Fritz Wolffheim (30 October 1888 – 17 March 1942) was a German communist politician and writer. He was a leading figure in the

National Bolshevism National Bolshevism (russian: национал-большевизм, natsional-bol'shevizm, german: Nationalbolschewismus), whose supporters are known as National Bolsheviks (russian: национал-большевики, natsional-bol'sheviki ...

tendency that was briefly influential in Germany after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Early life

Wolffheim, who came from a leading

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family, trained as an accountant and first became active in politics in 1909 when he joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany. From 1910 to 1913 he lived in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

where he was a member of the Socialist Party of America. In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

he also became a member of the

Industrial Workers of the World The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), members of which are commonly termed "Wobblies", is an international labor union that was founded in Chicago in 1905. The origin of the nickname "Wobblies" is uncertain. IWW ideology combines general ...

, editing a paper for them.John Paul Gerber, ''Anton Pannekoek and the socialism of workers' self-emancipation, 1873–1960'', Springer, 1989, p. 120 He also served as secretary of the movement in

, working alongside

Lala Hardayal Lala Har Dayal Mathur (Punjabi: ਲਾਲਾ ਹਰਦਿਆਲ; 14 October 1884 – 4 March 1939) was an Indian nationalist revolutionary and freedom fighter. He was a polymath who turned down a career in the Indian Civil Service. His simple ...

in this capacity. Whilst involved with IWW Wolffheim became convinced of the need for a united revolutionary organisation instead of the distinct party and

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

model and would later use his theories in Germany where

Anton Pannekoek Antonie “Anton” Pannekoek (; 2 January 1873 – 28 April 1960) was a Dutch astronomer, philosopher, Marxist theorist, and socialist revolutionary. He was one of the main theorists of council communism (Dutch: ''radencommunisme''). Biograp ...

adopted them enthusiastically. After arriving in

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

in 1913 Wolffheim won support for his ideas amongst the local party to the point where in early 1919 the Hamburg KPD declared that it was incompatible to be a member of both the Party and a traditional trade union.

National Bolshevism

Within the Hamburg party a power base had been built up by Heinrich Laufenberg with Rudolf Lindau,

Wilhelm Düwell Wilhelm may refer to: People and fictional characters * William Charles John Pitcher, costume designer known professionally as "Wilhelm" * Wilhelm (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname Other uses * Mount ...

and

Paul Frölich Paul Frölich (7 August 1884 – 16 March 1953) was a German journalist and left-wing political activist and author, a founding member of the Communist Party of Germany and founder of the party's paper, ''Die Rote Fahne.'' A Communist Party deputy ...

amongst his closest lieutenants. Wolffheim became associated with this tendency and before long became Laufenberg's closest collaborator. As leaders of the KPD in Hamburg the duo strongly attacked imperialism in Germany, publishing a joint pamphlet in 1915 in which both expansionism and the support that they felt was being given to it by the SPD were attacked.Ruth Fischer, John C. Leggett, ''Stalin and German Communism: A Study in the Origins of the State Party'', Transaction Publishers, 2006, p. 92 In October 1919 Wolffheim and Laufenberg brought their ideas, which were already known as "national Bolshevism" by that point, to Karl Radek arguing that they should unite behind a

dictatorship of the proletariat In Marxist philosophy, the dictatorship of the proletariat is a condition in which the proletariat holds state power. The dictatorship of the proletariat is the intermediate stage between a capitalist economy and a communist economy, whereby the ...

which would harness German

nationalism Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: The ...

in order to renew war on the Allies in an alliance with the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

. The policy emphasised a co-operative struggle for national liberation at the expense of

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 ...

and thus broke from Marxist orthodoxy. Wolffheim even suggested that in order to bring about the desired revolution the far left combat units could be fused with elements of the far right

Freikorps (, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, rega ...

. The idea was rejected as nonsense by

Vladimir Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov. ( 1870 – 21 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin,. was a Russian revolutionary, politician, and political theorist. He served as the first and founding head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1 ...

Left-Wing Communism: an Infantile Disorder
/ref> whilst Radek also criticised the plan strongly. Before long Wolffheim was expelled from the KPD along with Laufenberg after the pair had tried to wrest control from

Wilhelm Pieck Friedrich Wilhelm Reinhold Pieck (; 3 January 1876 – 7 September 1960) was a German communist politician who served as the chairman of the Socialist Unity Party from 1946 to 1950 and as president of the German Democratic Republic from 1949 to ...

. Along with Laufenberg and

Jan Appel Jan Appel (pseudonyms: ''Max Hempel'', ''Jan Arndt'', ''Jan Voß''; 22 August 1890, Mecklenburg4 May 1985, Maastricht) was a German revolutionary who participated in the German Revolution of 1918. He became a prominent Left Communist activist ...

, Wolffheim attended the

Heidelberg Heidelberg (; Palatine German language, Palatine German: ''Heidlberg'') is a city in the States of Germany, German state of Baden-Württemberg, situated on the river Neckar in south-west Germany. As of the 2016 census, its population was 159,914 ...

conference that saw the birth of the Communist Workers Party of Germany (KAPD) and was a founder member of this group. By 1920 however he had been expelled from the party, with his national Bolshevism the official reason for his departure. Individually Wolffheim was close to the rightist General

Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck (20 March 1870 – 9 March 1964), also called the Lion of Africa (german: Löwe von Afrika), was a general in the Imperial German Army and the commander of its forces in the German East Africa campaign. For four ye ...

whilst along with Laufenberg he had met with

Ernst Graf zu Reventlow Ernst Christian Einar Ludvig Detlev, Graf zu Reventlow (18 August 1869 – 21 November 1943) was a German naval officer, journalist and Nazi politician. Early life Ernst Christian Einar Ludvig Detlev, Graf (Count) zu Reventlow was born at Husum, ...

immediately prior to the

Kapp Putsch The Kapp Putsch (), also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch (), was an attempted coup against the German national government in Berlin on 13 March 1920. Named after its leaders Wolfgang Kapp and Walther von Lüttwitz, its goal was to undo th ...

Later years

Following his expulsion from the KAPD Wolffheim became a member of the League for the Study of German Communism, a pro-nationalist group that included representatives of business and army officers amongst its membership. Wolffheim's membership of this group brought him into contact with elements on the fringes of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that created and supported t ...

.Broué, Birchall, Weitz, Archer, ''The German Revolution, 1917–1923'', p. 556 However his involvement with

Nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) i ...

was never more than perfunctory (probably due to his Jewishness) and he instead became associated with the ''Gruppe Sozialrevolutionärer Nationalisten'', a national revolutionary group founded by the journalist Karl Otto Paetel in 1930.Hermann Weber & Andreas Herbst, ''Deutsche Kommunisten. Biographisches Handbuch 1918 bis 1945'', Karl Dietz Verlag, 2004, pp. 882–883 Arrested by the Nazis in 1936, he died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1942.

Written works

He wrote several texts with Laufenburg: * ''Democracy and Organisation'' (1915) * ''First Address to the German Proletariat'' (1919) * ''May Appeal to Proletarians'' (1920) * ''Communism Against Spartakism'' (1920) * ''Moscow and German Revolution'' (1920)

References

External links

Fritz Wolffheim in the Marxists Internet Archive
(includes merely his 1919 pamphlet ''Factory Organizations or Trade Unions?'') {{DEFAULTSORT:Wolffheim, Fritz 1888 births 1942 deaths Politicians from Berlin Jewish German politicians Jewish socialists Industrial Workers of the World members Members of the Socialist Party of America Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Communist Party of Germany politicians Communist Workers' Party of Germany politicians National Bolsheviks People who died in Ravensbrück concentration camp People condemned by Nazi courts Politicians who died in Nazi concentration camps German civilians killed in World War II German nationalists German Jews who died in the Holocaust