70 years ago: the signification of the murder of Ernst Thälmann
On the express orders of Hitler and
Himmler, Ernst Thälmann was murdered on August 18, 1944, after more than
eleven years of solitary confinement. He had previously been brought
from the Bautzen prison to the concentration camp of Buchenwald near
Weimar, where his body was burned after the murder,
so he gets no grave. This action was so secret that the Nazi newspaper
“Völkischer Observer” reported that Thälmann was killed on 24 August “by
terror bombs” of the Allies.
Why were the Nazis so afraid to publish
the truth? Because Ernst Thälmann embodied an attitude, an action, a
culture, an ideology. Ernst Thälmann, that meant getting out of
National-Socialism, getting out of the war, by the Popular Front, for
the People’s Democracy!
National-Socialism claimed to establish
true socialism, to have found the right line for Germany. War, poverty
and destruction were the result, and also the moral bankruptcy, all of
this as a product of an anti-capitalist romanticism, where the goal was
to unite the society, to remove the “parasites”, which meant in reality
to establish “the open terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary,
most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital”.
Ernst Thälmann had warned of the
impending disaster. He was since 1924 Chairman of the Communist Party of
Germany, a party which was founded by Rosa 
Luxembourg
and Karl Liebknecht. He has made every effort to mobilize the broad
masses, masses who were paralyzed by the Social democracy, because the
leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) were neither for
the socialist revolution, nor for the authentic anti-fascist struggle.
Luxembourg
and Karl Liebknecht. He has made every effort to mobilize the broad
masses, masses who were paralyzed by the Social democracy, because the
leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) were neither for
the socialist revolution, nor for the authentic anti-fascist struggle.
The Communist Party has, on his side,
tried everything, so that the struggle against capitalism and against
fascism becomes a mass movement; therefore also were established the Red
Front Fighters’ Alliance, the Anti Fascist Action. It was fought not
against the workers of Social democracy, but against the surrender line
of the SPD leaders. The Communist Party of Germany has defended the line
of the united front, and paved the way for the line of the Popular
Front, like in Spain and France.
The masses who were imprisoned in the Nazi ideology were also never forgotten. As Ernst Thälmann explained it in January 1933:
“The Communist Party addresses itself also to the broad masses of national-socialist supporters.
There is a violent difference between
those SA and SS columns, trying provocative break into the working-class
neighborhood or which do raids on workers’ houses and workers’ places,
and the broad masses of by the misery of the crisis tormented workers,
employees, SMEs, artisans and small
traders
or even the toiling peasants in the village, who gave or give support
to National-Socialism, because they gave faith to the demagogic clamor
and the fraudulent promises of Hitler, Goebbels and Strasser (…).
We have to show these masses, in patient
educational work, the real role of the Hitler party in the service of
finance capital, the trust kings, the big landowners, the officers and
princes.” (The Nazi provocation in front of the Karl-Liebknecht-House
and some lessons, 26 January, 1933)
It is also to know that at the November 1932 general election, there
was a substantial loss of votes for the Nazi Party. Although more than
eleven million people had voted for the Nazis, it was still two million
fewer votes than in July. The Nazi movement began to wane, that’s why
Hitler was then so quickly placed in power: it was not just a takeover,
but a transfer of power.
As Ernst Thälmann understood it in October 1932, before the elections yet:
“The huge growth of the fascist mass movement of the Nazis because of
the chauvinistic wave allowed the fascist rulers to seize power.
The policy of finance capital, which
currently rejects the exercise of governmental power by the fascist
terrorist organization of Hitler, arises on the one hand from the fear
of the too abrupt tightening of internal and external conflicts, on the
other hand from the desire of the bourgeoisie to keep the reserves of
the fascist mass movement as intact as possible and at the same time to
“marshal” them, i.e. to make of them a completely safe instrument of
fascist dictatorship by overcoming the disturbing factors.
The uplift until now of the
national-socialist movement came to a still and left space for a
decline, due to the growing revolutionary uplift of the proletariat, the
rising radicalization of the toiling middle class due to their
impoverishment through the politics of Papen, the non-realization of the
no-limits election promises of Hitler, the stronger progresses of the
antifascist mass struggle of the Communist Party of Germany.
The role of the Hitler party as support
of unfettered exploitation, its position of aid provision for the
government of capitalists, junkers and generals and the Lausanne tribute
Pact, the role of fascist murder terror against the revolutionary
workers – all of this initiated the beginning of a disappointment of the
toiling followers masses of National-socialism (…).
In the struggle against Hitler’s
fascism, it is important, due to the beginning decomposition in the
ranks of the NSDAP and the incipient decline of the national-socialist
wave at all, to carry out with the greatest energy the break-in the
ranks of the national-socialist followers, through the development of an
ideological offensive.
The Communists and revolutionary workers
must win the proletariat and toiling followers of National-socialism to
take joint action against wage and help cutbacks and against the Papen
dictatorship, and convince them of the role of Hitler’s party as the
terror and strike-breaking organization of finance capital.
Facing the chauvinist incitement of the
masses, the imperialist policy of war and militaristic arming of the
German bourgeoisie, it comes to develop proletarian internationalism in
the struggle against the Versailles system, closely linked with the
struggle of the French Communists and revolutionary workers against the
French bourgeoisie.
The Communist Party of Germany fights
against the militaristic arming and imperialist war policy of the Papen
government, for the use of the billions of the Reichswehr for the
benefit of the victims of war and unemployed peoples, for the disarming
of the 
bourgeoisie
and the entire counter-revolution, for the full transfer of power and
all the means of power to the proletariat, for social and national
liberation of the working German people.” (Ernst Thälmann, party
conference of the Communist Party of Germany, resolution on the XII.
plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International and the
Tasks of the Communist Party of Germany, October 17, 1932)
bourgeoisie
and the entire counter-revolution, for the full transfer of power and
all the means of power to the proletariat, for social and national
liberation of the working German people.” (Ernst Thälmann, party
conference of the Communist Party of Germany, resolution on the XII.
plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International and the
Tasks of the Communist Party of Germany, October 17, 1932)
Ernst Thälmann was therefore the living
proof that National-Socialism was only an obstacle to save capitalism,
through imperialist war, through fascism. Its existence showed that
National-socialism was just there precisely to fight against real
socialism.
His life was the antithesis of
National-socialism, and the Nazis have known that their own defeat would
bring the victory of Thälmann. Ernst Thälmann could be
a scientific inspiration, he could produce a “guiding Thought”, as a
scientific reflection of reality; Thälmann, that meant a line that
directs democratically the German society, after so many years of
anti-democratic suffering.
It is also noteworthy that Julien Lahaut
was murdered in front of his home in Belgium, on August 18, 1950, six
years after the murder of 
Thälmann. He was an important
figure in the struggle for the Republic, against the monarchy: he was
the chairman of the Communist Party of Belgium, had led the great strike
of 1941 with 100,000 workers, and was then sent by the Nazis to a
concentration camp, where he was also tortured, and where he always
resisted.
70 years later – Ernst Thälmann is not forgotten!
Ernst Thälmann and Julien Lahaut are living in the struggle for communism!
Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, long live Maoism!
People’s war until communism!
Ernst Thälmann and Julien Lahaut are living in the struggle for communism!
Long live Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, long live Maoism!
People’s war until communism!
Organization of the workers of Afghanistan (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, principally Maoist)
Communist Party Marxist-Leninist-Maoist [Bangladesh]
Marxist-Leninist-Maoist Center [Belgium]
Communist Party Marxist-Leninist-Maoist (France)
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