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{{Short description|Political party in Germany (1919–1946/1956)}}
{{About||the modern party|German Communist Party|other uses}}
{{Redirect|KPD|the form of diabetes|Ketosis-prone diabetes|the approach to kidney transplanation|Kidney paired donation}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{Infobox political party
| name             = Communist Party of Germany
| native_name      = Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
| native_name_lang = de
| logo             = Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, Logo um 1920.svg
| headquarters     = [[Karl-Liebknecht-Haus]], Berlin
| founders         = {{plainlist|
* [[Karl Liebknecht]]
* [[Rosa Luxemburg]]
}}
| foundation       = [[#Early history|{{start date and age|1918|12|30|df=yes}}]]
| dissolved        = {{plainlist|
* [[Merger of the KPD and SPD into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany|{{end date and age|1946|04|21|df=yes}}]]{{efn|name=noteGDR|(East German branch)}}
* {{nowrap|{{end date and age|1956|08|17|df=yes}}{{efn|name=noteFDR|(West German branch)}}}}
| bannend = v
}}
| merged           = [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|Socialist Unity Party]]{{efn|name=noteGDR|(East German branch)}}
| successor        = {{nowrap|[[German Communist Party]]{{efn|name=noteFDR|(West German branch)}}}}
| newspaper        = ''{{lang|de|[[Die Rote Fahne]]}}''
| position         = [[Far-left politics|Far-left]]{{refn|<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-04-15 |title=Left |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/left |access-date=2022-05-22 |website=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |language=en |quote=...{{nbsp}}communism is a more radical leftist ideology.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Fulbrook|first=Mary|author-link=Mary Fulbrook|year=2014|title=A History of Germany 1918 – 2014: The Divided Nation|publisher=John Wiley & Sons |edition=4th|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ou7sBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA24|isbn=9781118776148}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |date= September 1993 |title= Transforming the German Party System: The United States and the Origins of Political Moderation, 1945-1949 |url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/2124849 |access-date=2025-01-31 |publisher= JSTOR |jstor= 2124849 |quote= The far Left is more easily described, since after 1945 it presented only two parties to voters and the Allies: the KPD and the Socialist Unity Party (SED). |last1= Rogers |first1= Daniel E. |journal= The Journal of Modern History |volume= 65 |issue= 3 |pages= 512–541 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Escalona |first1=Fabien |last2=Keith |first2=Daniel |last3=March |first3=Luke |date=2023-04-17 |title=The Palgrave Handbook of Radical Left Parties in Europe |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Palgrave_Handbook_of_Radical_Left_Pa.html?id=wTu6EAAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description |publisher=[[Springer Nature]] |page=236 |isbn=1137562641 |quote=The biggest party of the radical left in West Germany in the first half-decade after the war was the German Communist Party (KPD) [...] |access-date=2025-08-15}}</ref>}}
| merger           = [[Spartacus League]]<ref>Ottokar Luban, The Role of the Spartacist Group after 9 November 1918 and the Formation of the KPD, in: Ralf Hoffrogge and Norman LaPorte (eds.), Weimar Communism as Mass Movement 1918-1933, London: Lawrence & Wishart, 2017, pp. 45-65.</ref><br />[[International Communists of Germany|International Communists]]<ref>[[Olaf Ihlau]]: ''Die roten Kämpfer. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung in der Weimarer Republik und im Dritten Reich'' (= ''Marburger Abhandlungen zur politischen Wissenschaft'', Band 14, {{ISSN|0542-6480}}). Hain, Meisenheim am Glan 1969, (Nachdruck. (= ''Politladen-Reprint.'' No. 8). Verlag Politladen, Erlangen 1971, ISBN 3-920531-07-8; Zugleich: Marburg, Universität, Dissertation, 1968).</ref>
| youth_wing       = [[Young Communist League of Germany|Young Communist League]]<ref>{{cite thesis|author-first=Barabara |author-last=Köster |url=http://bieson.ub.uni-bielefeld.de/volltexte/2005/793/pdf/barbara_koester_junge_garde.pdf |title="Die Junge Garde des Proletariats" Untersuchungen zum Kommunistischen Jungendverband Deutschlands in der Weimarer Republik. |language=de |trans-title="The Young Guard of the Proletariat" Investigations into the Communist Youth Association of Germany in the Weimar Republic. |type=PhD  |date=2005 |access-date=20 March 2010}}</ref>
| wing1_title      = {{nowrap|Political academy}}
| wing1            = [[Marxist Workers' School]]
| wing2_title      = Trade union
| wing2            = [[Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts Opposition|Revolutionary Union Opposition]]
| wing3_title      = Paramilitary wing
| wing3            = ''[[Roter Frontkämpferbund]]''{{refn|The Proletarian Hundreds were used to protect KPD meetings and demonstrations,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bundestag.de/resource/blob/413444/081ff6f96f13d47bc85c48eafa185cf1/wf-xi-g-055-06-pdf-data.pdf|title=Die Bedeutung der Reichsexekution in der Weimarer Reichsverfassung und ihre Anwendung 1923 in Sachsen und Thüringen|date=2006|website=Deutscher Bundestag|access-date=20 September 2019}}</ref> but this organization was banned in 1923.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.zeit.de/1993/43/aufstand-an-der-waterkant/seite-4|title="Deutscher Oktober" 1923 an der Alster: ein blutiger Reinfall – Unbekannte Briefe und Berichte zum Putschversuch der Hamburger Kommunisten: Aufstand an der Waterkant|last=ZEIT (Archiv)|first=D. I. E.|date=1993-10-22|work=Die Zeit|access-date=2019-07-09|language=de-DE|issn=0044-2070}}</ref> The ''Rotfrontkämpferbund'' would exist from 1924 to 1929 and after it was dissolved, a successor organisation was created, named the ''{{ill|Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus|de}}''.<ref name="Multiple sources">
* Kurt G. P. Schuster: ''Der rote Frontkämpferbund 1924–1929''. Droste, Düsseldorf 1975, {{ISBN|3-7700-5083-5}}.
* Eve Rosenhaft, ''Beating the Fascists?: The German Communists and Political Violence 1929-1933'', Cambridge University Press, 25 Aug 1983, pp. 3–4.
* {{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cygMA0eVVV0C&q=RFB+1929 |title=Kampfbünde der Arbeiterbewegung: das Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold und der Rote Frontkämpferbund in Sachsen 1924-1933 |last=Voigt |first=Carsten |date=2009 |publisher=Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar |isbn=9783412204495 |language=de}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/innenpolitik/roter-frontkaempferbund.html|title=Gerade auf LeMO gesehen: LeMO Kapitel: Weimarer Republik|last=Museum|first=Stiftung Deutsches Historisches|website=Deutsches Historisches Museum|language=de|access-date=21 June 2019}}
* {{cite web|url=https://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/Lexikon/Roter_Frontk%C3%A4mpferbund,_1924-1929#Verbot_1929_und_illegales_Weiterwirken|title=Roter Frontkämpferbund, 1924-1929|website=Historisches Lexikon Bayerns|access-date=21 June 2019}}
* {{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vh6OnfbJRwgC&q=rotfrontk%C3%A4mpferbund&pg=PA92|title=Weimar Radicals: Nazis and Communists between Authenticity and Performance|last=Brown|first=Timothy Scott|year=2009|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=9781845459086}}</ref> A new organisation was formed in 1931, called the ''{{ill|Parteiselbstschutz|de}}'', but this would only last one year.<ref>[[Hans Coppi junior|Hans Coppi]]: ''Die nationalsozialistischen Bäume im sozialdemokratischen Wald. Die KPD im antifaschistischen Zweifrontenkrieg (Teil 2).'' [https://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/97_8_Coppi.pdf Online-Ausgabe] In: UTOPIE kreativ, November/Dezember 1998, S. 7–17. [[Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung]]</ref>}}
| membership       = 360,000 (Nov. 1932 {{estimation}})<ref>Catherine Epstein. ''The last revolutionaries: German communists and their century''. Harvard University Press, 2003. p. 39.</ref>
| ideology         = {{plainlist|class=nowrap|
* [[Communism]]
* [[Council communism]] (1919){{refn|Initially, a majority within the KPD opposed electoral politics and trade unionism, placing it to the [[Left communism|left]] of Bolshevik orthodoxy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bock |first=Hans-Manfred |title=Geschichte des linken Radikalismus in Deutschland: Ein Versuch |trans-title=History of left-wing radicalism in Germany: an attempt |language=de |year=1976 |publisher=Suhrkamp |location=Frankfurt|page=90}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Shipway |first=Mark |chapter=Council Communism |editor1-first=Maximilien |editor1-last=Rubel |editor1-link=Maximilien Rubel |editor2-first=John |editor2-last=Crump |title=Non-Market Socialism in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries |year=1987 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York|page=105}}</ref>}}
* [[Rosa Luxemburg#Thought|Luxemburgism]] (1919–1928){{refn|Luxemburg's idea of democracy which [[Stanley Aronowitz]] calls "''generalized'' democracy in an unarticulated form" represents Luxemburg's greatest break with "mainstream communism" since it effectively diminishes the role of the [[communist party]], but it, similar to the views of [[Karl Marx]], states that the working class must "emancipate" themselves without a higher authority.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hudis |first=Leter |date=2022-09-21 |title=Rosa Luxemburg Was the Great Theorist of Democratic Revolution - Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung |url=https://www.rosalux.de/en/news/id/47060/rosa-luxemburg-was-the-great-theorist-of-democratic-revolution |access-date=2024-10-21 |website=www.rosalux.de |language=en-US}}</ref>}}
* [[Marxism–Leninism]] ([[Communist Party of Germany#Fischer and Thälmann leaderships and the united front|from 1928]])
* [[Stalinism]] ([[Communist Party of Germany#Fischer and Thälmann leaderships and the united front|from 1928]])<ref name="Haro 2011">{{cite journal|last=Haro|first=Lea|year=2011|title=Entering a Theoretical Void: The Theory of Social Fascism and Stalinism in the German Communist Party|journal=[[Critique: Journal of Socialist Theory]]|volume=39|issue=4|pages=563–582|doi=10.1080/03017605.2011.621248|s2cid=146848013}}</ref><ref name="Bois 2012"/>
}}
| international    = [[Communist International|Comintern]] (until 1943)<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/1st-congress/index.htm |title=Speeches at the First Congress of the Communist International March 1919 |website=Marxists}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/colordesignworkb0000ston/page/86 |title=Color design workbook : a real-world guide to using color in graphic design |oclc=60393965 |page=86}}</ref>
| colours          = {{color box|{{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}|border=silver}} [[Political colour#Red|Red]] (official)<ref>{{Cite book|title=Color Design Workbook: A Real World Guide to Using Color in Graphic Design|last1=Adams|first1=Sean|last2=Morioka|first2=Noreen|last3=Stone|first3=Terry Lee|date=2006|publisher=Rockport Publishers|isbn=159253192X|location=Gloucester, Massachusetts|pages=[https://archive.org/details/colordesignworkb0000ston/page/86 86]|oclc=60393965|url=https://archive.org/details/colordesignworkb0000ston/page/86}}</ref>
| colorcode        = {{party color|Communist Party of the Soviet Union}}
| anthem           = {{center|''Die Internationale''<br />({{lit|[[The Internationale]]}})}}
| flag             = [[File:Flag of the Communist Party of Germany.svg|225px|border]]
| footnotes        = {{notelist}}
| country          = Germany
}}
{{Communist parties}}
{{Socialism in Germany}}
The '''Communist Party of Germany''' ({{langx|de|Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands}}, {{IPA|de|kɔmuˈnɪstɪʃə paʁˈtaɪ ˈdɔʏtʃlants|pron|De-Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands.oga}}; '''KPD''' {{IPA|de|ˌkaːpeːˈdeː||De-KPD.ogg}}) was the major [[Far-left politics|far-left]] political party in the [[Weimar Republic]] during the [[interwar period]], an [[German resistance to Nazism|underground resistance movement]] in [[Nazi Germany]], and a minor party in [[Allied-occupied Germany]] and [[West Germany]] during [[History of Germany (1945–1990)|the post-war period]] until it [[Merger of the KPD and SPD|merged with]] the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|SPD]] in the [[Soviet occupation zone]] in 1946 and was banned by the West German [[Federal Constitutional Court]] in 1956.

The construction of the KPD began in the aftermath of the [[First World War]] by [[Rosa Luxemburg]]'s and [[Karl Liebknecht]]'s faction of the [[Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (USPD) who had opposed [[World War I|the war]] and [[Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany|the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (MSPD)'s [[Burgfriedenspolitik|support]] of it.

The KPD joined the [[Spartacist uprising]] of January 1919, which sought to establish a [[Soviet republic (system of government)|council republic]] in Germany. After the defeat of the uprising, and the murder of KPD leaders [[Rosa Luxemburg]], [[Karl Liebknecht]] and [[Leo Jogiches]], the party temporarily steered a more moderate, [[Loyal opposition|loyal-oppositionist]] course under the leadership of [[Paul Levi]]. But he was defeated by the ultra-leftist or putschist wing of the party and resigned and three months later he was expelled from both the KPD and Comintern because of his public critic of the role of the party leadership in the [[March Action|March Aktion]] of 1921. During the [[Weimar Republic]] period, the KPD usually polled between 10 and 15 percent of the vote and was represented in the national {{lang|de|[[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]]}} and in state parliaments. Under the leadership of [[Ernst Thälmann]] from 1925 the party became thoroughly [[Marxism–Leninism|Marxist-Leninist]] and loyal to the leadership of the [[Soviet Union]], and from 1928 it was largely controlled and funded by the [[Comintern]] in Moscow. Under Thälmann's leadership the party directed most of its attacks against the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD), which it regarded as its main adversary and referred to as "[[social fascism|social fascists]]"; the KPD adopted what's known as the 'social fascism' thesis under Stalin's direction. This position held that [[social democracy]], particularly the SPD, was objectively a variant of fascism – 'social fascism' – because it supposedly upheld capitalism while providing a façade of workers' representation, considering all other parties in the Weimar Republic to be "[[fascist (insult)|fascists]]".<ref name="Hoppe">{{cite book |last=Hoppe |first=Bert |year=2011 |title=In Stalins Gefolgschaft: Moskau und die KPD 1928–1933 |publisher= Oldenbourg Verlag |isbn= 9783486711738 }}</ref>

The KPD was banned in the Weimar Republic one day after the [[Nazi Party]] emerged triumphant in the [[March 1933 German federal election|German elections]] in 1933. It maintained an underground organization in Nazi Germany, and the KPD and groups associated with it led the internal resistance to the Nazi regime, with a focus on distributing anti-Nazi literature. The KPD suffered heavy losses between 1933 and 1939, with 30,000 Communists executed and 150,000 sent to [[Nazi concentration camps]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://libcom.org/files/opposition_and_resistance_in_nazi_germany.pdf |title= Opposition and Resistance in Nazi Germany|isbn=9780521003582 |date= 6 September 2001|accessdate=4 March 2022|last1= McDonough|first1= Frank|publisher= Cambridge University Press}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |page=380 |language=en}}</ref> Many German Communists went to the Soviet Union. However, 60% of German exiles in the Soviet Union were liquidated during the [[Great Purge|Stalinist terror]] and a higher proportion of the KPD Politburo membership died in the Soviet Union than in Nazi Germany. Hundreds of German citizens, the majority of whom were Communists, had been handed over to the [[Gestapo]] from Stalin's administration.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Weitz |first1=Eric D. |title=Creating German Communism, 1890-1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State |date=13 April 2021 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-22812-9 |page=280 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JOgSEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA280 |language=en}}</ref>

The party was revived in divided postwar West and [[East Germany]] and won seats in the first {{lang|de|[[Bundestag]]}} (West German Parliament) elections in 1949. The KPD was banned as extremist in West Germany in 1956 by the [[Federal Constitutional Court of Germany|Federal Constitutional Court]]. In 1969, some of its former members founded an even smaller fringe party, the [[German Communist Party]] (DKP), which remains legal, and multiple tiny splinter groups claiming to be the successor to the KPD have also subsequently been formed. In East Germany, the party was merged, by Soviet decree, with remnants of the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]] to form the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|Socialist Unity Party]] (SED) which ruled East Germany from 1949 until 1989–1990; the merger was opposed by many Social Democrats, many of whom fled to the western zones.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Heydemann|first=Günther|date=2003|title=Die Innenpolitik der DDR|url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1524/9783486701760|doi=10.1524/9783486701760|isbn=978-3-486-70176-0}}</ref> After the [[fall of the Berlin Wall]], reformists took over the SED and renamed it the [[Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany)|Party of Democratic Socialism]] (PDS); in 2007 the PDS subsequently merged with the SPD splinter faction [[Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative|WASG]] to form {{lang|de|[[The Left (Germany)|Die Linke]]}}.

== Early history ==

Before [[World War I]] the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party]] (SPD) was the largest party in Germany and the world's most successful socialist party. Although still officially claiming to be a [[Marxist]] party, by 1914 it had become in practice a reformist party. In 1914 the SPD members of the [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]] voted in favour of the war. Left-wing members of the party, led by [[Karl Liebknecht]] and [[Rosa Luxemburg]], strongly opposed the war, and the SPD soon suffered a split. From the split emerged the [[Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (USPD) and the more radical [[Spartacist League]]; the latter formed the core of what would become the KPD. In November 1918, [[German Revolution of 1918–1919|revolution]] broke out across Germany. The KPD held its founding congress in [[Berlin]] from 30 December 1918 to 1 January 1919, in the reception hall of the City Council. Rosa Luxemburg was initially against the setting up of a new party but joined the KPD after her initial hesitation.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Rosa Luxemburg |last=Nettl, J. P. |date=1969 |publisher=Oxford U.P|page=472|isbn=0-19-281040-5 |edition=Abridged |location=London |oclc=71702}}</ref> Apart from the Spartacists, another dissident group of socialists called the [[International Communists of Germany]] (IKD), also dissenting members of the Social Democratic party but mainly located in [[Hamburg]], [[Bremen]] and [[Northern Germany]], joined the KPD.<ref>Gerhard Engel, The International Communists of Germany, 191z–1919, in: Ralf Hoffrogge / Norman LaPorte (eds.): ''Weimar Communism as Mass Movement 1918–1933'', London: Lawrence & Wishart, pp. 25–45.</ref> The [[Revolutionary Stewards|Revolutionary Shop Stewards]], a network of dissenting socialist trade unionists centered in Berlin, were also invited to the congress, but ultimately did not join the KPD because they deemed the founding congress too [[syndicalist]]-leaning.

The Party's first Central Committee consisted of [[Hermann Duncker]], [[Käte Duncker]], [[Hugo Eberlein]], [[Paul Frölich]], [[Leo Jogiches]], [[:de:Paul Lange (Politiker)|Paul Lange]], [[Paul Levi]], [[Karl Liebknecht]], [[Rosa Luxemburg]], [[Ernst Meyer (German politician)|Ernst Meyer]], [[Wilhelm Pieck]], and [[August Thalheimer]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Pelz |first=William |author-link= |date=1988 |title=The Spartakusbund and the German working class movement, 1914–1919 |url=https://archive.org/details/spartakusbundger0000pelz/page/190/mode/1up |location=Lewiston, NY |publisher=Edwin Mellen Press |page=190 |isbn=}}</ref>

There were seven main reports given at the founding congress:
* "Economical Struggles" – by [[:de:Paul Lange (Politiker)|Paul Lange]]
* Greeting speech – by [[Karl Radek]]
* "International Conferences" – by [[Hermann Duncker]]
* "Our Organization" – by [[Hugo Eberlein]]
* "Our Program" – by [[Rosa Luxemburg]]
* "The Crisis of the USPD" – by [[Karl Liebknecht]]
* "The National Assembly" – by [[Paul Levi]]

These reports were given by leading figures of the Spartacist League, but members of the [[International Communists of Germany (1918)|International Communists of Germany]] also took part in the discussions.

Under the leadership of Liebknecht and Luxemburg, the KPD was committed to a revolution in Germany, and attempts to bring down the interim government and create a revolutionary situation continued during 1919 and 1920. Germany's SPD leadership, which had come to power after the fall of the monarchy, was vehemently opposed to a socialist revolution. With the new regime terrified of a [[Bolshevik Revolution]] in Germany, Defense Minister [[Gustav Noske]] recruited former right-wing military officers and demobilized veterans and formed various ''[[Freikorps]]'' and anti-Communist [[Weimar paramilitary groups|paramilitaries]] to violently suppress all revolutionary activity. During the failed [[Spartacist uprising]] in [[Berlin]] of January 1919, Liebknecht and Luxemburg, who had not initiated the uprising but joined once it had begun, were captured by the ''Freikorps'' and murdered.<ref name="Winner 2018">{{cite web | last=Winner | first=David | title=How the left enabled fascism | website=New Statesman | date=3 October 2018 | url=https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2018/10/how-left-enabled-fascism | access-date=4 January 2022}}</ref> At its peak, the party had 350–400,000 members in 1920.<ref name="Bois 2012"/> The party split a few months later into two factions, the KPD and the much smaller [[Communist Workers' Party of Germany]] (KAPD).

Following the assassination of [[Leo Jogiches]], [[Paul Levi]] became the KPD's leader. Other prominent members included [[Clara Zetkin]], [[Paul Frölich]], [[Hugo Eberlein]], [[Franz Mehring]], [[Julian Marchlewski]], [[August Thalheimer]], [[Wilhelm Pieck]], and [[Ernst Meyer (German politician)|Ernst Meyer]]. Levi led the party away from the policy of immediate revolution, in an effort to win over SPD and USPD voters and [[trade union]] officials. These efforts were rewarded when a substantial section of the USPD joined the KPD, making it a mass party for the first time.

== Weimar Republic years ==

[[File:KPD Reichstag Members 1921 Trim.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Members of the Reichstag faction of the KPD {{circa}} 1921. Sitting from left to right: [[Joseph Herzfeld]], [[Clara Zetkin]], [[Emil Eichhorn]], [[:de:Georg Berthelé|Georg Berthelé]]. Standing from left to right: [[:de:Max Heydemann|Max Heydemann]], [[Walter Stoecker]], [[Wilhelm Koenen]], [[:de:Wilhelm Bartz|Wilhelm Bartz]], [[:de:Heinrich Malzahn|Heinrich Malzahn]], [[Paul Frölich]].]]

Through the 1920s, the KPD was racked by internal conflict between radical and moderate factions, partly reflecting the power struggles between [[Joseph Stalin]] and [[Grigory Zinoviev]] in [[Moscow]].{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} Germany was seen as being of central importance to the struggle for socialism, and the failure of the German revolution was a major setback. Eventually Levi was expelled in 1921 by the [[Comintern]] for "indiscipline". Further leadership changes took place in the 1920s. Supporters of the [[Left Opposition|Left]] or [[Right Opposition]] to the [[Stalinism|Stalinist]]-controlled Comintern leadership were expelled; of these, [[Heinrich Brandler]], August Thalheimer and [[Paul Frölich]] set up a splinter [[Communist Party Opposition]] in 1928.

The leadership of the German Communist party had requested that Moscow send [[Leon Trotsky]] to Germany to direct the [[German October|1923 insurrection]]. However, this proposal was rejected by the Politburo which was controlled by Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev who decided to send a commission of lower-ranking Russian Communist party members.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rogovin |first1=Vadim Zakharovich |title=Was There an Alternative? Trotskyism: a Look Back Through the Years |date=2021 |publisher=Mehring Books |isbn=978-1-893638-97-6 |page=272 |language=en}}</ref>

During the years of the [[Weimar Republic]], the KPD was the largest communist party in Europe and seen as the "leading party" of the [[History of communism|communist movement]] outside of the Soviet Union.<ref>Ralf Hoffrogge / Norman LaPorte (eds.): ''Weimar Communism as Mass Movement 1918–1933'', London: Lawrence & Wishart, p. 2</ref> The party abandoned the goal of immediate revolution, and from 1924 onwards contested [[Reichstag (Weimar Republic)|Reichstag]] elections, with some success.

=== Fischer and Thälmann leaderships and the united front ===

[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-14686-0026, Essen, Reichspräsidentenwahl, KPD-Wahlwerbung.jpg|thumb|left|300px|KPD in [[Essen]], 1925]]

A new KPD leadership was elected in 1923.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} The party's left around [[Ruth Fischer]], [[Arkadi Maslow]] and [[Werner Scholem]] took leadership of the KPD in 1924; [[Ernst Thälmann]] was allied to this faction and became a member of the politburo and was appointed
KPD vice-chairman in January 1924. Stalin engineered the Fischer leadership's removal in August 1925, and installed Thälmann as party chairman.<ref name="Bois 2012">{{cite web | last=Bois | first=Marcel | title=A Son of His Class | website=Jacobin | date=17 June 2012 | url=https://jacobinmag.com/2016/08/ernst-thalmann-east-germany-stalin-nazis | access-date=4 January 2022}}</ref><ref name=LaPorte/>

[[File:Reichsexekution-Sachsen-1923-Reichswehrkompanie-auf-dem-Weg-zum-Landtagsgebaeu.jpg|alt=A crowd of civilians are standing in the foreground watching armed soldiers in the middle-ground marching alongside the street. Buildings of downtown Dresden can be seen in the background.|thumb|right|300px|''[[Reichswehr]]'' soldiers marching toward the federal parliament in [[Dresden]], Saxony, to [[Reichsexekution|depose]] the state government led by a KPD-SPD coalition]]

From 1923 to 1928, the KPD broadly followed the [[united front]] policy developed in the early 1920s of working with other working class and socialist parties to contest elections, pursue social struggles and fight the rising right-wing militias.<ref name="Peterson 1993 pp. 399–428">{{cite book | last=Peterson | first=Larry | title=German Communism, Workers' Protest, and Labor Unions | chapter=The United Front | publisher=Springer Netherlands | publication-place=Dordrecht | year=1993 | isbn=978-94-010-4718-0 | doi=10.1007/978-94-011-1644-2_12 | pages=399–428}}</ref><ref name="Gaido pp. 131–174">{{cite journal | last=Gaido | first=Daniel | title=Paul Levi and the Origins of the United-Front Policy in the Communist International | journal=Historical Materialism | publisher=Brill | volume=25 | issue=1 | date=3 April 2017 | issn=1465-4466 | doi=10.1163/1569206x-12341515 | pages=131–174| hdl=11086/548552 | url=https://philarchive.org/rec/GAIPLA | hdl-access=free }}</ref><ref name="Fowkes 1984 p.">{{cite book | last=Fowkes | first=Ben | title=Communism in Germany under the Weimar republic | publisher=Macmillan | publication-place=London | year=1984 | isbn=978-0-333-27271-8 | oclc=10553402 }}</ref><ref name="Bois pp. 1–28">{{cite journal | last=Bois | first=Marcel | title='March Separately, But Strike Together!' The Communist Party's United-Front Policy in the Weimar Republic | journal=Historical Materialism | publisher=Brill | date=30 April 2020 | volume=28 | issue=3 | issn=1465-4466 | doi=10.1163/1569206x-00001281 | pages=138–165| s2cid=219055035 }}</ref> For example, in October 1923 the KPD formed a coalition government with the SPD in the states of [[Saxony]] and [[Thuringia]]. However, the ''[[Reichswehr]]'' legally overthrew these governments by force, through a constitutional process called ''[[Reichsexekution]]''.<ref>Michael Stolleis, ''A History of Public Law in Germany, 1914–1945'' (Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 99.</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Sturm |first=Reinhard |title=Kampf um die Republik 1919–1923 |url=https://www.bpb.de/themen/nationalsozialismus-zweiter-weltkrieg/dossier-nationalsozialismus/39531/kampf-um-die-republik-1919-1923/ |access-date=2023-02-24 |website=bpb.de |date=23 December 2011 |language=de |trans-quote=Other than Bavaria, Saxony and Thuringia have had legitimate governments. On the other hand, the "proletarian hundreds" opposed the Versailles treaty. Further, Ebert and Stresemann saw communists in state offices as intolerable. So the Reichspresident ordered the Reichsexekution on 29 October 1923.}}</ref> In 1926 the KPD worked with the SPD on a referendum to expropriate the German nobility, together mobilising 14.4 million voters.<ref name="Bois 2012"/>

The party's first paramilitary wing was the ''[[Roter Frontkämpferbund]]'' (Alliance of Red Front Fighters), which was founded in 1924 but banned by the governing Social Democrats in 1929.<ref name="Pieroth">{{cite book |last= Stephan|first= Pieroth|year= 1994 |title=Parteien und Presse in Rheinland-Pfalz 1945–1971: ein Beitrag zur Mediengeschichte unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Mainzer SPD-Zeitung 'Die Freiheit' |publisher= v. Hase & Koehler Verlag |page= 96 |isbn= 9783775813266 }}</ref>

By 1927, the party had 130,000 members, of whom 40,000 had been members in 1920.<ref name="Bois 2012"/> From 1928 onwards (after Stalin reinstated Thälmann as KPD leader against the majority of the KPD central committee in the wake of an embezzlement scandal involving Thälmann's ally [[John Wittorf]]<ref name=LaPorte>LaPorte, N. (Ed.), & Morgan, K. (2008). '[https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/files/173653807/LaPorte_Morgan_Kings_among_their_subjects_Ernst_Th_lmann_Harry_Pollitt_and_the_leadership_cult_as_stalinization_in_LaPorte_Morgan_and_Worley_eds_Bolshevism_Stalinism_and_the_Comintern_.pdf Kings among their subjects'? Ernst Thälmann, Harry Pollitt and the leadership cult as Stalinization]. In N. LaPorte, K. Morgan, & M. Worley (Eds.), ''Bolshevism, Stalinism and the Comintern: Perspectives on Stalinization'', 1917–53 (pp. 124–145). Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230227583_7
</ref>), the party followed the Comintern line and received funding from the Comintern.<ref name="Hoppe"/><ref name="Winner 2018b">{{cite web | last=Winner | first=David | title=How the left enabled fascism | website=New Statesman | date=3 October 2018 | url=https://www.newstatesman.com/world/europe/2018/10/how-left-enabled-fascism | access-date=4 January 2022|quote=By the late 1920s, though, the KPD had largely purged itself of Spartacists and become a Stalinist party. Thälmann took his instructions from Stalin and his hatred of the SPD was essentially ideological.}}</ref>  Under Thälmann's leadership, the party was closely aligned with the Soviet leadership headed by [[Joseph Stalin]]; Thälmann has been described as "the driving force behind Stalinization in the mid to late 1920s" and "Stalin's right hand in Germany".<ref name="Bois 2012"/> After winning control from his former leftist allies, he expelled the party's [[Right Opposition]] around [[Heinrich Brandler]].<ref name="Bois 2012"/>

=== The Third Period and "social fascism" ===

[[File:Bundesarchiv B 145 Bild-P046279, Berlin, Liebknecht-Haus am Bülowplatz.jpg|thumb|left|300px|[[Karl-Liebknecht-Haus]], the KPD's headquarters from 1926 to 1933. The ''[[Antifaschistische Aktion]]'' ([[abbr.]] "Antifa") logo can be seen prominently displayed on the front of the building.]]

After the [[1928 German federal election|1928 Reichstag election]], the KPD with 54 seats remained one of the largest and most politically potent Communist parties in Europe. Led now by Thälmann, who supported a close alignment with the [[Soviet Union]] and the [[Communist International]] (Comintern). At the time, the Comintern held the position that social democracy was [[social fascism]] and that it frustrated rather than helped the [[proletariat]]. As a result, the KPD under Thälmann had a hostile, confrontational attitude toward the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD) as defenders of the capitalist status quo.{{Sfn|Bowlby|1986|p=138}} Their perception was reinforced by the explicit [[Anti-communism|anti-Communist]] views of numerous SPD politicians in the German and [[Free State of Prussia|Prussian]] governments, including Chancellor [[Hermann Müller (politician, born 1876)|Hermann Müller]], Interior Minister [[Carl Severing]], [[Minister President of Prussia|Prussian Minister President]] [[Otto Braun]], Prussian Interior Minister [[Albert Grzesinski]] and [[Berlin Police]] chief Karl Zörgiebel.{{Sfn|Rosenhaft|1983|p=32}}

In the lead-up to the 1929 celebration of [[International Workers' Day]], SPD Minister Grzesinski threatened to ban the KPD and its organizations if they acted in defiance of a ban on public gatherings in Berlin ordered by the city's police chief [[Karl Zörgiebel]] of the SPD. The attempted banning galvanized the KPD, who responded by exhorting workers to defy the ban and organize peacefully, but to be prepared to strike on 2 May "if Zörgiebel dares to spill workers' blood". The KPD proceeded with [[May Day]] marches in Berlin.

The [[Berlin Police]] responded with an immediate, harsh, and disproportionate crackdown. Often without regard to whether the persons involved were demonstrators or bystanders, they forcibly and violently dispersed the crowds that formed. As the day progressed, street battles developed between the protestors and the police, who used firearms and armoured cars. The violence lasted until the afternoon of 3 May, mostly in the working-class neighbourhoods of [[Wedding (Berlin)|Wedding]] and [[Neukölln]].

An estimated 33 civilians, none of whom were involved with the KPD, were killed, 200 injured, and over a thousand people taken into police custody, many of whom were also not involved in the initial KPD rallies.{{sfn|Bowlby|1986|pp=149–150}} Only 66 of those arrested were charged and 44 convicted.

The events of [[Blutmai]] deepened the split between the SPD and KPD, the two major left-wing parties of the Weimar Republic, making a united stand against the growing strength of far-right parties more difficult.

Tensions soured, the KPD in turn began aligning with the Comintern's [[ultra-left]] [[Third Period]], under the slogan "Class against class", the KPD turned to viewing the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD) as its main adversary.<ref name="Grenville 1992 pp. 89–102">{{cite book | last=Grenville | first=Anthony | title=German Writers and Politics 1918–39 | chapter=From Social Fascism to Popular Front: KPD Policy as Reflected in the Works of Friedrich Wolf, Anna Seghers and Willi Bredel, 1928–1938 | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK | publication-place=London | year=1992 | isbn=978-1-349-11817-5 | doi=10.1007/978-1-349-11815-1_7 | pages=89–102}}</ref><ref name="Lemmons 2009 pp. 343–356">{{cite journal | last=Lemmons | first=Russel | title="Germany's Eternal Son:" the Genesis of the Ernst Thälmann Myth, 1930–1950 | journal=German Studies Review | publisher=German Studies Association, The Johns Hopkins University Press | volume=32 | issue=2 | year=2009 | issn=0149-7952 | jstor=40574804 | pages=343–356 | url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40574804 | access-date=4 January 2022|quote=By 1932, Thälmann's image had become a vital component of the KPD's antifascism narrative. According to this version of events only the communists stood against the forces of German fascism. The Socialists (SPD), who supported the right-wing Hindenburg in the 1932 elections, were ultimately "social fascists", and no better than the Nazis}}</ref> The term social fascism was introduced to the German Communist Party shortly after the [[Hamburg Uprising]] of 1923 and gradually became ever more influential in the party; by 1929 it was being propagated as a theory.<ref name="Haro 2011"/> The KPD regarded itself as "the only anti-fascist party" in Germany and held that all other parties in the Weimar Republic were "fascist".<ref name="Hoppe" /><!-- p. 195 --> The Nazis achieved an electoral breakthrough in the [[1930 Reichstag election]].

By the early 1930s, the political situation in [[Weimar Germany]] was extremely unstable after the onset of the [[Great Depression]]. The Depression effectively destroyed the remaining legitimacy of the pro-democratic parties – such as the Social Democrats, the State Party, and the German People's Party – in favor of the anti-democratic parties.<ref>{{cite book|last=Evans|first=Richard|title=The Coming of the Third Reich|year=2004|publisher=Penguin |isbn=978-0141009759}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Fippel |first1=Günter|year= 2003 |title=Antifaschisten in "antifaschistischer" Gewalt: mittel- und ostdeutsche Schicksale in den Auseinandersetzungen zwischen Demokratie und Diktatur (1945 bis 1961)|publisher= A. Peter |page= 21 |isbn= 9783935881128 }}</ref> They also followed an increasingly nationalist course, trying to appeal to nationalist-leaning workers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Ernst Thälmann: Nationale und soziale Befreiung (1930)|url=https://www.marxists.org/deutsch/referenz/thaelmann/1930/08/natsozbef.htm|access-date=27 December 2021|website=www.marxists.org}}</ref>

In 1931, the party reported a membership of 200,000.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Scarrow |first1=Susan |title=Beyond Party Members: Changing Approaches to Partisan Mobilization |date=27 November 2014 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780191748332 |page=59 |edition=1 |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/9675 |access-date=15 June 2023}}</ref>

The KPD leadership initially first criticised but then supported the [[1931 Prussian Landtag referendum]], an unsuccessful attempt launched by the far-right [[Der Stahlhelm, Bund der Frontsoldaten|Stahlhelm]] to bring down the social democrat state government of Prussia by means of a plebiscite; the KPD referred to some within the Nazi [[Brownshirts]] as "working people's comrades" during this campaign.<ref>Rob Sewell, ''Germany: From Revolution to Counter-Revolution'', Fortress Books (1988), {{ISBN|1-870958-04-7}}, [http://www.marxist.com/germany/chapter7.html Chapter 7]. "In August 1931, to capitalise on their growing popularity, the Nazi Party launched a referendum to overthrow the Social Democratic government of Prussia. At first the KPD correctly attacked it. Then, three weeks before the vote, under orders from Stalin's Comintern, they joined forces with the fascists to bring down the main enemy, the Social Democrats. They changed the name of the plebiscite to a 'Red Referendum' and referred to the fascists and the members of the SA as 'working people's comrades'!"</ref>

[[File:Schluss mit diesem System - Wahlplakat der KPD, 1932.jpg|thumb|upright|250px|KPD election poster, 1932. The caption at the bottom reads: "An end to this system!"]]

The KPD maintained a solid electoral performance, usually polling more than 10% of the vote. It gained 100 deputies in the [[November 1932 German federal election|November 1932 elections]], getting 16% of the vote and coming third.<ref name="Bois 2012"/> In the [[1932 German presidential election|presidential election of the same year]], its candidate Thälmann took 13.2% of the vote, compared to Hitler's 30.1%. In this period, while also opposed to the Nazis, the KPD regarded the Nazi Party as a less sophisticated and thus less dangerous fascist party than the SPD, and KPD leader Ernst Thälmann declared that "some Nazi trees must not be allowed to overshadow a forest [of social democrats]".<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Coppi |first1=Hans |author-link1=Hans Coppi Jr. |year=1998 |title=Die nationalsozialistischen Bäume im sozialdemokratischen Wald: Die KPD im antifaschistischen Zweifrontenkrieg (Teil 2) |trans-title=The national socialist trees in the social democratic forest: The KPD in the anti-fascist two-front war (Part 2) |journal=Utopie Kreativ |volume=97–98|pages=7–17 }}</ref>

Critics of the KPD accused it of having pursued a sectarian policy. For example, the Social Democratic Party criticized the KPD's thesis of "social fascism", and both [[Leon Trotsky]] from the [[Communist International|Comintern]]'s [[Left Opposition]] and [[August Thalheimer]] of the [[Right Opposition]] continued to argue for a united front.<ref name="Bois Hitler">Marcel Bois, "[https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/11/nuremberg-trials-hitler-goebbels-himmler-german-communist-social-democrats/ Hitler wasn't inevitable]", ''Jacobin'' 25 November 2015</ref> Critics believed that the KPD's sectarianism scuttled any possibility of a united front with the SPD against the rising power of the [[Nazism|National Socialists]].<ref name="Bois Hitler"/>

Thälmann claimed that the right-wing leadership of the SPD rejected and actively worked against the KPD's efforts to form a united front against fascism.<ref>{{cite web|title=Texte zum Klassenkampf/ Ernst Thälmann: Wie schaffen wir die rote Einheitsfront?|url=http://www.marxistische-bibliothek.de/fragenvonspd.html|access-date=27 December 2021|archive-date=15 July 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070715202206/http://www.marxistische-bibliothek.de/fragenvonspd.html|url-status=bot: unknown}}</ref> The party itself, however, continued to publicly clash with the SPD and the [[General German Trade Union Federation]] well into 1932.

A brawl between Nazi and KPD lawmakers in the [[Landtag of Prussia]] led to the creation of Antifa – short [[Antifaschistische Aktion]],<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://antifaeu.blogsport.de/images/80J_AA_web.pdf|title=80 Jahre Antifaschistische Aktion|last=Langer|first=Bernd|publisher=Verein zur Förderung Antifaschistischer Kultur|access-date=25 June 2019|archive-date=27 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220427052730/http://antifaeu.blogsport.de/images/80J_AA_web.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref> which the party itself described as a "red united [[Communist front|front]] under the leadership of the only anti-fascist party, the KPD".<ref name="Pieroth" /> Thälmann, however, reiterated that there was still a 'principal fight' to be led against the SPD and that there would be no 'unity at all costs'.<ref name="Dorpalen">{{cite journal |last1=Dorpalen |first1=Andreas |author-link1=:de:Andreas Dorpalen |title=SPD und KPD in der Endphase der Weimarer Republik |journal=Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte |date=1983 |volume=1 |page=97 |url=https://www.ifz-muenchen.de/heftarchiv/1983_1_4_dorpalen.pdf |access-date=28 November 2023 |publisher=Institut für Zeitgeschichte |location=Munich |issn=0042-5702}}</ref>

After [[Franz von Papen]]'s government [[Preußenschlag|carried out a coup d'état]] in [[Free State of Prussia|Prussia]], the KPD issued a call for all workers to support a general strike under its own leadership, which only resulted in limited local action. The statement was added with a short call on the [[General German Trade Union Federation|GGTUF]], the SPD and the [[General Federation of Free Employees]] to join in, but the KPD's belief that social democrats would have to be 'coerced by the masses' meant that their leaders were never approached directly. The KPD tried the same tactic again after [[Adolf Hitler]] was appointed as chancellor but was widely ignored by other organisations and individual workers this time as well.<ref name="Dorpalen"/>

== Nazi era ==

[[File:Reichstagsbrand.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Reichstag fire|Reichstag building on fire]], 27 February 1933]]

On 27 February, soon after the appointment of [[Adolf Hitler]] as chancellor, the [[Reichstag fire|Reichstag was set on fire]] and Dutch [[council communism|council communist]] [[Marinus van der Lubbe]] was found near the building. The Nazis publicly blamed the fire on communist agitators in general, although in a German court in 1933, it was decided that van der Lubbe had acted alone, as he claimed to have done. The following day, Hitler persuaded Hindenburg to issue the [[Reichstag Fire Decree]]. It used the provisions of [[Article 48 (Weimar Constitution)|Article 48]] of the [[Weimar Constitution]] to suspend key civil liberties, ostensibly to deal with Communist acts of violence.

Repression began within hours of the fire, when police arrested dozens of communists. Although Hitler could have formally banned the KPD, he did not do so right away. Not only was he reluctant to chance a violent uprising, but he believed the KPD could siphon off SPD votes and split the left. However, most judges held the KPD responsible for the fire, and took the line that KPD membership was in and of itself a treasonous act. At the [[March 1933 German federal election|March 1933 election]], the KPD elected 81 deputies. However, it was an open secret that they would never be allowed to take up their seats; they were all arrested in short order. For all intents and purposes, the KPD was "outlawed" on the day the [[Reichstag Fire Decree]] was issued, and "completely banned" as of 6 March, the day after the election.<ref name=Evans>{{cite book|last=Evans|first=Richard J.|author-link=Richard J. Evans|title=The Coming of the Third Reich|publisher=[[Penguin Group|Penguin Press]]|location=[[New York City]]|date=2003|isbn=978-0141009759|title-link=The Third Reich Trilogy#The Coming of the Third Reich}}</ref>

Shortly after the election, the Nazis pushed through the [[Enabling Act of 1933|Enabling Act]], which allowed the cabinet–in practice, Hitler–to enact laws without the involvement of the Reichstag, effectively giving Hitler dictatorial powers. Since the bill was effectively a [[constitutional amendment]], a [[quorum]] of two-thirds of the entire Reichstag had to be present in order to formally call up the bill. Leaving nothing to chance, Reichstag President [[Hermann Göring]] did not count the KPD seats for purposes of obtaining the required quorum. This led historian [[Richard J. Evans]] to contend that the Enabling Act had been passed in a manner contrary to law. The Nazis did not need to count the KPD deputies for purposes of getting a super-majority of two-thirds of those deputies present and voting. However, Evans argued, not counting the KPD deputies for purposes of a quorum amounted to "refusing to recognize their existence", and was thus "an illegal act".<ref name=Evans/>

The KPD was efficiently suppressed by the Nazis. The most senior KPD leaders were [[Wilhelm Pieck]] and [[Walter Ulbricht]], who went into exile in the Soviet Union. The KPD maintained an underground organisation in Germany throughout the Nazi period, but the loss of many core members severely weakened the Party's infrastructure.

=== KPD leaders purged by Stalin ===

A number of senior KPD leaders in exile were caught up in [[Joseph Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge]] of 1937–1938 and executed, among them [[Hugo Eberlein]], [[Heinz Neumann]], [[Hermann Remmele]], [[Hans Kippenberger]], [[Fritz Schulte]] and [[Hermann Schubert (politician)|Hermann Schubert]], or sent to the [[gulag]], like [[Margarete Buber-Neumann]]. Still others, like [[Gustav von Wangenheim]] and [[Erich Mielke]] (later the head of the [[Stasi]] in East Germany), denounced their fellow exiles to the [[NKVD]].<ref>Robert Conquest, ''The Great Terror'', 576-77.</ref>

== Post-war history ==

In [[East Germany]], the [[Soviet Military Administration in Germany]] forced the eastern branch of the SPD to [[Merger of the KPD and SPD into the Socialist Unity Party of Germany|merge with the KPD]] (led by Pieck and Ulbricht) to form the [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany|Socialist Unity Party]] (SED) in April 1946.<ref name="ReferenceA">Eric D. Weitz, ''Creating German Communism, 1890–1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State''. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997</ref> Although nominally a union of equals, the SED quickly fell under communist domination, and most of the more recalcitrant members from the SPD side of the merger were pushed out in short order. By the time of the formal formation of the East German state in 1949, the SED was a full-fledged Communist party, and developed along lines similar to other Soviet-bloc communist parties.<ref>David Priestand, ''Red Flag: A History of Communism'', New York: Grove Press, 2009</ref> It was the ruling party in East Germany from its formation in 1949 until 1989. The SPD managed to preserve its independence in [[East Berlin]], forcing the SED to form a small branch in [[West Berlin]], the [[Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin]].<ref>Beschluss vom 31. Mai 1946 der Alliierten Stadtkommandantur: In allen vier Sektoren der ehemaligen Reichshauptstadt werden die Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands und die neugegründete Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands zugelassen.</ref><ref>Cf. Siegfried Heimann: ''Ostberliner Sozialdemokraten in den frühen fünfziger Jahren''</ref>

[[File:Members of the German Communist Party 1947.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Members of the West German KPD at a meeting in London, 28 February 1947. Standing from left to right: [[Albert Buchmann]], [[Willi Agatz]], [[Max Reimann]], unknown, [[Leo Bauer]], and [[Gustav Gundelach]].]]

The KPD reorganised in the western part of Germany, and received 5.7 percent of the vote in the [[1949 German federal election|first Bundestag election]] in 1949. But the onset of the [[Cold War]] and the subsequent widespread repression of the [[Far-left politics|far-left]] soon caused a collapse in the party's support. The reputation of the party had also been damaged by the conduct of the [[Red Army]] during its [[Soviet occupation zone of Germany|occupation of eastern Germany]], which included [[looting]], political repression, and [[Rape during the occupation of Germany|mass rape]].<ref>Naimark, Norman M. (1995). ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949''. Cambridge: Belknap Press. pp. 118–121.</ref> On orders from Joseph Stalin, the Communist deputies to the [[Parlamentarischer Rat]] refused to sign West Germany's [[Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany|Basic Law]] to avoid recognizing the political legitimacy of West Germany.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Taylor|first=Fred|title=The Berlin Wall : a world divided, 1961–1989|date=2006|publisher=[[HarperCollins]]|isbn=978-0-06-078613-7|edition=1st U.S.|location=New York|oclc=76481596}}</ref> At the [[1953 German federal election|1953 election]] the KPD only won 2.2 percent of the total votes and lost all of its seats, never to return. The party was banned in August 1956 by the [[Federal Constitutional Court of Germany]].<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The decision was upheld in 1957 by the [[European Commission of Human Rights]] in ''[[Communist Party of Germany v. the Federal Republic of Germany]]''.

After the party was declared illegal, many of its members continued to function clandestinely despite increased government surveillance. Part of its membership re-founded the party in 1968 as the [[German Communist Party]] (DKP).<ref>[[Steffen Kailitz]]: ''Politischer Extremismus in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: Eine Einführung.'' S. 68.</ref><ref name="buch-XiQA7tjTyWwC-93">Olav Teichert: ''Die Sozialistische Einheitspartei Westberlins. Untersuchung der Steuerung der SEW durch die SED.'' kassel university press, 2011, {{ISBN|978-3-89958-995-5}}, S.&nbsp;93. ({{Google books|XiQA7tjTyWwC || page=93}})</ref><ref name="buch-XY0S29LwPvgC-264">Eckhard Jesse: ''Deutsche Geschichte.'' Compact Verlag, 2008, {{ISBN|978-3-8174-6606-1}}, S.&nbsp;264. ({{Google books|XY0S29LwPvgC || page=264}})</ref><ref name="buch-WkN6OajVbpEC-308">Bernhard Diestelkamp: ''Zwischen Kontinuität und Fremdbestimmung.'' Mohr Siebeck, 1996, {{ISBN|3-16-146603-9}}, S.&nbsp;308. ({{Google books|WkN6OajVbpEC || page=308}})</ref> Following [[German reunification]] many DKP members joined the new [[Party of Democratic Socialism (Germany)|Party of Democratic Socialism]], formed out of the remains of the SED. In 1968, another self-described successor to the KPD was formed, the [[Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists]] (KPD/ML), which followed [[Maoism|Maoist]] and later [[Hoxhaism|Hoxhaist]] ideas. It went through multiple splits and united with a Trotskyist group in 1986 to form the [[Unified Socialist Party (Germany)|Unified Socialist Party]] (VSP), which failed to gain any influence and dissolved in the early 1990s.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> However, multiple tiny splinter groups originating from the KPD/ML still exist, several of which claim the name of KPD. [[Communist Party of Germany (1990)|Another party claiming the KPD name]] was formed in 1990 in [[East Berlin]] by several hard line communists who had been expelled from the PDS, including [[Erich Honecker]]. The KPD (Bolshevik) split off from the East German KPD in 2005, bringing the total number of active KPDs to at least five (more or less).

[[The Left (Germany)|The Left]], formed out of a merger between the PDS and [[Labour and Social Justice – The Electoral Alternative]] in 2007, claims to be the historical successor of the KPD (by way of the PDS).

== Organization ==
{{Further|List of members of the Politburo of the Communist Party of Germany|List of members of the Zentrale of the Communist Party of Germany|List of members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany}}

In the early 1920s, the party operated under the principle of [[democratic centralism]], whereby different tendencies could confront each other and vote on different programmes and candidates that the entire party would then follow. The leading body of the party was the [[Congress]], meeting at least once a year.<ref>Broue, P. (2006) ''The German Revolution: 1917–1923'', Chicago: [[Haymarket Books]], pg.635</ref> Between Congresses, leadership of the party resided in the [[Central Committee]], which was made up of people elected at the Congress in two different ways. One group of people was elected directly by the Congress and had to live where the leadership was resident; these members formed the Zentrale. The other group was also elected at the Congress, but was nominated from the districts they represented who represented the wider party. In 1920, the Zentrale (mirroring its Russian counterpart) split itself into two bodies: a Political Bureau ([[Politburo]]) and an Organization Bureau (Orgburo).<ref>Broue, P. (2006) ''The German Revolution: 1917–1923'', Chicago: Haymarket Books, pg.635–636</ref> Elected figures were subject to recall by the bodies that elected them.<ref>Broue, P. (2006) ''The German Revolution: 1917–1923'', Chicago: Haymarket Books, pg.864&nbsp;— Broue cites the cases of Freisland and Ernst Meyer as being recalled when their electors were not satisfied with their actions</ref>

The KPD employed around about 200 full-timers during its early years of existence, and as Broue notes "They received the pay of an average skilled worker, and had no privileges, apart from being the first to be arrested, prosecuted and sentenced, and when shooting started, to be the first to fall".<ref>Broue, P. (2006) ''The German Revolution: 1917–1923'', Chicago: Haymarket Books, pg.863–864</ref>

==Party leadership==
* [[Karl Liebknecht]] and [[Rosa Luxemburg]]  (1919)
* [[Leo Jogiches]] (1919)
* [[Paul Levi]] (1919–1921)<ref>Fernbach, David (2011). "Introduction". In David Fernbach (ed.). In the Steps of Rosa Luxemburg: Selected Writings of Paul Levi. Chicago: Haymarket Books.</ref>
* Paul Levi and [[Ernst Däumig]] (1921)
* [[Heinrich Brandler]] and [[Walter Stoecker]] (1921–1922)<ref>Pierre Broué, The German Revolution, 1917-1923. (1971) John Archer, trans. Chicago: Haymarket Books, 2006; pp. 960-961.</ref>
* [[Ernst Meyer (German politician)|Ernst Meyer]] (1922)
* Heinrich Brandler (1922–1924)
* [[Hermann Remmele]] (1924)
* [[Arkadi Maslow]] and [[Ruth Fischer]] (1924)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kessler |first=Mario |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XMjgDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA56&dq=ruth+fischer+arkadi+Maslow+chairman+of+kpd&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-wqqaq_OOAxUOVqQEHelyPU8Q6AF6BAgKEAM#v=onepage&q=ruth%20fischer%20arkadi%20Maslow%20chairman%20of%20kpd&f=false |title=A Political Biography of Arkadij Maslow, 1891-1941: Dissident Against His Will |date=2020-04-30 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-3-030-43257-7 |language=en}}</ref>
* [[Ernst Thälmann]] (1925–1933)
* [[John Schehr]] (1933–1934)<ref>{{cite book|last1=Reichhardt|first1=Hans-Joachim|chapter=Resistance in the Labour movement: The German Communist Party (KPD)|title=The German Resistance to Hitler|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bFwcCy2MfvEC&pg=PA167|year=1970|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=0-520-01662-9|pages=164–180}}</ref>
* [[Wilhelm Pieck]] (1934–1946){{refn|Ernst Thälmann, who the Gestapo had arrested on 3 March 1933, remained de jure party leader until his execution on 18 August 1944; Schehr and later Pieck were acting chairmen as deputy leaders.}}
* [[Max Reimann]] (1946–1956)<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fisher |first=S. L. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t28rBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA113&dq=max+reimann+party+leader+1946%E2%80%931956&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&source=gb_mobile_search&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiRqPLGq_OOAxWtT6QEHXsIG6cQ6AF6BAgNEAM#v=onepage&q=max%20reimann%20party%20leader%201946%E2%80%931956&f=false |title=The Minor Parties of the Federal Republic of Germany: Toward a Comparative Theory of Minor Parties |date=2012-12-06 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-94-010-2079-4 |language=en}}</ref>

== Election results ==

=== Federal elections ===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right;"
|-
|+ KPD federal election results (1920–1953)
|-
!rowspan="2"|Election
!colspan="3"|Votes
!colspan="2"|Seats
!rowspan="2"|Notes
|-
!No.
!%
!+/–
!No.
!+/–
|-
![[1920 German federal election|1920]]
| 589.454
| 2.1 (No.&nbsp;8)
|
| {{Composition bar|4|459|hex={{party color|Communist Party of Germany}}}}
|
| style="text-align:left;"|Boycotted the previous election
|-
![[May 1924 German federal election|May 1924]]
| 3.693.280
| 12.6 (No.&nbsp;4)
| {{increase}}&nbsp;10.5
| {{Composition bar|62|472|hex={{party color|Communist Party of Germany}}}}
| {{increase}}&nbsp;58
| style="text-align:left;"|After the merger with the left-wing of the [[Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany|USPD]]
|-
![[December 1924 German federal election|December 1924]]
| 2.709.086
| 8.9 (No.&nbsp;5)
| |{{decrease}}&nbsp;3.7
| {{Composition bar|45|493|hex={{party color|Communist Party of Germany}}}}
| {{decrease}}&nbsp;17
| style="text-align:left;"|
|-
![[1928 German federal election|1928]]
| 3.264.793
| 10.6 (No.&nbsp;4)
| {{increase}}&nbsp;1.7
| {{Composition bar|54|491|hex={{party color|Communist Party of Germany}}}}
| {{increase}}&nbsp;9
| style="text-align:left;"|
|-
![[1930 German federal election|1930]]
| 4.590.160
| 13.1 (No.&nbsp;3)
| {{increase}}&nbsp;2.5
| {{Composition bar|77|577|hex={{party color|Communist Party of Germany}}}}
| {{increase}}&nbsp;23
| style="text-align:left;"|After the financial crisis
|-
![[July 1932 German federal election|July 1932]]
| 5.282.636
| 14.3 (No.&nbsp;3)
| {{increase}}&nbsp;1.2
| {{Composition bar|89|608|hex={{party color|Communist Party of Germany}}}}
| {{increase}}&nbsp;12
| style="text-align:left;"|
|-
![[November 1932 German federal election|November 1932]]
| 5.980.239
| 16.9 (No.&nbsp;3)
| {{increase}}&nbsp;2.6
| {{Composition bar|100|584|hex={{party color|Communist Party of Germany}}}}
| {{increase}}&nbsp;11
| style="text-align:left;"|&nbsp;
|-
![[March 1933 German federal election|March 1933]]
| 4.848.058
| 12.3 (No.&nbsp;3)
| {{decrease}}&nbsp;4.6
| {{Composition bar|81|647|hex={{party color|Communist Party of Germany}}}}
| {{decrease}}&nbsp;19
| style="text-align:left;"|During Hitler's term as Chancellor of Germany
|-
![[1949 West German federal election|1949]]
| 1.361.706
| 5.7 (No.&nbsp;5)
| {{decrease}}&nbsp;6.6
| {{Composition bar|15|402|hex={{party color|Communist Party of Germany}}}}
| {{decrease}}&nbsp;66
| style="text-align:left;"|First West German federal election
|-
![[1953 West German federal election|1953]]
| 607.860
| 2.2 (No.&nbsp;8)
| {{decrease}}&nbsp;3.5
| {{Composition bar|0|402|hex={{party color|Communist Party of Germany}}}}
| {{decrease}}&nbsp;15
| style="text-align:left;"|&nbsp;
|}

=== Presidential elections ===

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: right;"
|-
|+ KPD federal election results (1925–1932)
|-
!rowspan="2"|Election
!colspan="2"|Votes
!rowspan="2"|Candidate
|-
!No.
!%
|-
![[1925 German presidential election|1925]]
| 1,871,815 (1st round)<br>1,931,151 (2nd round)
| 7.0 (No.&nbsp;4)<br>6.4 (No.&nbsp;3)
| [[Ernst Thälmann]]
|-
![[1932 German presidential election|1932]]
| 4,938,341 (1st round)<br> 3,706,759 (2nd round)
| 13.2 (No.&nbsp;3)<br> 10.2 (No.&nbsp;3)
| Ernst Thälmann
|}

== See also ==
{{Commons category|Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands|Communist Party of Germany}}
* [[Communist Party Opposition]]
* [[Communist Workers' Party of Germany]]
* [[Freies Volk]]
* [[German resistance to Nazism|German resistance]]
* [[German Revolution of 1918–1919]]
* [[Hotel Lux]], Moscow hotel where many German party members lived in exile
* [[Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition]]
* [[Roter Frontkämpferbund]]
* [[Socialist Workers' Party of Germany]]
* [[Sozialistische Volkszeitung]]
* [[Spartacus League]]
* [[Union of Manual and Intellectual Workers]]

== Notes ==
{{Reflist|group=n}}

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite journal |last=Bowlby |first=Chris |date=March 1986 |title=Blutmai 1929: Police, Parties and Proletarians in a Berlin Confrontation |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2639259 |journal=The Historical Journal |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=137–158 |doi=10.1017/s0018246x00018653 |jstor=2639259 |s2cid=159528044 |url-access=subscription }}
* {{cite book |last=Rosenhaft |first=Eve |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Sv88AAAAIAAJ |title=Beating the Fascists?: The German Communists and Political Violence 1929–1933 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1983
|isbn=9780521236386 |pages=32}}

== Further reading ==
* Rudof Coper, ''Failure of a Revolution: Germany in 1918–1919.'' Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1955.
* Catherine Epstein, ''The Last Revolutionaries: German Communists and Their Century.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2003.
* Ruth Fischer, ''Stalin and German Communism.'' Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1948.
* Ben Fowkes, ''Communism in Germany under the Weimar Republic''; London: Palgrave Macmillan 1984.
* John Riddell (ed.), ''The German Revolution and the Debate on Soviet Power: Documents: 1918–1919: Preparing the Founding Congress.'' New York: Pathfinder Press, 1986.
* John Green, ''Willi Münzenberg – Fighter against Fascism and Stalinism'', Routledge 2019
* Bill Pelz, The Spartakusbund and the German working class movement, 1914–1919, Lewiston, New York: E. Mellen Press, 1988.
* Aleksandr Vatlin, "The Testing Ground of World Revolution: Germany in the 1920s," in Tim Rees and Andrew Thorpe (eds.), ''International Communism and the Communist International, 1919–43.'' Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998.
* Eric D. Weitz, ''Creating German Communism, 1890–1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State''. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1997
* David Priestand, ''Red Flag: A History of Communism'', New York: Grove Press, 2009
* Ralf Hoffrogge, Norman LaPorte (eds.): ''Weimar Communism as Mass Movement 1918–1933'', London: Lawrence & Wishart.

{{Weimar Republic political parties}}

{{GDR political parties}}

{{XII International Brigade}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:1918 establishments in Germany]]
[[Category:1933 disestablishments in Germany]]
[[Category:1945 establishments in Germany]]
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[[Category:1956 disestablishments in West Germany]]
[[Category:Banned communist parties]]
[[Category:Communist Party of Germany| ]]
[[Category:Defunct communist parties in Germany]]
[[Category:Far-left politics in Germany]]
[[Category:German Revolution of 1918–1919]]
[[Category:Political parties disestablished in 1933]]
[[Category:Political parties disestablished in 1946]]
[[Category:Political parties disestablished in 1956]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1918]]
[[Category:Political parties established in 1945]]