International Communists of Germany (1918)

International Communists of Germany (Internationalen Kommunisten Deutschlands; IKD) was a Communist political grouping founded in November 1918 during the German Revolution. The small party was, together with the better known Spartacist League, one of the constituent organizations that joined to form the Communist Party of Germany in 1918.

Organizational history

The origins of the International Communists of Germany (IKD) were in the anti-war opposition within the German Social Democratic Party (SPD). Within the Bremen and Hamburg district organizations, a left opposition took stand against the "Burgfrieden" - the support of Social Democracy for World War I. This current was identified as "Bremer Linksradikale" - Bremen Radical Leftists, although their followers would be found outside Bremen as well. They were influenced by Karl Radek and Anton Pannekoek. Only in 1918 the current institutionalized as a party and took the new name - the German Revolution had taken away censorship and repression.[1]

The official organ of the IKD was a newspaper, Der Kommunist.[2]

The same name was later used by German Trotskyists who, fleeing Germany after the Nazis' rise to power in 1933, established an exile organization in Paris. Arthur Goldstein was involved in this incarnation of the International Communists of Germany.

Notable members

• Marie Griesbach
• Johann Knief
• Otto Rühle

Footnotes

1. Gerhard Engel: The International Communists of Germany, in: Ralf Hoffrogge / Norman LaPorte (eds.): Weimar Communism as Mass Movement 1918-1933, London: Lawrence & Wishart, pp. 25-44.
2. Broué, Pierre. "The German Revolution: Bibliography". www.marxists.org. Marxist Internet Archive. Retrieved 6 October 2016.

Further reading

• Gerhard Engel: The International Communists of Germany, in: Ralf Hoffrogge / Norman LaPorte (eds.): Weimar Communism as Mass Movement 1918-1933, London: Lawrence & Wishart, pp. 25-44.