Revolution as Realpolitik : Ernst Meyer (1887-1930) - Biography of a KPD Chairman /

Revolution as Realpolitik : Ernst Meyer (1887-1930) - Biography of a KPD Chairman /

Ernst Meyer was one of the most important figures of the German Communist Party in the Weimar Republic. He was a founding member of the Spartacus League, a member of the KPD Centre after the First World War and party chairman in 1921-22. A passionate defender of the necessity of inner-party democrac...

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Main Authors: Wilde, Florian (Author), Baltner, Adam (Author), Damphouse, Julia (Author)

Format: eBook

Language: English

Published: Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2026.

Series: Historical Materialism Book Series ; 371.
Social Sciences E-Books Online, Collection 2026.

Subjects:

History.
Intellectual History.
Modern History.

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Call Number: D410

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Table of Contents:
  • Foreword
  • Preface
  • List of Figures
  • Translators' Note
  • 1 Introduction
  • 2 Radicalisation in the Pre-War SPD (1908-14)
  • 1 Childhood, Youth, Student Days and Joining the SPD
  • 2 The SPD in the Pre-War Years and the Emergence of the Radical Left Wing
  • 3 In Steglitz with the Radicals
  • 4 The Pub as Nucleus
  • 5 Editor at Vorwärts
  • 6 Convicted of Lèse-majesté
  • 3 With Spartacus Against the War (1914-18)
  • 1 4 August 1914: Horror, Despair and Resistance
  • 2 The International Group between Cooperation and Demarcation
  • 3 The International against the War: At the Zimmerwald Conference in 1915
  • 4 The Founding of the Spartacus Group
  • 5 The International against the War, Part II : The Kienthal Conference of 1916
  • 6 Termination from Vorwärts and the Dues Boycott Campaign
  • 7 In Prison
  • 8 The Founding of the USPD
  • 9 Preliminary Retreat from the Spartacus Leadership in 1917
  • 10 The October Revolution and Debates on Bolshevik Politics
  • 11 On the Path towards Revolution: Leader of the Spartacus Group in 1918
  • 12 Important Actor of the November Revolution
  • 4 In the KPD Leadership (1919-20)
  • 1 At the Founding Party Congress
  • 2 The Ill-Fated Uprising
  • 3 Murdered Friends and a Decapitated Party Leadership
  • 4 Nine Months in Preventative Detention
  • 5 The Heidelberg Party Congress and the KPD Split
  • 6 Resisting the Kapp Putsch
  • 5 Exponent of the Left Wing (1920-1)
  • 1 'Revolutionary Offensive' over 'Anti-Putschist Cretinism'
  • 2 At the Second World Congress of the Comintern
  • 3 Finally a Mass Party: Unification with the USPD
  • 4 Editor-in-Chief of the Rote Fahne des Ostens
  • 5 Chairman of the KPD Group in the Prussian Landtag (1921-4)
  • 6 Back to the Zentrale and into the Uprising: The March Action of 1921
  • 7 Party Crisis and a Departure from the Theory of the Offensive
  • 8 The Turn towards the United Front Policy
  • 6 Party Chairman and Protagonist of the United Front (1921-2)
  • 1 Parting Ways with the Left Wing: At the Jena Party Congress
  • 2 Driven by Work: The Tasks of a Party Chairman
  • 3 Divorce and New Love
  • 4 The United Front as Revolutionary Realpolitik
  • 5 The Necessity of Inner-Party Democracy
  • 6 On Equal Footing with Moscow? Meyer, the KPD and the Comintern
  • 7 Successful Consolidation of the Party
  • 8 Meyer's Ousting
  • 7 Hoping for Revolution, Experiencing Defeat (1923)
  • 1 'For Once, Out of the German Party Row': For the KPD in France
  • 2 Director of the Super-District Southwest
  • 3 Meyer in 'German October'
  • 4 After the Retreat: The Crisis of the Party
  • 8 At the Centre of the Opposition to the Ultra-Left Course (1924-5)
  • 1 Ernst, Rosa and their Children
  • 2 The Left-Wing Takeover of the Party
  • 3 'Insane Party Debates, Nasty Personal Differences': Opponents of the Fischer-Maslow Leadership
  • 4 Total Isolation: At the Tenth Party Congress of the KPD
  • 9 The Struggle for a Return to the United Front (1925-6)
  • 1 'Struck Like an Unexpected Bomb': The Comintern's Intervention
  • 2 In Factional Struggles
  • 3 On the Upswing
  • 4 The United Front during the Referendum on the Expropriation of the Princes
  • 5 'If Mohammed Won't Come to the Mountain': The Rocky Road to a Consolidated Leadership
  • 6 'A Drama that Broke Ernst's Spirit': Meyer's Moscow Declaration
  • 7 The Splitting of the Meyer Group
  • 8 'I Almost Regret My Diligence': Between Self-Doubt and Integrity
  • 10 Leading the Party with Thälmann
  • 1 'Not an Acutely Revolutionary Situation': Meyer's Assessment of the Political Climate
  • 2 The Essen Congress: Meyer Returns to the Helm
  • 3 Struggling for the United Front: Heated Debate over the SPD 's Left Wing
  • 4 Debates on Inner-Party Democracy and a Programme of Action
  • 5 Struggle against the Threat of War, 'Ten Years of the Soviet Union' Campaign, and Historiographical Disputes
  • 6 Taking Stock of Meyer's Work in the Party Leadership in 1927
  • 7 To the Sanitorium with Illness and Burnout
  • 11 Meyer's Final Stand: Fighting Stalinism with His Last Ounce of Strength (1928-30)
  • 1 Stalin and the Comintern's Ultra-Left Turn
  • 2 Between the Fronts in December 1928
  • 3 Back to the Wall against Stalinisation
  • 4 Meyer's Final Struggle
  • 5 Illness, Death, Funeral
  • 6 The Fate of those Left Behind: Resistance and Exile
  • 12 Epilogue
  • Bibliography
  • Index.