''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 Communists. Karl Liebknecht and

Rosa Luxemburg Rosa Luxemburg (; ; pl, Róża Luksemburg or ; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish and naturalised-German revolutionary socialism, revolutionary socialist, Marxism, Marxist philosopher and anti-war movement, anti-war activist. Succ ...

famously published it in 1918 as organ of the

Spartacus League The Spartacus League (German: ''Spartakusbund'') was a 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 ot ...

. Following the deaths of Liebknecht and Luxemburg during the chancellorship of the Social Democratic Party of Germany's

Friedrich Ebert Friedrich Ebert (; 4 February 187128 February 1925) was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and the first president of Germany from 1919 until his death in office in 1925. Ebert was elected leader of the SPD on ...

, the newspaper was published, with interruptions, by the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (german: Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, , KPD ) was a major political party in the Weimar Republic between 1918 and 1933, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West German ...

. Proscribed by the National Socialist Worker's Party government of Adolf Hitler after 1933, publication continued illegally, underground.

History

1876

Wilhelm Hasselmann of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany and member of the German Reichstag founded a short-lived, weekly newspaper called ''Die rote Fahne''.

1918–1933

Using the newspaper's subtitle as indicator of its political allegiance, ''Die Rote Fahne'' was successively the central organ of: *

: 9 November 1918 to 30 December 1918 *

: 1 January 1919 to 19 September 1920 (reflecting the KPD's submission to the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

on *

: 19 September 1920 to roughly 23 March 1933 (date of passage of the Nazi

Enabling Act An enabling act is a piece of legislation by which a legislative body grants an entity which depends on it (for authorization or legitimacy) the power to take certain actions. For example, enabling acts often establish government agencies to c ...

The publication was proscribed from October 1923 to March 1924, as part of the ban on the German Communist Party. The newspaper continued in illegal production and distribution, sometimes renamed "Rote Sturmfahne" ("Red Storm Flag") or "Die Fahne der Revolution" ("The Flag of the Revolution"). In 1926, the newspaper moved into the

Karl Liebknecht House The Karl-Liebknecht-Haus or ''Karl Liebknecht House'' is the headquarters of the party '' The Left'' in Germany. It is located between the Alexanderplatz and Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz in Berlin-Mitte. Constructed in 1912 as a factory, the building w ...

, to which it added in July 1928 a rotary press. On 23 February 1933, Nazi police occupied Karl-Liebknecht-Haus and closed it the following day, anticipating the Nazi ban on all communist and socialist press after the

Reichstag fire The Reichstag fire (german: Reichstagsbrand, ) was an arson attack on the Reichstag building, home of the German parliament in Berlin, on Monday 27 February 1933, precisely four weeks after Nazi leader Adolf Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor ...

a few days later (28 February 1933). Many prominent Germans and others worked on the newspaper: * Founders included:

, Karl Liebknecht, Paul Frölich * Publishers included" Hans Marchwitza and Johannes R. Becher * Editors included:

Ernst Meyer Ernst Meyer may refer to: * Ernst Heinrich Friedrich Meyer (1791–1858), German botanist * Ernst Meyer (painter) (1797-1861), Danish painter * Ernst Meyer (Swedish politician) (1847–1925), Swedish politician * Ernst Meyer (German politician) (1 ...

(1918-1919), August Thalheimer (1919-?), Julian Gumperz (1920? -- later, second husband of Hede Massing), Werner Scholem (1920--?), Gerhart Eisler (1921-?? already, first husband of Hede Massing), Arkadi Maslow (1921-?), Heinz Neumann (1922-1928?), Max Matern (1925-?), Hans Lorbeer (1928--?), Erika Heymann (1930-1933), Albert Norden (1930-1933),

Lutz Łask Lutz is a surname and given name, occasionally a short form of Ludwig. People with the name include: Surname * Adolfo Lutz (1855–1940), Brazilian physician *Aleda E. Lutz (1915–1944), American Army flight nurse * Alois Lutz, Austrian figure ...

(1930s and husband of

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ty ...

's lover Dora Diamant),

Franz Koritschoner Franz Koritschoner (23 February 1892 – 9 June 1941) was an Austrian communist politician. Born in Vienna, Koritschoner was a leading figure of the Communist Party of Austria (KPÖ), and a member of its Central Committee until 1928. He translated ...

György Lukács György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and aest ...

, Wolfgang Harich (1923 – 1995) * Contributors included: Emil Barth (1918?), Lilly Becher (1921--?), Willi Schlamm (1923--?),

Albert Hotopp Albert Hotopp (20 September 1886 – 1 August 1942) was a German political activist and writer. As an active member of the Communist Party of Germany he fell foul of the Nazi Germany authorities during the ' in 1933. In 1934 he emigrated to the ...

(1923-1926),

Hanns Eisler Hanns Eisler (6 July 1898 – 6 September 1962) was an Austrian composer (his father was Austrian, and Eisler fought in a Hungarian regiment in World War I). He is best known for composing the national anthem of East Germany, for his long artisti ...

(1927), Erich Mielke (1928-1931), John Sieg (1928-1933?), Jürgen Kuczynski (1930-1933),

Max Zimmering Max Zimmering (16 November 1909 – 15 September 1973), was a German writer. Life Max Zimmering was born as a son of a clock maker in Pirna, Saxony. From 1914, he lived with an uncle in Dresden since his father would be drafted into the militar ...

(1935-1938?), Thomas Ring * Artists included: John Heartfield

1933–1942

Outlawed after the end of the

Weimar Republic The German Reich, commonly referred to as the Weimar Republic,, was a historical period of Germany from 9 November 1918 to 23 March 1933, during which it was a constitutional federal republic for the first time in history; hence it is also r ...

and the

in 1933, it was illegally distributed during the

National Socialist 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) in Na ...

government by underground groups close to the Communist Party until 1942.

Wilhelm Guddorf Wilhelm Guddorf (alias Paul Braun; 20 February 1902 – 13 May 1943) was a Belgian journalist, anti-Nazi and resistance fighter against the Third Reich. Guddorf was a leading member of a Berlin anti-fascist resistance group that was later c ...

was known to have been an editor of the newspaper in the late 1930s.

1970 and afterwards

Following the events of 1968, several projects of ideologically divergent groups of the so-called old and the new left arose in the Federal German Republic to build a new communist party. In addition to the German Communist Party (DKP), which is widely known as the West German KPD successor party and publishes the newspaper ''Unser Zeit'' as a party organ , various competing small communist parties , the so-called K groups, were founded, each of which was associated with different ideological concepts of communism (from Maoism to Stalinism to Trotskyism). Out of these groupings, there were several newspaper projects in the 1970s called ''Rote Fahne''. The

(KPD), a fringe party founded in 1990 by disgruntled members of the

Socialist Unity Party of Germany The Socialist Unity Party of Germany (german: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, ; SED, ), often known in English as the East German Communist Party, was the founding and ruling party of the German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germ ...

, publishes its own version of ''Die Rote Fahne''.

References

External sources

Die rote Fahne
- Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
Rote Fahne News

Rote Fahne Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rote Fahne 1918 establishments in Germany Communism in Germany Communist newspapers Defunct newspapers published in Germany Newspapers published in Berlin German-language newspapers German-language communist newspapers Publications established in 1918 Publications with year of disestablishment missing Daily newspapers published in Germany