Philipp Dengel
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Philipp Dengel (15 December 1888 – 28 March 1948) 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 ...
journalist and politician. Dengel was a member of the Reichstag for 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) between 1924 and 1930, a member of the KPD Central Committee and
Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...
, and an editor of ''
Die Rote Fahne ''Die Rote Fahne'' (, ''The Red Flag'') was a German newspaper originally founded in 1876 by Socialist Worker's Party leader Wilhelm Hasselmann, and which has been since published on and off, at times underground, by German Socialists and Commun ...
''. Dengel was a close ally of KPD leader
Ernst Thälmann Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (; 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 democr ...
until they fell out over the so-called Wittorf affair in 1928, for which he was demoted within the KPD and removed as a candidate for the 1930 federal election. Dengel lived principally 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 ...
and worked as an official for
Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...
between 1931 and 1947. Dengel returned to Germany shortly before his death in
East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...
in 1948.


Early years

Philipp Dengel was born on 15 December 1888 in Ober-Ingelheim, a village west of
Mainz Mainz (; #Names and etymology, see below) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and with around 223,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 35th-largest city. It lies in ...
in the
Grand Duchy of Hesse The Grand Duchy of Hesse and by Rhine () was a grand duchy in western Germany that existed from 1806 to 1918. The grand duchy originally formed from the Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt in 1806 as the Grand Duchy of Hesse (). It assumed the name ...
. His father, also named Philipp Dengel, was a producer and distiller in the
German wine German wine is primarily produced in the west of Germany, along the river Rhine and its tributaries, with the oldest plantations going back to the Celts and Ancient Rome, Roman eras. Approximately 60 percent of German wine is produced in the st ...
industry. He attended school, initially in the village, and then at the
Realgymnasium ''Gymnasium'' (; German plural: ''Gymnasien''), in the German education system, is the most advanced and highest of the three types of German secondary schools, the others being ''Hauptschule'' (lowest) and ''Realschule'' (middle). ''Gymnas ...
in Mainz between 1903 and 1907. He studied
Philosophy Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...
and
History History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
at the
University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz () is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany. It has been named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. it had approximately 32,000 students enrolled in around 100 a ...
and the
University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the German-speaking world. It is named afte ...
. He worked as a teacher at a
private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...
in
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 ...
until 1913, when he called up for
conscripted Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it contin ...
into the Imperial Germany Army. Dengel was still serving in the army when
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 ...
broke out the next year, and remained so until the war ended in 1918, when he discharged as a ''
leutnant () is the lowest junior officer rank in the armed forces of Germany ( Bundeswehr), the Austrian Armed Forces, and the military of Switzerland. History The German noun (with the meaning "" (in English "deputy") from Middle High German «locum ...
'' in the military
reserve Reserve or reserves may refer to: Places * Reserve, Kansas, a US city * Reserve, Louisiana, a census-designated place in St. John the Baptist Parish * Reserve, Montana, a census-designated place in Sheridan County * Reserve, New Mexico, a US v ...
.


Political career

Dengel had 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 1911, but like hundreds of thousands of others he was
radicalised Radicalization (or radicalisation) is the process by which an individual or a group comes to adopt increasingly radical views in opposition to a political, social, or religious status quo. The ideas of society at large shape the outcomes of radic ...
by the war. He actively participated in 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 ...
in November 1918, joining
Kurt Eisner Kurt Eisner (; 14 May 1867 21 February 1919)"Kurt Eisner – Encyclopædia Britannica" (biography), ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', 2006, Britannica.com webpageBritannica-KurtEisner. was a German politician, revolutionary, journalist, and theatre c ...
in
People's State of Bavaria The People's State of Bavaria () was a socialist republic in Bavaria which existed from November 1918 to April 1919. It was established during the German revolution of 1918–1919, German revolution as an attempt at a socialist state to replace ...
, and turning up 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 ...
shortly afterwards as
legation A legation was a diplomatic representative office of lower rank than an embassy. Where an embassy was headed by an ambassador, a legation was headed by a minister. Ambassadors outranked ministers and had precedence at official events. Legation ...
secretary from the short-lived communist government in Bavaria. In March 1919, Dengel switched from the SPD to the recently formed
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). He teamed up with Alfons Goldschmidt to help launch the ''
Räte-Zeitung The ''Räte-Zeitung'' (Councils' Newspaper) was a left-wing magazine published from April 1919 until late 1920. It was launched by Philipp Dengel and Alfons Goldschmidt. Leo Matthias joined the editorial team. It proclaimed itself the "Organ ...
'', a four-page newspaper of the revolutionary "
Workers' 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 polit ...
" movement. He was a contributing editor to ''Die Republik'', a daily newspaper directed by the
polymath A polymath or polyhistor is an individual whose knowledge spans many different subjects, known to draw on complex bodies of knowledge to solve specific problems. Polymaths often prefer a specific context in which to explain their knowledge, ...
and pacifist
Wilhelm Herzog Wilhelm Herzog (12 January 1884 in Berlin – 4 April 1960 in Munich), alias Julian Sorel, René Kestner and Junius III, was a German publisher, historian of literature and culture, dramatist, encyclopedist, and pacifist. Life He studied economi ...
. In Berlin during early 1920, Dengel participated in defeating the
Kapp Putsch The Kapp Putsch (), also known as the Kapp–Lüttwitz Putsch (), was an abortive coup d'état 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 ...
and briefly became a member of the extremist breakaway Communist Workers' Party. Between September and December 1920, he visited
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 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 ...
. According to at least one source, it was only after a visit and a meeting with
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 ...
in early 1921 he returned to the mainstream KPD. In May 1921, Dengel joined ''
Die Rote Fahne ''Die Rote Fahne'' (, ''The Red Flag'') was a German newspaper originally founded in 1876 by Socialist Worker's Party leader Wilhelm Hasselmann, and which has been since published on and off, at times underground, by German Socialists and Commun ...
'' newspaper, which by this time had become a KPD publication, as
foreign policy Foreign policy, also known as external policy, is the set of strategies and actions a State (polity), state employs in its interactions with other states, unions, and international entities. It encompasses a wide range of objectives, includ ...
editor. The next year, he was switched to work as a senior journalist with newspapers backing the party in Germany's principal industrial regions further to the west. In 1922, he took over as
editor-in-chief An editor-in-chief (EIC), also known as lead editor or chief editor, is a publication's editorial leader who has final responsibility for its operations and policies. The editor-in-chief heads all departments of the organization and is held accoun ...
at '' Sozialistische Republik'', the Communist daily newspaper produced in
Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...
. By 1923, he had moved again 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 ...
, and was looking after the '':de:Hamburger Volkszeitung, Hamburger Volkszeitung''. In October, he took part in the Hamburg Uprising in the city, taking on key organisational responsibilities for munitions and food supplies. At the start of 1924, Dengel took a party appointment as ":de:Außenleiter, Polleiter" (loosely "policy leader") with the regional KPD leadership team (''"Bezirksleitung"'') for the Wasserkante region surrounding Hamburg. Later that year, he moved to the Lower Rhine region, appointed regional ''Polleiter'' in August 1924, by now using for party purposes the pseudonym "Schmidt".


Reichstag member

In the May 1924 German federal election, first 1924 federal election, Dengel was elected as one of 62 KPD Member of parliament, MPs of the Reichstag. It was the first time the KPD, now with more than 10% of the national vote, achieved a significant presence in the assembly. In July 1925, at the KPD's :de:Liste der Mitglieder der Zentralkomitees der KPD#X. Parteitag (1925), tenth party congress held in Berlin, Dengel was elected to the Central Committee, remaining a member through a decade of mixed political fortunes till 1935. 1925 was a year of intensified factionalism within the Communist Party of Germany, Communist Party. The German executive commission of the Moscow-based
Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...
, presumably taking their lead from Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, became disenchanted with the leadership of Arkadi Maslow and Ruth Fischer after the December 1924 German federal election, second 1924 federal election seven months later, which saw the party's vote share drop back below 10%. Some commentators saw this development as a result of an improvement in the German economy, but for Stalin and the KPD left-wingers it was a sign that their party was becoming insufficiently differentiated from the political mainstream. As the party became more divided, an "open letter" was drawn up between 12 and 14 August and sent to the KPD by the
Comintern The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern and also known as the Third International, was a political international which existed from 1919 to 1943 and advocated world communism. Emerging from the collapse of the Second Internatio ...
's German executive commission, drawing attention to the growing resurgence of German Empire, Imperial-era nostalgia on the extreme right of German politics, and providing a careful Soviet-Marxism, Marxist analysis and prescription. Capitalism, Capitalist stabilization imperilled the class struggle on which future political success for Soviet style communism in Germany depended. The "open letter" was later published in ''Die Rote Fahne'' on 22 December 1928. A triumvirate comprising Dengel,
Ernst Thälmann Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (; 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 democr ...
, and John Schehr led support for the "open letter" during the run-up to a Central Committee meeting which took place between 28 August and 1 September 1925. Maslow and Fischer retained their
Politburo A politburo () or political bureau is the highest organ of the central committee in communist parties. The term is also sometimes used to refer to similar organs in socialist and Islamist parties, such as the UK Labour Party's NEC or the Poli ...
memberships for the next few weeks, but under Thälmann's leadership the existing Politburo itself was sidelined by the alternative team, which proved adept at capturing the support of other influential comrades. In October 1925, Thälmann emerged as party leader with Dengel as his close political ally, becoming a Politburo member, and serving as secretary to the Party Central Committee and co-chairmen (with Thälmann) of the party between 1925 and 1929. In the late summer of 1928, at the sixth Comintern World Congress which took place in Moscow, Dengel was elected a member of the organisation's executive committee and of its praesidium. The congress also saw powerful endorsement by Thälmann of Stalin's uncompromising and fateful rejection of any kind of collaboration with the SPD. Dengel would remain a member of the Comintern praesidium, at least formally, until June 1941. In October 1928, the Wittorf affair, a major embezzlement scandal within the KPD, seriously undermined the powerful alliance at the top of the party between Thälmann and Dengel. Thälmann's attempt to cover up the embezzlement led to him being expelled from the Central Committee by horrified comrades. Dengel suggested that Thälmann should give up the party leadership "for a period," which led to an immediate distancing between the two. It did not lead to Thälmann surrendering the party leadership, however, and Dengel found that in falling out with him he had also fallen out with Stalin and the Stalinists within the KPD. After Thälmann had been restored to his membership of the Central Committee, Dengel received a reprimand and faced the loss of his position as secretary of the Central Committee.


Demotion

The KPD's :de:Liste der Mitglieder der Zentralkomitees der KPD#XII. Parteitag (1929), twelfth party congress was held in the Wedding (Berlin), Wedding district of Berlin (a KPD stronghold) in June 1929. Dengel was re-elected to the Central Committee, but he was no longer included in the Politburo, and he was stripped of other party functions. Back in his Ingelheim home base, reports surfaced that he had been expelled from the national party leadership due to conflicts with Thälmann. These were vehemently denied by local party officials, who were able to cite his continued membership of the Central Committee in support of their denials. With more time for journalism, he served as an editor of ''Die Rote Fahne'' from 1930 to 1931. He succeeded :de:Heinrich Süßkind, Heinrich Süßkind whose fall from grace, in the eyes of Stalin and Thälmann, was evidently more absolute than his own. There are also references to Dengel having taught during this period at the :de:Reichsparteischule Rosa Luxemburg, "Rosa Luxemburg party academy" in Schöneiche, Ficthenau on the eastern edge of Berlin. For the 1930 federal election, Dengel was no longer included on the KPD candidate list, ending his career in the Reichstag. Nevertheless, he campaigned actively for KPD, advocating the Stalinist Party line (politics), party line for unity with the SPD in order to block the Nazi Party. On 10 September 1930, he appeared at an election meeting in Ingelheim and addressed more than 300 people who "listened attentively to his remarks" even if they did not all agree with everything he said. In his speech, he savagely attacked the SPD, which he characterised as the complete opposite of a "Dictatorship of the proletariat, true workers' party".


Comintern

Towards the end of 1931, the KPD sent Dengel to Moscow to work for the Comintern, where his work appears to have involved a good deal of international travel, while his wife and family seem to have remained in Germany. According to at least one source, he spent almost a year in the Second Spanish Republic during the First Biennium from 1931 to 1932, followed by several weeks in Latin America. By the end of 1932, he was back in Moscow. From December 1933 to August 1935, he headed the Comintern regional secretariat for Scandinavia, which involved a number of trips to Denmark, Norway and Sweden. In January 1933, the Machtergreifung, Nazis took power in Germany and quickly Gleichschaltung, transformed the country into a one-party state Enabling Act of 1933. The Reichstag fire occurred in Berlin overnight on 27/28 February 1933, and was blamed by the government with implausible haste on "communists". It quickly became apparent – to the extent that it had not already been – that those with communist connections were in particular danger from the Gestapo, the Nazi secret police. Dengel's wife Katharina now joined him in Moscow where the family were from now on to be based, though he would continue to travel extensively in connection with his Comintern work. In July/August, Dengel attended the Seventh World Congress of the Comintern, identifying himself by the party pseudonym "Ulmer". In October 1935, the exiled KPD held its Brussels Party Conference of the Communist Party of Germany, thirteenth party congress. In order to try and reduce the dangers to the comrades involved, this congress was always referred to in communications as the "Brussels congress" though it actually took place in the town of Kuntsevo District, Kuntsevo near Moscow. Dengel was in attendance. He left both the Comintern congress and the "Brussels congress" armed with clear detailed instructions from the party to its members and activists concerning the project, for which he had personally already been pressing, involving the creation of a broadly based anti-Nazi German "popular front" movement. A new KPD Central Committee was elected comprising just fifteen members, in contrast to the previous committee elected in 1929 which had consisted of 38 member. With the benefit of hindsight, it becomes clear that the new slimmed down Central Committee was made up of supporters of Walter Ulbricht. Dengel, despite being based in Moscow at the time and having already been a Central Committee member for ten years, was now excluded from it. Between November 1935 and April 1936, Dengel undertook a lengthy visit to Paris where he worked with the so-called ":de:Lutetia-Kreis, Lutetia Circle" attempting to create a "popular front" against the Nazis. Most of the exiled KPD leaders had ended up in Paris, Moscow, or Prague. The KPD, along with their Soviet backers, took the lead in the Lutetia project while insisting that membership should be broadly based as was open to all who opposed Nazism in Germany. At least one preparatory meeting was convened at the Hôtel Lutetia in February and/or March 1936. Dengel presented a policy paper that had been helpfully drawn up by exiled members of the KPD Politburo in Moscow. Nevertheless, many on the political left still blamed the KPD for splitting the political left during the early 1930s, thereby opening the way for the Nazis to take power. Somehow, the energy the exiled communists devoted to the Lutetia Circle, served only to dampen the enthusiasm from other parts of the anti-Nazi political spectrum. The meeting at which Dengel gave his presentation left fellow delegates convinced that he was present simply as a "trusted representative" of the party leaders in Moscow, and in April 1936 he was recalled. Attempts were made to revive the Lutetia Circle later in 1936, with the KPD leadership represented by Franz Dahlem and Ulbricht. The most visible outcome was the so-called "Appeal to the German people", signed by more than 70 German political exiles, including Dengel among them, issued at the end of December 1936. It called for the overthrow of the Nazi government and included the plea, "Create the German popular front! For peace, liberty and bread!".


Later years and death

In 1936, Dengel was recalled to party work, sent to Prague between April and September to facilitate and secure the production of the German language, German-language ''Deutsche Volkszeitung'' newspaper being produced in the city at that time. After returning to Moscow at the end of the year, he started work at the Comintern's International Lenin School as a teacher-instructor. On 8 March 1938, the Nazi had deprived Dengel and his family of their German citizenship rights. At the "Bern congress" which actually took place in Draveil, on the edge of Paris, a unanimous decision was taken to enlarge the Central Committee, and Dengel was re-elected to it. Whether on account of travel difficulties or on account of his deteriorating health, he was, along with at least three party member who were probably also based in Moscow at the time and had not made the journey to France, elected in his absence. The conference itself had an unforeseen and disappointing epilogue: a few months after the KPD exiled leaders had passed resolutions committing to victory over fascism, they learned of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In September 1939, both countries Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), invaded and occupied Poland from opposite directions. In Moscow, it was necessary to undergo a rapid change of heart when it came to "a united front against fascism" which was now contrary to its interests. There are reports that as early as 1929, Dengel was forced by serious illness to cut short a Comintern mission overseas. There is no indication that he became more actively involved in party work after his return to the Central Committee ten years later. On 22 June 1941, Nazi Germany launched its Operation Barbarossa, invasion of the Soviet Union which, that same day, Dengel suffered a serious stroke from which he would never properly recover. In 1944, he was listed as a member of the Soviet sponsored National Committee for a Free Germany, but he was no longer playing any active political role. It was as an invalid that he returned with his wife to
East Berlin East Berlin (; ) was the partially recognised capital city, capital of East Germany (GDR) from 1949 to 1990. From 1945, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet occupation sector of Berlin. The American, British, and French se ...
in the Soviet occupation zone in Germany, Soviet Occupation Zone in September 1947, where he died there six months later.


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dergel, Philipp 1888 births 1948 deaths People from Ingelheim am Rhein German Army personnel of World War I People of the German Revolution of 1918–1919 20th-century German journalists Journalists from Hamburg Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic Members of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Germany Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Communist Party of Germany politicians German Comintern people Executive Committee of the Communist International Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz alumni