicated further.Comfort, ''Revolutionary Hamburg'', p. 54 Hamstrung by his reliance on the banks and criticism from the SPD Laufenberg's stock fell dramatically and he faced widespread demonstrations against his leadership. Unable to sustain his position, Laufenberg resigned on 19 January 1919 and handed leadership of the Council over to the SPD.

National Bolshevism

Laufenberg was part of the faction within the USPD which left to establish 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) and before long the local party had come under the control of Laufenberg and his ally

Fritz Wolffheim Fritz Wolffheim (30 October 1888 – 17 March 1942) was a German Jewish communist politician and writer. He was a leading figure in the National Bolshevism tendency that was briefly influential in Germany after World War I. Early life Wolffhei ...

. The pair had been strong critics of German imperialism: in 1915 they had produced a pamphlet against German expansionism and attacking the SPD for being, as they saw it, complicit in such aggression.Ruth Fischer, John C. Leggett, ''Stalin and German Communism: A Study in the Origins of the State Party'', Transaction Publishers, 2006, p. 92 Following the war, in October 1919, the pair made contact with

Karl Radek Karl Berngardovich Radek (; 31 October 1885 – 19 May 1939) was a revolutionary and writer active in the Polish and German social democratic movements before World War I and a Communist International leader in the Soviet Union after the Russian ...

and suggested a policy to him that they were already calling 'National Bolshevism' (although it has also been suggested that it was Radek who coined the term for Laufenberg and Wolffheim's policy). They sought a dictatorship of the proletariat which would harness German

nationalism Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation, Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Theory, I ...

and place the country back on a war footing against the occupying

Allied An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...

armies in alliance with 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 ...

. Within such an ideology the need for

class war Class War is an anarchist group and newspaper established by Ian Bone and others in 1983 in the United Kingdom. An incarnation of Class War was briefly registered as a political party for the purposes of fighting the 2015 United Kingdom gener ...

was to be placed to one side in favour of cross class co-operation in a war of national liberation. The idea initially met with some enthusiasm amongst members of 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 ...

. Such support soon ebbed however when

publicly denounced the policy, claiming that Laufenberg was seeking a war coalition with the German

bourgeoisie The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and aristocracy. They are traditionally contrasted wi ...

, before branding him as "absurd". Soon Laufenberg and Wolffheim were expelled from the KPD after they attempted to resist the leadership of

Wilhelm Pieck Friedrich Wilhelm Reinhold Pieck (; 3 January 1876 – 7 September 1960) was a German communist politician who served as the Leadership of East Germany, chairman of the Socialist Unity Party from 1946 to 1950 and as the only president of the Ger ...

. Radek, after showing initial enthusiasm, soon also denounced Laufenberg's National Bolshevism vehemently.

Later years

Laufenberg went on to become a founder member of the

Communist Workers' Party of Germany The Communist Workers' Party of Germany (; KAPD) was an anti-parliamentarian and left communist party that was active in Germany during the Weimar Republic. It was founded in 1920 in Heidelberg as a split from the Communist Party of Germany (KP ...

(KAPD), joining Wolffheim at the

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; ; ) is the List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, fifth-largest city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, and with a population of about 163,000, of which roughly a quarter consists of studen ...

conference establishing the party. By 1920 however he had been expelled from the party, with his national Bolshevism the official reason for his departure. Laufenberg became persona non grata in German communist circles and Radek, who had earlier been a critic, was accused of following his ways when he made a speech praising

Albert Leo Schlageter Albert Leo Schlageter (; August 12, 1894 – May 26, 1923) was an Imperial German Army officer who served in World War I before joining several ''Freikorps'' groups and carrying out acts of sabotage against French occupational forces in the Ruhr ...

in 1923.Harman, ''The Lost Revolution'', pp. 250-252 Unlike his ally Wolffheim, who became involved in groups on the fringes of 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 ...

, he retired from politics and in 1932 was mourned as a pioneer of National Bolshevism by

Ernst Niekisch Ernst Niekisch (23 May 1889 – 23 May 1967) was a German writer and political theorist. Initially a member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and of the Old Social Democratic Party of Germany (ASP), he later became a prominent exponent of th ...

who wrote that "in 1919 Laufenberg already thought in terms of continents".

References

External links

entry of Heinrich Laufenberg
in

Rostock Matrikelportal The Rostock Matrikelportal (matriculation portal) disseminates about 186,000 individual-level datasets drawn from the student registers of the University of Rostock from its establishment in 1419 to today. Each entry is faithfully transcribed and l ...

* ''Zwischen der ersten und zweiten Revolution''. 1919
online
(

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) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laufenberg, Heinrich 1872 births 1932 deaths Politicians from Cologne People from the Rhine Province Centre Party (Germany) politicians Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Independent Social Democratic Party politicians Communist Party of Germany politicians Communist Workers' Party of Germany politicians National Bolsheviks Politicians from Hamburg