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Paul Frölich was a key figure in the formative years of German Communism. From a working-class family, he was active in the Social Democratic Party from the late 1890s, a left radical opposed to the First World War, and a founder member of the German Communist Party (KPD). His previously unpublished memoir, only recently discovered, casts valuable new light on a key period, particularly the intervention by the Communist International that led to the disastrous 'March action' of 1921.
“Not a mere history book, this political autobiography is a torch passed on to us. It is up to us not to let this passion for revolution be extinguished.”
—Folko Mueller, Against the Current
“The memoirs of Paul Frölich [...] can be considered one of the true archive sensations of recent years.”
—Ralf Hoffrogge, International Review of Social History
“The publication of these so nearly forgotten memoirs represents a major service to our movement.”
—Ben Lewis, Weekly Worker
Paul Frölich, 1884--1953, was a communist journalist, politician, biographer of Rosa Luxemburg, and one of the major observers of the politics of the early twentieth century.
Reiner Tosstorff teaches at the history department at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. He has published monographs and articles on Spanish history as well as on the international workers' movement in the twentieth century.
Introduction: Paul Frölich’s uncompleted memoirs
Reiner Tosstorff
Political Autobiography 1890–1921
Preface
1 Leipzig
A party worker from the time of the anti-socialist law
Leipzig hotchpotch
‘Bolshevism’ among the Leipzig Social Democrats
Other times
‘Socialism as a Commodity’
2 Hamburg
A cockfight
The ‘mammoth’
Old and young
Anecdotes
3 The War
Bremen
4 August
With the army
The conflict in the party
Kiental
The Arbeiterpolitik
Spartacus and the left radicals
General strike in Bremen
Army experiences, 1916–17
The wanderings of a soldier
4 November 1918
The revolutionary shop stewards
The Hamburg left in the war
6 November 1918
Revolutionary politics in Hamburg
5 Foundation of the Communist Party (Spartacus League)
Conference of the left radicals
The merger with the Spartacus League
January to March 1919
Leo Jogiches as party leader
6 Munich 1919
Polemical interlude
7 The Split in the Party
8 The Kapp Putsch
9 From the Kapp Putsch to the March Action
10 The March Action of 1921
Appendices
Karl Radek to the Central Committee of the KPD, 9 January 1919
Paul Levi to the Central Committee of the KPD, 16 March 1920
Selected Biographies