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| | name = Paul Levi | | name = Paul Levi | ||
| | nationality = ] | | nationality = ] | ||
| | birth_date = {{Birth date|1883| |
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1883|03|11}} | ||
| | birth_place = ], ] | | birth_place = ], ], ], ] | ||
| | death_date = {{Death date and age|1930|02| |
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1930|02|09|1883|03|11}} | ||
| | death_place = ], ] | | death_place = ], ] | ||
| }} | }} | ||
| '''Paul Levi''' (1883 |
'''Paul Levi''' (March 11, 1883 – February 9, 1930) was a ] Communist and Social Democratic political leader. He was the head of the ] following the assassination of ] and ] in 1919. After being expelled for publicly criticising Communist Party tactics during the ], he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party and, when this party merged with the Social Democratic Party, he became one of the leaders of its left wing. | ||
| ==Biography== | ==Biography== | ||
| ===Early years=== | ===Early years=== | ||
| Paul Levi was born 11 March 1883 in ] in ], attending the Gymnasium in Stuttgart.<ref |
Paul Levi was born 11 March 1883 in ] in ], attending the Gymnasium in Stuttgart.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|2–3}} He started work as a lawyer in Frankfurt in 1906<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|3}} and also joined the ] (SPD) the same year. There he became part of the party’s left wing together with ] and ]. Beginning in 1913, Levi was also Luxemburg's lawyer in political cases.<ref name="Broué" />{{rp|61}} In 1914 he was elected as an SPD town councillor in Frankfurt.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|3}} | ||
| Levi was one of the twelve delegates to the meeting in March 1915 which led to the formation of the ''Gruppe Internationale'' which became the ].<ref name= |
Levi was one of the twelve delegates to the meeting in March 1915 which led to the formation of the ''Gruppe Internationale'' which became the ].<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|5}} The following month he was ] to the army and sent to the Vosges.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|5}} After starving himself, Levi was discharged on medical grounds in 1916, settling in Switzerland and associating with ], ] and ], becoming a part of the bureau of the ] and helping found ''La Nouvelle Internationale'' which he wrote for under the pseudonym 'Hartstein'.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|5}} He was one of the signatories to a declaration approving of Lenin and other Russian revolutionaries actions in travelling through Germany in a sealed train.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|5}} | ||
| Levi returned to Germany after the ] and from March 1918 lived mostly in Berlin where he was one of the three editors of the 'Spartakusbriefe'.<ref name= |
Levi returned to Germany after the ] and from March 1918 lived mostly in Berlin where he was one of the three editors of the ''Spartakusbriefe''.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|5}} At the founding conference of the ] (KPD) on 30-31 December 1918, he introduced the discussion on 'The National Assembly'.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|7}} Levi was amongst the majority on the KPD Zentrale who opposed the initiatives of ] and ] who had supported a Revolutionary Committee with the ] (USPD) and the ] to lead what became known as the ] in January 1919.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|7}} | ||
| ===Communist leader=== | ===Communist leader=== | ||
| ] | ] | ||
| After the killing of the KPD’s main leaders ], ] and ], Levi took over as the central leader of the Communist Party<ref name= |
After the killing of the KPD’s main leaders ], ] and ], Levi took over as the central leader of the Communist Party<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|7}}. At the KPD's second congress in October 1919, Levi expelled the party's ] ultra-left, around half the membership many of whom formed the ].<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|10}} During the ] Levi was in prison.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|12}} | ||
| Levi headed the ] to the ] of the ] in ] in 1920, where he threatened that the KPD delegation would leave due to the presence of representatives of the KAPD.<ref name= |
Levi headed the ] to the ] of the ] in ] in 1920, where he threatened that the KPD delegation would leave due to the presence of representatives of the KAPD.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|13}} | ||
| He led the party away from the policy of immediate revolution, orientating it to wider layers of workers. These efforts were rewarded when a substantial section of the USPD joined the KPD after a debate at their Halle congress, making it a mass party for the first time with around 449,700 members.<ref name= |
He led the party away from the policy of immediate revolution, orientating it to wider layers of workers. These efforts were rewarded when a substantial section of the USPD joined the KPD after a debate at their Halle congress, making it a mass party for the first time with around 449,700 members.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|13}} This was followed up by an 'Open Letter' which Levi, alongside Radek, convinced the KPD Zentrale to issue to other working class organisation to join in a joint struggle around their common interests, based on a successful iniative of Communists in Stuttgart.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|15}} | ||
| Levi attended the Livorno congress of the ] (PSI) which had joined the Comintern, where Levi had supported ] against the faction around ] and ] who went on to form the Italian Communist Party (PCI) supported by ] representatives ] and ].<ref name= |
Levi attended the Livorno congress of the ] (PSI) which had joined the Comintern, where Levi had supported ] against the faction around ] and ] who went on to form the Italian Communist Party (PCI) supported by ] representatives ] and ].<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|15–16}} Following a debate at the Zentrale over Italy where Levi and his supporters lost the vote by a small majority after being opposed by Radek and Rákosi, he resigned from the chairmanship of the Communist Party in early 1921, alongisde his co-chairman ] and ], Otto Brass and Adolf Hofman also resigned from the Central Committee.<ref name="Broué" />{{rp|487}}<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|17}} This had been preceded by the "small bureau" of the Comintern condemning the "Open Letter"<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|15}} and awarding the KAPD sympathising section status.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|14}} Shortly after, under the influence of ], the party launched the ] of 1921.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|18}} | ||
| Following the failure of the uprisings Levi was expelled from the Communist Party for publicly criticizing party policies in his pamphlet ''Unser Weg''.<ref |
Following the failure of the uprisings Levi was expelled from the Communist Party for publicly criticizing party policies in his pamphlet ''Unser Weg''.<ref name="Broué" />{{rp|516}}<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|20}} Lenin and Trotsky substantially agreed with his criticisms, but not the way in which he had made them. Lenin sent him a private letter through his friend ],<ref>See </ref> in which he asked Levi to accept the expulsion for "break of discipline" and then adopt a friendly approach towards the KPD and cooperate with it in the class struggle in a loyal manner. If Levi would do so, Lenin would then push for his reinstatement in the party.<ref name="Broué" />{{rp|517–18}} Levi did not accept this proposal and continued to criticize the party sharply and condemn its leaders.<ref>Frédéric Cyr: Paul Levis Kampf um die KPD, in: ], No. I/2010 (German language),</ref> this led Lenin to revise his previously still favourable attitude towards Levi.<ref>Lenin, V.I. , February 1922</ref> | ||
| ===Later life, death, and legacy=== | ===Later life, death, and legacy=== | ||
| After being expelled from the Communist Party, Levi formed the Communist Working Collective (KAG) with supporters expelled from the KPD at its Jena congress in September 1921, which included 13 of the KPD's ] deputies (including Levi himself).<ref name= |
After being expelled from the Communist Party, Levi formed the Communist Working Collective (KAG) with supporters expelled from the KPD at its Jena congress in September 1921, which included 13 of the KPD's ] deputies (including Levi himself).<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|23}} In 1922 he joined the USPD, with whom he subsequently rejoined the SPD.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|24}} | ||
| Levi began rethinking his previous policies and wrote introductions to Rosa Luxemburg's ''The Russian Revolution'' and ]'s ''Lessons of October'' which were sharply critical of the Bolsheviks.<ref name= |
Levi began rethinking his previous policies and wrote introductions to Rosa Luxemburg's ''The Russian Revolution'' and ]'s ''Lessons of October'' which were sharply critical of the Bolsheviks.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|25–26}} Levi in the summer of 1921 Levi founded a monthly magazine named ''Unser Weg'' ("Our Way"), which he later replaced with a weekly ''Sozialistiche und politische Wochentliche'' (also known as ''Levi-Korrespondenz'') when he rejoined the SPD.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|27}} | ||
| Because of his Jewish roots, he became the target of a hateful anti-Semitic campaign in the press. He responded by attacking prominent Nazis, such as Adolf Hitler, Ernst Roehm, Alfred Rosenberg and Wilhelm Frick in left-wing publications. | Because of his Jewish roots, he became the target of a hateful anti-Semitic campaign in the press. He responded by attacking prominent Nazis, such as Adolf Hitler, Ernst Roehm, Alfred Rosenberg and Wilhelm Frick in left-wing publications. | ||
| In 1924, Levi was re-elected to the Reichstag in Zwickau for the SPD, where he held meetings in remote village, conducted some legal cases and held education classes.<ref name= |
In 1924, Levi was re-elected to the Reichstag in Zwickau for the SPD, where he held meetings in remote village, conducted some legal cases and held education classes.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|28}} Although his interventions were restricted in the Reichstag, he represented the SPD on the Reichstag's legal committee and spoke on issues of civil liberties.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|28}} Levi also began to specialise in defending writers and newspapers that discolsed government secrets, but took up other civil liberties cases, including those of KPD members including ].<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|29}} | ||
| Levi died on 9 February 1930 in ] after succumbing to injuries suffered when he fell from the window of his fifth floor attic flat.<ref name= |
Levi died on 9 February 1930 in ] after succumbing to injuries suffered when he fell from the window of his fifth floor attic flat.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|30}} He had been taken to bed with pneumonia during a trial, where he had become feverish and delirious.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|30}} Levi received numerous obituaries, including from ].<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|28}} After his death the Reichstag held a minute of commemoration during which the representatives of the Communist Party and the Nazi Party ostentatiously left the assembly hall.<ref name=Fernbach />{{rp|28}} | ||
| == References == | == References == | ||
| {{reflist |
{{reflist|refs= | ||
| <ref name="Broué">{{cite book|first=Pierre |last=Broué |title=The German Revolution: 1917–1923 |location=Chicago |publisher=Haymarket Books |year=2006}}</ref> | |||
| ⚫ | <ref name=Fernbach>{{cite book|first=David |last=Fernbach |chapter=Introduction |title=In the Steps of Rosa Luxemburg: Selected Writings of Paul Levi |year=2011 |editor=David Fernbach |location=Chicago |publisher=Haymarket Books}}</ref> | ||
| ==Works== | |||
| }} | |||
| ⚫ | |||
| == Additional reading == | == Additional reading == | ||
| * ] (1968). ''Impressions of Lenin''. | * ] (1968). ''Impressions of Lenin''. | ||
| ⚫ | * ] (1985). . Marxist Internet Archive. Accessed August 9, 2009 | ||
| * ] (1971). ''The German Revolution 1917-1923''. | |||
| ⚫ | * ] (1985). "The Comintern". Marxist Internet Archive |
||
| * Jones, Mike (1985). "The Decline, Disorientation and Decomposition of a Leadership". ''Revolutionary History'', Vol 2 No 3, Autumn 1989. On-line at - accessed August 9, 2009 | * Jones, Mike (1985). "The Decline, Disorientation and Decomposition of a Leadership". ''Revolutionary History'', Vol 2 No 3, Autumn 1989. On-line at - accessed August 9, 2009 | ||
| * ] (1921). "A Letter to the German Communists". Marxist Internet Archive |
* ] (1921). . Marxist Internet Archive. Accessed August 9, 2009 | ||
| * ] (1922). "Paul Levi and Some 'Lefts'". ''The First Five Years of the Communist International''. Marxist Internet Archive |
* ] (1922). . Marxist Internet Archive. Accessed August 9, 2009 | ||
| == External links == | == External links == | ||
| Line 73: | Line 71: | ||
| | NAME = Levi, Paul | | NAME = Levi, Paul | ||
| | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | ||
| | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | | SHORT DESCRIPTION = German politician | ||
| | DATE OF BIRTH = 1883 | | DATE OF BIRTH = 1883-03-11 | ||
| | PLACE OF BIRTH = ], ] | | PLACE OF BIRTH = ], ] | ||
| | DATE OF DEATH = 1930 | | DATE OF DEATH = 1930-02-09 | ||
| | PLACE OF DEATH = ], ] | | PLACE OF DEATH = ], ] | ||
| }} | }} | ||
Revision as of 23:25, 2 August 2013
| Paul Levi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1883-03-11)March 11, 1883 Hechingen, Province of Hohenzollern, Kingdom of Prussia, German Empire |
| Died | February 9, 1930(1930-02-09) (aged 46) Berlin, Weimar Republic |
| Nationality | Germany |
Paul Levi (March 11, 1883 – February 9, 1930) was a German Communist and Social Democratic political leader. He was the head of the Communist Party of Germany following the assassination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in 1919. After being expelled for publicly criticising Communist Party tactics during the March Action, he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party and, when this party merged with the Social Democratic Party, he became one of the leaders of its left wing.
Biography
Early years
Paul Levi was born 11 March 1883 in Hechingen in Hohenzollern Province, attending the Gymnasium in Stuttgart. He started work as a lawyer in Frankfurt in 1906 and also joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) the same year. There he became part of the party’s left wing together with Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Beginning in 1913, Levi was also Luxemburg's lawyer in political cases. In 1914 he was elected as an SPD town councillor in Frankfurt.
Levi was one of the twelve delegates to the meeting in March 1915 which led to the formation of the Gruppe Internationale which became the Spartacist League. The following month he was conscripted to the army and sent to the Vosges. After starving himself, Levi was discharged on medical grounds in 1916, settling in Switzerland and associating with Karl Radek, Grigory Zinoviev and Vladimir Lenin, becoming a part of the bureau of the Zimmerwald Left and helping found La Nouvelle Internationale which he wrote for under the pseudonym 'Hartstein'. He was one of the signatories to a declaration approving of Lenin and other Russian revolutionaries actions in travelling through Germany in a sealed train.
Levi returned to Germany after the October Revolution and from March 1918 lived mostly in Berlin where he was one of the three editors of the Spartakusbriefe. At the founding conference of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) on 30-31 December 1918, he introduced the discussion on 'The National Assembly'. Levi was amongst the majority on the KPD Zentrale who opposed the initiatives of Karl Liebknecht and Wilhelm Pieck who had supported a Revolutionary Committee with the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and the Revolutionary Stewards to lead what became known as the Spartacist Uprising in January 1919.
Communist leader
After the killing of the KPD’s main leaders Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and Leo Jogiches, Levi took over as the central leader of the Communist Party. At the KPD's second congress in October 1919, Levi expelled the party's Council Communist ultra-left, around half the membership many of whom formed the Communist Workers' Party of Germany. During the Kapp Putsch Levi was in prison.
Levi headed the German delegation to the 2nd World Congress of the Communist International in Moscow in 1920, where he threatened that the KPD delegation would leave due to the presence of representatives of the KAPD.
He led the party away from the policy of immediate revolution, orientating it to wider layers of workers. These efforts were rewarded when a substantial section of the USPD joined the KPD after a debate at their Halle congress, making it a mass party for the first time with around 449,700 members. This was followed up by an 'Open Letter' which Levi, alongside Radek, convinced the KPD Zentrale to issue to other working class organisation to join in a joint struggle around their common interests, based on a successful iniative of Communists in Stuttgart.
Levi attended the Livorno congress of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) which had joined the Comintern, where Levi had supported Giacinto Serrati against the faction around Antonio Gramsci and Amadeo Bordiga who went on to form the Italian Communist Party (PCI) supported by Comintern representatives Mátyás Rákosi and Khristo Kabakchiev. Following a debate at the Zentrale over Italy where Levi and his supporters lost the vote by a small majority after being opposed by Radek and Rákosi, he resigned from the chairmanship of the Communist Party in early 1921, alongisde his co-chairman Ernst Däumig and Clara Zetkin, Otto Brass and Adolf Hofman also resigned from the Central Committee. This had been preceded by the "small bureau" of the Comintern condemning the "Open Letter" and awarding the KAPD sympathising section status. Shortly after, under the influence of Béla Kun, the party launched the March Action of 1921.
Following the failure of the uprisings Levi was expelled from the Communist Party for publicly criticizing party policies in his pamphlet Unser Weg. Lenin and Trotsky substantially agreed with his criticisms, but not the way in which he had made them. Lenin sent him a private letter through his friend Clara Zetkin, in which he asked Levi to accept the expulsion for "break of discipline" and then adopt a friendly approach towards the KPD and cooperate with it in the class struggle in a loyal manner. If Levi would do so, Lenin would then push for his reinstatement in the party. Levi did not accept this proposal and continued to criticize the party sharply and condemn its leaders. this led Lenin to revise his previously still favourable attitude towards Levi.
Later life, death, and legacy
After being expelled from the Communist Party, Levi formed the Communist Working Collective (KAG) with supporters expelled from the KPD at its Jena congress in September 1921, which included 13 of the KPD's Reichstag deputies (including Levi himself). In 1922 he joined the USPD, with whom he subsequently rejoined the SPD.
Levi began rethinking his previous policies and wrote introductions to Rosa Luxemburg's The Russian Revolution and Leon Trotsky's Lessons of October which were sharply critical of the Bolsheviks. Levi in the summer of 1921 Levi founded a monthly magazine named Unser Weg ("Our Way"), which he later replaced with a weekly Sozialistiche und politische Wochentliche (also known as Levi-Korrespondenz) when he rejoined the SPD.
Because of his Jewish roots, he became the target of a hateful anti-Semitic campaign in the press. He responded by attacking prominent Nazis, such as Adolf Hitler, Ernst Roehm, Alfred Rosenberg and Wilhelm Frick in left-wing publications.
In 1924, Levi was re-elected to the Reichstag in Zwickau for the SPD, where he held meetings in remote village, conducted some legal cases and held education classes. Although his interventions were restricted in the Reichstag, he represented the SPD on the Reichstag's legal committee and spoke on issues of civil liberties. Levi also began to specialise in defending writers and newspapers that discolsed government secrets, but took up other civil liberties cases, including those of KPD members including Willi Münzenberg.
Levi died on 9 February 1930 in Berlin after succumbing to injuries suffered when he fell from the window of his fifth floor attic flat. He had been taken to bed with pneumonia during a trial, where he had become feverish and delirious. Levi received numerous obituaries, including from Albert Einstein. After his death the Reichstag held a minute of commemoration during which the representatives of the Communist Party and the Nazi Party ostentatiously left the assembly hall.
References
- ^ Fernbach, David (2011). "Introduction". In David Fernbach (ed.). In the Steps of Rosa Luxemburg: Selected Writings of Paul Levi. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
- ^ Broué, Pierre (2006). The German Revolution: 1917–1923. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
- See "To Clara Zetkin and Paul Levi"
- Frédéric Cyr: Paul Levis Kampf um die KPD, in: Jahrbuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung, No. I/2010 (German language),
- Lenin, V.I. Notes of a Publicist, February 1922
Additional reading
- Balabanoff, Angelica (1968). Impressions of Lenin.
- Hallas, Duncan (1985). "The Comintern". Marxist Internet Archive. Accessed August 9, 2009
- Jones, Mike (1985). "The Decline, Disorientation and Decomposition of a Leadership". Revolutionary History, Vol 2 No 3, Autumn 1989. On-line at Revolutionary History - accessed August 9, 2009
- Lenin, Vladimir (1921). "A Letter to the German Communists". Marxist Internet Archive. Accessed August 9, 2009
- Troksky, Leon (1922). "Paul Levi and Some 'Lefts'". The First Five Years of the Communist International. Marxist Internet Archive. Accessed August 9, 2009
External links
- Paul Levi Archive at marxists.org
- Paul Levi on Lenin in retrospect in 1927 translated by Mike Jones
- Why the German Revolution Failed by Walter Held
- The German Revolution In the Leninist Period by Jean Van Heijenoort
- The Downfall of Levi by Karl Radek
- Pierre Broué's German Revolution 1917-1923 by Todd Chretien
- 1883 births
- 1930 deaths
- People from Hechingen
- People from the Province of Hohenzollern
- Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians
- Independent Social Democratic Party politicians
- Communist Party of Germany politicians
- Executive Committee of the Communist International
- German Comintern people
- Members of the Reichstag of the Weimar Republic