80 years ago, on 18 August 1944, Ernst Thälmann (1886-1944) died in the fascist concentration camp Buchenwald. The leader of the German Communist Party (KPD), abducted by the Nazis on 3 March 1933, was finally shot on Hitler's direct orders after eleven years in prison and jail.

On the night of 18 August 1944, the dock worker, member of parliament, long-time KPD chairman and revolutionary Ernst Thälmann was murdered in Buchenwald concentration camp. Ernst Thälmann and his Communist Party of Germany (KPD) were the strongest and most powerful opponents of rising fascism in Germany. The KPD of the 1920s and 1930s was the strongest communist labour party in Western Europe, which is precisely why it is important to keep the memory of this party and the unique personality of its leader alive in the legacy of the revolutionary communist movement.

'Ernst Thälmann dedicated his life to the highest of humanity: the struggle for its liberation from exploitation and oppression, for peace between peoples, for communism. He was the model of a labour leader closely linked to the working class...'

This characterisation of a life that began on 16 April 1886 in Hamburg and always remained connected to the proletariat describes Ernst Thälmann's universal abilities, areas of influence and character traits quite well.

The worker

Ernst Thälmann had his social and political roots - which he never forgot throughout his life - in the Hamburg proletariat. He worked as a docker, seaman and transport worker. In his style and language, he always found access to the minds and hearts of the working people and thus had a significant influence on the rise of the KPD to become a mass party.

But he was also always there when he was needed. It is impressive how restlessly Thälmann closely followed every labour conflict and every strike and was personally present as an organiser, advisor and helper for quite a few - especially in his Hamburg - even at the time when he was already directing the fortunes of the entire KPD in Berlin.

His important experiences in the struggle - beginning with his role as revolutionary leader in Hamburg in 1923 - his courage, his determination, but above all his love for his class - made him an outstanding personality in the world communist movement.

The organiser

Under the leadership of Ernst Thälmann, the KPD succeeded in considerably increasing its mass influence and combating social fascism with its offensive policy of united action. One example of this is the KPD's campaign to expropriate the princes, which was supported by more than a third of voters in a referendum it forced through in 1926.

Ernst Thälmann also played a major role in the establishment of the Red Front Fighters' League (RFB), which was founded as a counterweight to fascist and revanchist organisations and of which he was also chairman. In May 1926, for example, 50,000 people took part in an RFB meeting in Berlin, which was enthusiastically welcomed by 300,000 Berliners.

The communist

Ernst Thälmann was not only a practitioner, however; the rise of the KPD to become the mass party of the German proletariat is largely due to his political and ideological perseverance (which is, of course, inseparable from his practical work). In the directional struggles of the mid-1920s, Thälmann adopted a Stalinist position derived from Lenin's theoretical framework, which can be characterised as a two-front struggle. He opposed ultra-left and unrealistic phraseology as well as right-wing opportunism. Only after overcoming this conflict was the KPD able to develop and become the strongest opponent of rising fascism.

The internationalist

Ernst Thälmann held important positions in the Communist International (CI). As a young communist, he took part in the 3rd World Congress in 1921, where he was able to meet Lenin in person. From the 4th World Congress in 1924, he was a member of the Executive Committee of the CI, and later of the Presidium. He also held many important operational functions in the CI, which saw itself as the world party of the proletariat, and was involved in decisive strategic decisions.

He followed class struggles and labour disputes in other countries very closely and often took practical steps to support them. For example, he campaigned vehemently for the German dockers to refuse to ship coal to England when the miners there were on a long strike.

Hitler's fiercest opponent

Thälmann worked tirelessly to create a broad unity of action against the rise of the fascists. The 'Anti-Fascist Action', which was launched at his suggestion, reached many unorganised and social democratic workers. For the SPD leadership, their pacts with the bourgeoisie and their anti-communism were more important.

A provocative Nazi march in front of the Karl Liebknecht House (the KPD headquarters) in Berlin in January 1933 was followed by an impressive response:

'...on 25 January, 130,000 Berlin workers demonstrated their solidarity with the KPD and its Central Committee. The party had called for a protest march of anti-fascists against the Nazi provocation on Bülowplatz at 4.30 pm. As early as 1.00 p.m., the columns of workers began to gather in the streets of Berlin in 16-18 degree temperatures. As fanfare signals opened the march, Ernst Thälmann and other members of the party leadership entered the grandstand at the Karl Liebknecht House, greeted by roaring shouts of 'Red Front! For over four hours, the large procession of anti-fascists marched past the Central Committee building,...an expression of the confidence in Ernst Thälmann and the workers' readiness to fight'. (Quoted from: Ernst Thälmann. A Biography, page 639.)

At the same time, Goebbels spread the lie that Thälmann was in Moscow.

Five days later, Hitler was appointed Reich Chancellor by Reich President Hindenburg (who was supported by the SPD in the second round of the 1932 presidential election). The most reactionary, most chauvinistic, most aggressive circles of German monopoly capital established their openly terrorist tyranny.

On the same day, the KPD proposed to the SPD and the trade unions that they jointly call for a general strike to overthrow the Hitler government and also tried to mobilise the masses for this goal with leaflets describing the Hitler government as 'the most brutal, most undisguised declaration of war on the working people, on the German working class'.

The leaderships of the SPD and the trade unions clung to their anti-communism and indulged in the illusion that free elections would soon be held under Hitler, where he could be voted out of office.

The Reichstag was soon dissolved and the fascist terror against the entire labour movement began. The KPD, which at this point was a mass party with 360,000 members and millions of sympathisers, had to work under already restricted legality. In this situation of Nazi terror, which had already begun, and the arrest of thousands of functionaries and members, the KPD prepared to take part in the Reichstag elections scheduled for 5 March. On this day, 4.8 million voters cast their ballots in favour of the KPD. It won 12.3 per cent and 81 seats, which were immediately cancelled by the fascists. Ernst Thälmann was also re-elected as a deputy. However, he was already in prison at this time. On 3 March, police officers arrested him - who had already been in hiding for some time and had been betrayed by an informer.

Although the Nazis held Ernst Thälmann prisoner, they always delayed an indictment and thus a trial, so that one never materialised. Thälmann remained a prisoner of the fascists from 1933 until his murder in 1944. International solidarity campaigns for his release spanned almost the entire globe. On Hitler's orders, he was taken to Buchenwald concentration camp on 17 August 1944 and murdered there that very night.

80 years ago, on 18 August 1944, Ernst Thälmann (1886-1944) died in the fascist Buchenwald concentration camp. The leader of the German Communist Party (KPD), abducted by the Nazis on 3 March 1933, was finally shot on Hitler's direct orders after eleven years in prison and jail.