Jacob Walcher (May 7, 1887 – March 27, 1970) 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 ...

politician and trade unionist who was a co-founder of 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 ...

in 1919. Following policy disagreements, he was expelled from the party and eventually joined the

Socialist Workers' Party of Germany The Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (, SAPD) was a centrist Marxist political party in Germany. It was formed as a left-wing party with around 20,000 members which split off from the SPD in the autumn of 1931. In 1931, the remnants of the ...

, of which he served as ''de facto'' chairman-in-exile from 1933 until the formation of the

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (, ; SED, ) was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from the country's foundation in 1949 until its dissolution after the Peaceful Revolution in 1989. It was a Mar ...

in 1946.

Biography

Early life and Imperial years

Jacob Walcher was born on May 7, 1887, in the village of

Wain A wagon (or waggon) is a heavy four-wheeled vehicle pulled by draft animals or on occasion by humans, used for transporting goods, commodities, agricultural materials, supplies and sometimes people. Wagons are immediately distinguished from ...

in rural

Upper Swabia Upper Swabia ( or ) is a region in Germany in the federal states of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria.''Brockhaus Enzyklopädie.'' 19. Auflage. Band 16, 1991, p. 72. The name refers to the area between the Swabian Jura, Lake Con ...

to a family of poor religious Protestant farmers. There he attended the local elementary school. At the age of 15 he went to work as a

turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters * Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for tur ...

for

Daimler-Benz Mercedes-Benz Group AG (formerly Daimler-Benz, DaimlerChrysler, and Daimler) is a Germany, German Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive company headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is o ...

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 ...

and came into contact with the

labor movement The labour movement is the collective organisation of working people to further their shared political and economic interests. It consists of the trade union or labour union movement, as well as political parties of labour. It can be considere ...

for the first time. He joined the

German Metal Workers' Union The German Metal Workers' Union (, abbreviated DMV) was a German industrial union for metalworkers formed in 1891 and dissolved after the Nazis' accession to power in 1933. History German metalworkers started to organize in labor unions in 18 ...

(DMV) and 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 1906. In Stuttgart he co-founded the Free Socialist Youth association, also known as "Free Youth". He was chairman of this left-wing social democratic workers' youth organization from 1906 to 1910. For several years he went to Käte and

Hermann Duncker Hermann Ludwig Rudolph Duncker (24 May 1874 – 22 June 1960) was a German Marxist politician, historian and social scientist. He was a lecturer for the workers' education movement, co-founder of the Communist Party of Germany, professor at the U ...

on weekends. There he was taught the basics of general and political education. After 1909 he was active in youth and

workers' education Workers' education may refer to: * Workers' Educational Association Workers' Educational Associations (WEA) are not-for-profit bodies that deliver further education to adults in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. WEA UK WEA UK, founde ...

. For this reason he often took part in political debates at the Waldheim Sillenbuch, an important center for the Stuttgart workers' movement. He also organized his own events there. In 1910 he was a delegate to the SPD party school in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

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 ...

taught there and encouraged him intellectually. He worked as an editorial member of the Stuttgart SPD newspaper '' Schwäbische Tagwacht'' from 1911 to 1914. He took on the role of district chairman of the DMV in 1913. Walcher belonged to the circle of active opponents of the war around Friedrich Westmeyer and thus from 1914 onwards was one of the critics of the SPD's

Burgfriedenspolitik (, ) was a political truce between the German Empire's parliamentary parties during World War I. They agreed not to criticise the government's handling of the war, to keep their disagreements out of public view and to postpone elections until ...

. He was therefore removed from the editorial board of the ''Schwäbische Tagwacht'' together with his colleagues Arthur Crispien and

Edwin Hoernle Edwin Hoernle (11 December 1883 – 21 July 1952) was a German politician (Communist Party of Germany, KPD), author, educator, Agricultural economics, agricultural economist and a Marxism, Marxist theoretician. He spent the Nazi Germany, Nazi pe ...

. He then 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 ...

November Revolution and Weimar years

Near the end 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 ...

, Walcher was impressed by the

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

in Russia, hoping for a similar uprising of the German workers. Together with

Karl Liebknecht Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht (; ; 13 August 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a German politician and revolutionary socialist. A leader of the far-left wing of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Liebknecht was a co-founder of both ...

and Rosa Luxemburg, he planned such a revolution. In December 1918, Walcher chaired the founding party conference of the

(KPD) together with

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 ...

and was a member of the executive committee of the

Workers' and Soldiers' Council A workers' council, also called labour council, is a type of council in a workplace or a locality made up of workers or of temporary and instantly revocable delegates elected by the workers in a locality's workplaces. In such a system of poli ...

in Stuttgart. In 1919 he was political secretary of the KPD in Stuttgart and from 1919 to 1924 a member of the KPD central committee. During the

Weimar era The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclaimed itself, as ...

, he was in regular contact with

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 ...

and during this time made the acquaintance of her secretary Hertha Gordon, whom he would later marry. Walcher was a KPD delegate to the

Second Congress of the Communist International The 2nd World Congress of the Communist International was a gathering of approximately 220 voting and non-voting representatives of communist and revolutionary socialist political parties from around the world, held in Petrograd and Moscow from Jul ...

, held in

Moscow Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...

in July 1920, and the Congress of Communist and Revolutionary Organisations of the Far East also held in Moscow in 1922. The experienced trade unionist promoted the cooperation of communists in the social democratic unions, however he was unable to secure this position under pressure from

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 ...

. Walcher was a member of the executive of the Red Trade Union International in Moscow from 1924 to 1926 and then worked as a member of the trade union department of the KPD Central Committee until 1928, when he was expelled from the KPD. As a founding member of the

Communist Party of Germany (Opposition) The Communist Party of Germany (Opposition) (), generally abbreviated as KPO or KPD(O), was a communist opposition organisation established at the end of 1928 and maintaining its existence until 1939 or 1940. After the rise of Adolf Hitler and the ...

(KPO), co-editor of the KPO magazine ''Gegen den Strom'', and a member of the KPO's leadership between 1928 and 1931, he fought against the rising threat of

fascism Fascism ( ) is a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology and movement. It is characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hie ...

. Because he supported a merger with the

(SAPD), he was expelled from the KPO together with

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

, August Enderle and

Rosi Wolfstein Alma Rosalie (Rosi) Wolfstein (after 1948, Rosi Frölich: 27 May 1888 – 11 December 1987) was a German socialist politician. After the murder of her friend and mentor, the communist pioneer Rosa Luxemburg, she inherited Luxemburg's copious colle ...

. Within the SAPD, he became a full-time member of the party executive in 1932.

Nazi years and exile

When the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

came to power in 1933, Walcher fled abroad. Under the code name Jim Schwab, he led the SAPD in exile from

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He sent the young SAPD comrade

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and concurrently served as the Chancellor ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

to do political work. In 1933 he held talks with

Leon Trotsky Lev Davidovich Bronstein ( – 21 August 1940), better known as Leon Trotsky,; ; also transliterated ''Lyev'', ''Trotski'', ''Trockij'' and ''Trotzky'' was a Russian revolutionary, Soviet politician, and political theorist. He was a key figure ...

near Paris to join the

Fourth International The Fourth International (FI) was a political international established in France in 1938 by Leon Trotsky and his supporters, having been expelled from the Soviet Union and the Communist International (also known as Comintern or the Third Inte ...

, but their political differences were too great and the talks failed. In the Paris Lutetia Circle, Walcher campaigned for a

united front A united front is an alliance of groups against their common enemies, figuratively evoking unification of previously separate geographic fronts or unification of previously separate armies into a front. The name often refers to a political and/ ...

of social democrats and communists against the Nazis. In April 1937, he was expatriated from the German Reich. When the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

invaded

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, he was arrested and interned twice. He was able to escape and received a visa for the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

through the

Emergency Rescue Committee Varian Mackey Fry (October 15, 1907 – September 13, 1967) was an American journalist. Fry ran a rescue network in Vichy France from August 1940 to September 1941 that helped 2,000 anti-Nazi and Jewish refugees, mostly artists and intellec ...

. His escape route, like that of many German emigrants, led over the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

and by ship to the U.S., where Walcher worked again as a turner. Walcher's apartment was in

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

, in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. On May 13, 1941, he married Hertha Gordon. In the Council for a Democratic Germany under the leadership of theologian

Paul Tillich Paul Johannes Tillich (; ; August 20, 1886 – October 22, 1965) was a German and American Christian existentialist philosopher, religious socialist, and Lutheran theologian who was one of the most influential theologians of the twenti ...

(in which

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 ...

also worked), Jacob Walcher drew up proposals for trade union work in Germany once the Nazis fell.

GDR years and political ostracism

In 1946, Walcher returned to Germany. As a socialist, he chose the

Soviet occupation zone The Soviet occupation zone in Germany ( or , ; ) was an area of Germany that was occupied by the Soviet Union as a communist area, established as a result of the Potsdam Agreement on 2 August 1945. On 7 October 1949 the German Democratic Republ ...

, where he first rejoined the KPD and then the newly-founded

(SED). During this time, he broke with his friend Willy Brandt because the latter rejoined the SPD in

West Germany West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...

. As editor-in-chief of the trade union newspaper '' Tribüne'' (1946–1949), Walcher criticized abuses in the GDR's "

real socialism Real socialism, better known as actually existing socialism was an ideological catchphrase popularized during the Brezhnev era in the Eastern Bloc countries and the Soviet Union. The term referred to the Soviet-type economic planning implemented ...

", which cost him his job in February 1951. In April 1951, he was called before the Berlin State Review Commission of the SED, which was part of the Central Party Control Commission. He was accused–in

Stalinist Stalinism (, ) is the totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...

fashion–of a leading role in the KPO and SAPD, contacts with Leon Trotsky and his role as an alleged "counter-revolutionary" of the planned revolution of 1923 that never took place. In a resolution of April 29, 1951, the SED declared him the "worst enemy of the working class", expelled him from the party and demoted him to an archive worker. During the years of political ostracism, his friend Bertolt Brecht remained loyal to him. In 1956, Walcher was formally rehabilitated and was officially considered a "trade union veteran" in the GDR, but only received secondary awards from the GDR, such as the Fritz Heckert Medal of the

Free German Trade Union Federation The Free German Trade Union Federation ( or ''FDGB'') was the sole national trade union centre of the German Democratic Republic (GDR or East Germany) which existed from 1946 to 1990. As a mass organisation of the GDR, nominally representing al ...

(FDGB) or the Patriotic Order of Merit in Bronze in 1962.Biographische Angaben zu Hertha Walcher aus dem ''Handbuch der Deutschen Kommunisten''
/ref> On Walcher's 75th birthday, ''

Neues Deutschland (, , abbr. nd) is a left-wing German daily newspaper, headquarters, headquartered in Berlin. For 43 years it was the official party newspaper of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED), which governed East Germany (officially known as the ...

'' printed an insignificant report on the second page, and this was repeated on his 80th birthday, although he did receive the Patriotic Order of Merit in Gold in 1967. Until his death in 1970, he lived a secluded life with his wife Hertha in Berlin-

Hohenschönhausen Hohenschönhausen () was a borough of Berlin, that existed from 1985 until Berlin's 2001 administrative reform. It comprised the present-day localities of Alt-Hohenschönhausen (the core of the borough), Neu-Hohenschönhausen, Malchow, Warte ...

. After Walcher's death, she refused (successfully) to give his entire estate to the Institute for Marxism-Leninism for the Central Committee of the SED. Walcher's urn was buried in the '' Pergolenweg'' grave complex of the Berlin

Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde The Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery () is a cemetery in the borough of Lichtenberg in Berlin. It was the cemetery used for many of Berlin's Socialists, Communists, and anti-fascist fighters. History When the cemetery was founded in 1881 it ...

by decision of the Central Committee of the SED. However, the obituary of the Central Committee was worded in such a way that it was easy to see that Walcher should be erased from the SED's party memory. Not only his chairmanship together with Wilhelm Pieck at the founding party conference of the KPD, but also his election as a member of the Central Committee of the KPD in 1919 remained unmentioned. His “red trade union book” from 1932 is still regarded today as an important contemporary document of a united front policy with the Social Democrats against the emerging

Nazism Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was fre ...

.Stefan Müller: ''Kommunistische Gewerkschaftspolitik zwischen Tradition und Momentaufnahme: Das rote Gewerkschaftsbuch (1932)'', in: Marcel Bois, Bernd Hüttner (Hrsg.): ''Beiträge zur Geschichte einer pluralen Linken.'' Heft 3, Papers, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Berlin 2010, S. 82–84.

Works

* ''Ford oder Marx. Die praktische Lösung der sozialen Frage.'' Berlin 1925
(Online at the Internet Archive)
* ''Arbeitsgemeinschaft oder Klassenkampf''. Berlin 1928. * ''Das rote Gewerkschaftsbuch.'' Berlin 1932. (Mitverfasser, mit August Enderle, Heinrich Schreiner, Eduard Weckerle
Online at the website of the Gruppe Arbeiterpolitik
* ''Auf der falschen Seite. Ein überarbeiteter Vortrag des Chefredakteurs der Tribüne vor dem Personal des Aussenministeriums der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik über das Thema: Gewerkschaften in den kapitalistischen Ländern.'' Berlin 1950. * ''Zum II. KI-Kongreß delegiert.'' In: ''Beiträge zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung''. Berlin 1970. Unpublished book manuscripts:: * ''Die Sozialdemokratie in Stuttgart von 1906 bis 1915''
online
* ''Unsere Gewerkschaftsarbeit vom Beginn bis 1924''
online
* ''Mein Lebensweg'', Autobiografie (Zeit 1887–1920)
online

Literature

* Ernst Stock, Karl Walcher: ''Jacob Walcher (1887–1970): Gewerkschafter und Revolutionär zwischen Berlin, Paris und New York.'' Trafo-Verlag, Berlin 1998. ISBN 3-89626-144-4. *

Bernd-Rainer Barth Bernd-Rainer Barth (born East Berlin 1957) is a German historian of the modern period. Life The son of an East German diplomat, Barth spent a large part of his early life in Hungary, studying between 1977 and 1983 at the Eötvös Loránd Universit ...

Walcher, Jacob.
In: Wer war wer in der DDR? 5. Ausgabe. Band 2. Ch. Links, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-86153-561-4. * Siegfried Mielke,

Stefan Heinz Stefan may refer to: * Stefan (given name) * Stefan (surname) * Ștefan, a Romanian given name and a surname * Štefan, a Slavic given name and surname * Stefan (footballer) (born 1988), Brazilian footballer * Stefan Heym, pseudonym of German writ ...

(Hrsg.): ''Emigrierte Metallgewerkschafter im Kampf gegen das NS-Regime'' (= Gewerkschafter im Nationalsozialismus. Verfolgung – Widerstand – Emigration, Bd. 3). Metropol Verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-86331-210-7, S. 47, 149 ff., 151 ff., 635, 645, 847 f. (Kurzbiographie). * Mario Keßler: ''Westemigranten. Deutsche Kommunisten zwischen USA-Exil und DDR.'', Böhlau Verlag Köln, Göttingen, 2019, ISBN 978-3-412-50044-3. * ''Walcher, Jacob'', in: Werner Röder, Herbert A. Strauss (Hrsg.): ''Biographisches Handbuch der deutschsprachigen Emigration nach 1933. Band 1: Politik, Wirtschaft, Öffentliches Leben''. München: Saur 1980, S. 788. *

Regina Scheer Regina Scheer (born in 1950) is a German writer and historian. Professional career Born in East-Berlin, Scheer studied theatre and cultural studies from 1968 to 1973 at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.

: ''Bittere Brunnen. Hertha Gordon-Walcher und der Traum von der Revolution'' (Penguin Verlag), München, 2023, ISBN 978-3-328-60208-8.
Jacob Walcher.
In: ''

Deutsche Biographie () is a German-language online biographical dictionary. It published thus far information about more than 730,000 individuals and families (2016).Historische Kommission bei der Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften''Jahresbericht 2016'' p 7 ...

'' (Übersicht).

References

External links

*
Nachlass Bundesarchiv NY 4087
* Marcel Bois, Bernd Hüttner (Hrsg.)
''Beiträge zur Geschichte einer pluralen Linken. Heft 3. Bewegungen, Parteien, Ideen''
im Archi
''edoc.vifapol''
(PDF; 576 kB)
''Walcher, Jacob''.
Porträt bei willy-brandt-biografie.de {{DEFAULTSORT:Walcher, Jacob 1887 births 1970 deaths People from Biberach (district) People from the Kingdom of Württemberg Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Communist Party of Germany politicians Members of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Germany Communist Party of Germany (Opposition) politicians Socialist Workers' Party of Germany politicians Socialist Unity Party of Germany politicians Recipients of the Patriotic Order of Merit in gold German newspaper editors