Franz Pfemfert

Franz Pfemfert (20 November 1879, Lötzen, East Prussia (now Giżycko, Poland) – 26 May 1954, Mexico City) was a German journalist, editor of Die Aktion, literary critic, politician and portrait photographer. Pfemfert occasionally wrote under the pseudonym U. Gaday (derived from Russian "ugadaj", dt: "guess").

Memorial plaque to Pfemfert, Nassauische Straße 17, Berlin-Wilmersdorf

Front page of Die Aktion from October 1914 with a portrait of Charles Péguy by Egon Schiele

In 1911 he married Alexandra Ramm, who had moved to Berlin from Russia and who was involved in Russian translations.

Pfemfert was involved in founding the Antinationalen Sozialisten-Partei (Antinational Socialist Party), originally a clandestine organisation founded in 1915.[1] Die Aktion became its official organ following the German Revolution in November 1918.[2]

He subsequently became close friends with Leon Trotsky, even though he maintained quite distinct political views.[3]

After the Nazi seizure of power, Pfemfert fled to Karlovy Vary, Czechoslovakia. Here the Czech stalinists called for his deportation.[4]

Publishing

Alongside publishing Die Aktion, Pfemfert published a variety of authors:

• Victor Hugo
• Hedwig Dohm
• Leo Tolstoy
• Karl Otten

References

1. Taylor, Seth (1990). Left-Wing Nietzscheans: The Politics of German Expressionism 1910-1920. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. p. 220.
2. Pervulescu, Constantin (2006). After the Revolution: The Individualist Anarchist Journal "Der Einzige" and the Making of the Radical Left in the Early Post-World War I Germany (PhD thesis). University of Minnesota. p. 28.
3. Bois, Marcel. "A Transnational Friendship in the Age of Extremes: Leon Trotsky and the Pfemferts" (PDF). Twentieth Century Communism. 10. Retrieved 11 January 2017.
4. Shachtman, Max. "Behind the Moscow Trial". Marxist Internet Archive. Pioneer Publishers—New York 1936. Retrieved 29 September 2017.

External links

• Franz Pfemfert Archive at marxists.org