Introduction by Wolfgang Eggers to the Election campaign speech on April 19, 1925 in Hagen by Thälmann

Dear comrades!

The republication of speeches and writings by comrade Ernst Thälmann, which are not included in the four volumes of the GDR edition, is gradually filling up to a new volume.

Why does the Comintern (SH) have to come first to bring all these unpublished documents by comrade Ernst Thälmann back to the public?

How can it be that the SED [ the social-fascist party in the GDR], which had written Ernst Thälmann as its figurehead on its banners, allowed so many of his speeches and writings to be ignored?

The GDR nostalgia deliberately ignores this fact with silence. Anyone who honestly upholds Ernst Thälmann cannot remain silent here and must face the truth squarely:

The SED's "cult of Thälmann" was only a façade behind which it hid its social-fascist face.

In answering my question, I remember Comrade Enver Hoxha, who was filled with rage when he met with the Soviet revisionists and heard how unabashedly and disparagingly they talked about Comrade Stalin.

And so I also remember the time when I traveled around the former GDR shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall to look for the comrades of the illegal section of the Comintern (SH) in the GDR. In doing so, I also came into contact with the revisionist Hans Wauer from the GDR, who seemed to be "interested" in the KPD/ML. On the 5th anniversary of the death of comrade Ernst Aust, Hans Wauer accompanied my family and me to the grave in Müden /Aller. From Hans Wauer I learned for the first time quite openly - without being reproached - how badly he and the whole SED gang really thought about Ernst Thälmann. I am not able to put his disgusting, contemptuous words about Ernst Thälmann on this website . . .

With that, Hans Wauer had answered the question of why the SED never published a complete edition of the works of Ernst Thälmann.

No one but the Comintern (SH) has proven to be the truly Thälmann-loyal party. No one else has published so many of Ernst Thälmann's speeches and writings and translated them into so many languages.

Those who hold the Comintern (SH) in high esteem also hold Comrade Ernst Thälmann in high esteem!

And those who hold Comrade Ernst Thälmann in high esteem, hold the Comintern (SH) in high esteem, too !

Wolfgang Eggers

February 26, 2025