Richard Müller – The man behind the German Revolution 1918

Ralf Hoffrogge: Richard Müller – Der Mann hinter der Novemberrevolution, Karl Dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2008, 240 p., 19,90 Euro, published in German.

Book announcement: Richard Müller – The man behind the German Revolution 1918 / Richard Müller – der Mann hinter der Novemberrevolution.

In the summer of 1914 both the german unionist movement and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) capitulated even before war had started: The unions decided to drop all strikes and support the national war-effort, the SPD decided to vote for the military budget in parliament. The strongest labor movement in Europe had given up its practise of class struggle and its marxist principles

But the nationalist turn did not go uncontested. By the end of 1914 Karl Liebknecht was the first member of parliament to refuse further support for war-finances in parliament. At the same time local wildcat-strikes showed practical protest against the collaboration of the unions. For two years, these protests remained relatively isolated phenomena. But in 1916/17 the unionist anti-war movement consolidated on a national scale.

Especially the Berlin metalworkers were active and organized themselves from below. Their resistance had to be a double one: both against the bosses and their own union bureaucracy which collaborated with the military authorities. Three mass-strikes took place in the metalworking industry from 1916-1918, all of them organized by an underground organization calling itself the “revolutionary shop-stewards”. The group was lead by a lathe operator called Richard Müller. Their strikes entirely stopped the german war industry and only massive threats could bring the workers back to their factories.

The fourth movement was more than a strike: by the end of 1918 the revolutionary shop stewards were collecting arms and made plans for an uprising. After a mutiny in the german war fleet had started the dissolution of the armed forces time for change had come: the 9th of November saw the Revolution in Berlin. The monarchy fell, the war ended and workers councils formed a new government.

Although the November Revolution was one of the most important dates in German history, the revolutionary shop-stewards and their influence on these events are almost unknown even among experts in the field. The leader of the shop-stewards, Richard Müller was more or less forgotten – although he was one of the main-organizers of the 1918 Revolution in Berlin and chairman of the highest workers-council in the newly declared “Socialist Republic of Germany”. This means, that Müller was nothing else than head of state during the revolutionary era. Nevertheless, almost no biographical information existed on him.

This has changed now. The author Ralf Hoffrogge portraits the life of Richard Müller from his early days in a small village in rural East of Germany, tells the story of his career in the metalworkers union and his role in the Revolution of 1918. By following the life of Richard Müller, Hoffrogge draws a differentiated picture of the of rise and fall of the German workers-council movements.

Hoffrogge also draws on unpublished sources to present the first Picture of Richard Müllers activities after the revolution: His short carreer in the German communist party, his time as author and historian of the November-events, his engagement in one of the smoll anti-stalinist revolutionary Unions during the 1920s. The first time ever Hoffrogge tells the story of his final goodbye to politics in order to become an entrepreneur and finally, a millionaire from real-estate business.

Both the information about Müllers early youth and his late days were unknown up to know, this biography therefore is the first complete portrait of a forgotten revolutionary.

Book Announcement: “The Betrayer, Stalin, is you!” (Published in German)

Bernhard H. Bayerlein. 2008.“The Betrayer, Stalin, is you!” :The End of Left Solidarity. Soviet Union, Comintern and Communist Parties During World War II. 1939–1941. Berlin: Aufbau Verlag. (Published in German; with a contemporary witness report by Wolfgang Leonhard.) ISBN 978-1-934110-80-5, hardback, €29,95.

“Der Verräter, Stalin, bist Du!”. Vom Ende der linken Solidarität. Sowjetunion, Komintern und kommunistische Parteien im Zweiten Weltkrieg 1939 – 1941, von Bernhard H. Bayerlein. Unter Mitarbeit von Natal’ja Lebedeva, Michail Narinskij und Gleb Albert. Mit einem Zeitzeugenbericht von Wolfgang Leonhard. Vorwort von Hermann Weber, Berlin, Aufbau-Verlag, 2008. 540 Seiten, mit 200 Abbildungen. Erschienen in der Reihe: Archive des Kommunismus – Pfade des XX. Jahrhunderts. Band IV. Das Buch kostet 29,95 Euro. ISBN 978-3-351-02623-3.

In due time before the 70th anniversary of the conclusion of the Stalin-Hitler-Pact and the beginning of World War II Aufbau Publishers in Berlin present an elaborate and thoroughly commentated chronicle of hitherto highly confidential, unpublished and less known documents from Russian, German and Swiss Archives. The thematic spectrum of this innovative presentation of still controversial historical context and original sources ranges between two central turning points of global history:

• The rupture of Antifascism and Solidarity perpetrated by the Soviet Union and the Communist Parties at the beginning of the Second World War during the „dark years“ following the Stalin-Hitler-Pact from 1939 to 1941.

• The beginning of antifascist resistance within the new symbiosis of Soviet Patriotism and Antifascism since the proclamation of the “Great Patriotic War” after Hitler’s attack against the Soviet Union in June 1941.

The success story of the Soviet Union as victorious force of World War II outshined the collaboration of the two dictators Stalin and Hitler and the official “German-Soviet Friendship” from September 1941 to June 1941 when it was “Midnight in the Century” (Victor Serge). The main focus of this book is the double turn-over of the communist parties, their adaptation to the pact with Germany, and their new role during World War II after Germany’s attack against the Soviet Union. It sheds light on the decisive role played by Soviet and Comintern leaders like Stalin, Molotov, Manuil’skiy and Dimitrov and national communist functionaries like Earl Browder, Walter Ulbricht, Palmiro Togliatti; yet, room is given to reflect the role of legal and illegal communist cadres and connections all over the world, from Iceland to Yugoslavia, from China to the Unites States, from Italy to Germany.

For a first period, the book uncovers the unconcealed support to the Nazi Regime, going as far as the applause for Hitler’s War against Europe and the whole civilization – but also the hesitations, the disoriention, the discomfort and the opposition within the communist movement, as well as the intermediate positions of the Comintern since summer 1940. Resistance against the Pact came from the highest ranks of international communism, like the German communist propaganda genius Willi Münzenberg, who shortly before his mysterious death wrote a furious article against the volt-face of Soviet politics, concluding with “The betrayer, Stalin, is you!”

Further, the documents substantiate the change of polarity to anti-German resistance by all means as a consequence of the invasion of the Soviet Union by the Wehrmacht after June 21, 1941, the beginning of communist resistance in Europe and some of the consequences and contradictions immanent to the concept of the “Great Patriotic War” including the use of individual terror as war tactics by the Communist parties.

The innovative visualisation by means of collage techniques reflects the multiplicity of the new documents which became accessible through the opening of the archives: Politbureau decisions, instructions by the Comintern leadership or the Foreign Commissary Molotov, coded telegrams, diary entries, informal remarks and decisive corrections by Stalin towards the Communist Parties, letters and correspondences, programs and manifestos, orders for operations behind the lines of the occupied countries, manuscripts and manuals for radio propaganda on one hand, public statements and other types of reaction by the left and liberal intellectual elites on the other.

The elucidation of communist politics and its resonance in public opinion as a transnational and European phenomenon induces to overcome the predominance of mostly national cultures of historical memory which are still vigorous in Europe, characterized by concealment, a very late appropriation of the own history, or rhetorical readjustments and diplomatic tactics. In this sense, the book touches major taboos of historical memory and questions some of the original myths of German, French, Russian, Yugoslavian or Bulgarian history. It allows inside views into the mechanisms of manipulative mass propaganda and rhetorics described by George Orwell (elucidating Walter Benjamin’s paradigm of “inner betrayal”), which in the name of Communism and the defence of the Soviet Union until 1941 contributed to surrender Europe and the world to Hitler’s war machinery.

Read more about “The Betrayer, Stalin, is You!” at:

• http://www.aufbau-verlag.de/index.php4?page=28&&show=15678 (under construction)
• http://www.dr-bayerlein.eu/index.php?act=recentbooks_verraeter

• Contact the author at bernhard.bayerlein@mzes.uni-mannheim.de (+49 221 422706).
• For review copies, contact Mrs. Andrea Doberenz at doberenz@aufbau-verlag.de (+49 30 28394233).
• For inquieries concerning book presentations, contact Mrs. Monika Rettig, rettig@buero-frankfurt.aufbau-verlag.de (+49 69 63151463) and the author.

The Making of a Revolutionary, Otto Wilhelm Kuusinen, 1881-1918

Maurice Carrez, 2008. La Fabrique d’un Revolutionnaire, Otto Wilhelm Kuusinen (1881-1918): Réflexions sur l’engagement politique d’un dirigeant social-démocrate finlandais. (The Making of a Revolutionary, Otto Wilhelm Kuusinen, 1881-1918. Reflections on the Political Engagement of a Finish Social-Democrat Leader). Vol. 1: 466 pages – Vol. 2: 396 pages. ISBN: 2-912025-39-7 – Vol. 1 : 2-912025-40-0 – Vol. 2 : 2-912025-41-9. €40.

Otto Wilhelm Kuusinen is especially known as having been a Kommintern secretary and, later on, a member of the Polit-bureau of the Soviet Union Communist Party. Historians have often centred their studies on his activity as leader of the Finish Communist Party in the pre-war years and on his role as a reformer under Krustchov.

But before his career outside Finland, O. W. Kuusinen was one of the most well-known leaders of the Finish Social-Democratic Party for twelve years and outright leader between 1911 and 1913. Furthermore, his influence on political life was particularly important from March 1917 to March 1918. From this angle, he can be considered as one of the major protagonists of the road towards independence ant the revolution that followed.

The aim of this book, that arose from research from a work destined for the ‘Habilitation à diriger des recherches (HDR)’ qualification, is to come to understand how an upwardly mobile young man, at first under the influence of conservative nationalism, a man who came from humble origins, entered Socialism at the beginning of the 20th century and then went on to construct between 1905 and 1918 a relatively original political and intellectual career.

This work is no a mere biography of an individual, albeit a brilliant individual, it is a study that strives to relate the personal elements of his life with the social and cultural framework of the age, taking equally into account the political upheavals that shook Finland and the Russian Empire. Readers of this book will become familiar with the history of the Baltic region, at the extreme ends of the Scandinavian and Slav worlds before and during the First World War. They will find in these pages important representatives of the Nordic political world as well as the workers’ mouvement during the so called Belle Époque.

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Book launch: ‘Syndicalism and the Transition to Communism’

To celebrate the launch of his new book ‘Syndicalism and the Transition to Communism’, Ralph Darlington will appear at the Salord University branch of the Blackwells bookshops on Thursday 19 June between 1.00pm-2.00pm. Wine and light refreshments will be provided. To confirm that you would like to attend please contact: r.r.darlington@salford.ac.uk

Salford Crescent railway station (with links to Oxford Road and Piccadilly) is just around the corner from the bookshop; car parking is available at Irwell Place, just off The Crescent (A6) and the main University campus/reception.

During the first two decades of the twentieth century, amidst an extraordinary international upsurge in strike action, the ideas of revolutionary syndicalism developed into a major influence within the world wide trade union movement. Committed to destroying capitalism through direct industrial action and revolutionary trade union struggle, the movement raised fundamental questions about the need for new and democratic forms of power through which workers could collectively manage industry and society.

This study provides an all-embracing comparative analysis of the dynamics and trajectory of the syndicalist movement in six specific countries: France, Spain, Italy, America, Britain and Ireland. This is achieved through an examination of the philosophy of syndicalism and the varied forms that syndicalist organisations assumed; the distinctive economic, social and political context in which they emerged; the extent to which syndicalism influenced wider politics; and the reasons for its subsequent demise.

The volume also provides the first ever systematic examination of the relationship between syndicalism and communism, focusing on the ideological and political conversion to communism undertaken by some of the syndicalist movement’s leading figures and the degree of synthesis between the two traditions within the new communist parties that emerged in the early 1920s.