List of members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany
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This list provides an alphabetically ordered overview of the members of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) who were elected at the Party Congresses (1925–1939) or named in the KPD appeal after the re-admission in June 1945. It was not until the 10th Party Congress of the KPD in July 1925 in Berlin that a Central Committee (ZK) was elected as the governing body. It replaced the Zentrale (→ List of members of the Zentrale of the Communist Party of Germany).
The reason is given in brackets if members left the Central Committee before the next Party Congress (e.g. expulsion from the party, natural death, murder) or if the members were elected in absentia.
10th Party Congress (1925)
The delegates of the tenth Party Congress in Berlin (12 – 17 July 1925) elected the following members to the Central Committee:
- Conrad Blenkle
- Philipp Dengel
- Hugo Eberlein
- Ruth Fischer (expelled from the KPD in August 1926)
- Wilhelm Florin
- Ottomar Geschke
- Fritz Heckert
- Artur König
- Arkadi Maslow (expelled from the KPD in August 1926)
- Wilhelm Pieck
- Hermann Remmele
- Paul Schlecht
- Ernst Schneller
- Werner Scholem (expelled from the Central Committee in October 1925, from the KPD in November 1926)
- Wilhelm Schwan
- Max Schütz
- Hugo Urbahns (expelled from the KPD in November 1926)
- Ernst Thälmann
- Hans Weber
11th Party Congress (1927)
At the eleventh Party Congress of the KPD in Essen (2 – 7 March 1927), the following members were elected to the Central Committee:
- Karl Albin Becker
- Adolf Betz
- Conrad Blenkle
- Johann Biefang
- Franz Dahlem
- Philipp Dengel
- Paul Dietrich
- Hugo Eberlein
- Arthur Ewert
- Leo Flieg
- Wilhelm Florin
- Max Gerbig
- Ottomar Geschke
- Arthur Golke
- Walter Hähnel
- Fritz Heckert
- Wilhelm Hein
- Paul Merker
- Ernst Meyer
- Willi Münzenberg
- Michael Niederkirchner
- Helene Overlach
- Wilhelm Pieck
- Hermann Remmele
- Joseph Schlaffer
- Ernst Schneller
- Hans Schröter
- Fritz Schulte
- Georg Schumann
- Walter Stoecker
- Ernst Thälmann
- Walter Ulbricht
- Jean Winterich
- John Wittorf (expelled from the KPD in September 1928)
- Clara Zetkin
12th Party Congress (1929)
The twelfth Party Congress of the KPD in Berlin-Wedding (9 – 12 June 1929) elected the following Central Committee:
- Joseph Büser (expelled from the KPD in January 1931)
- Franz Dahlem
- Philipp Dengel
- Leo Flieg
- Wilhelm Florin
- Ottomar Geschke
- Ernst Grube
- Arthur Golke
- Walter Häbich (executed by the SS in Dachau on June 30, 1934)
- Margarete Hahne
- Fritz Hastenreiter
- Fritz Heckert
- Wilhelm Hein (expelled from the KPD in 1933)
- Wilhelm Kasper
- Robert Klausmann
- Wilhelm Koenen
- Karl Küll
- Willy Leow
- Friedrich Lux (executed in the Fuhlsbüttel on November 6, 1933)
- Paul Merker
- Willi Münzenberg
- Gustav Nitsche
- Heinz Neumann (relieved of his duties in April 1932)
- Michael Niederkirchner
- Helene Overlach
- Wilhelm Pieck
- Gustav Pötzsch
- Hermann Remmele
- Rudolf Renner
- Helene Rosenhainer
- Josef Schlaffer
- Fritz Schulte
- Walter Stoecker
- Ernst Thälmann
- Walter Ulbricht
- Karl Winter
- Jean Winterich (died on June 27, 1931, in Berlin)
- Josef Winternitz
"Brussels" Conference / 13th Party Congress (1935)
The "Brussels" Conference, later called the 13th Party Congress of the KPD, met following the 7th World Congress of the Comintern in Moscow from October 3 to 15, 1935. Wilhelm Pieck became party chairman of the KPD in place of the imprisoned Ernst Thälmann. The following members and candidates were elected to the Central Committee:
- Anton Ackermann
- Paul Bertz
- Franz Dahlem
- Leo Flieg (sentenced to death by the Military Collegium of the Supreme Court of the Soviet Union and shot on March 14, 1939)
- Wilhelm Florin
- Walter Hähnel
- Fritz Heckert (died on April 7, 1936, in Moscow)
- Paul Merker
- Willi Münzenberg (expelled from the Central Committee in March 1938)
- Wilhelm Pieck
- Elli Schmidt
- Ernst Thälmann (in absentia)
- Walter Ulbricht
- Herbert Wehner
- Heinrich Wiatrek
Candidates:
- Wilhelm Knöchel
- Werner Kowalski (“Erich Dobler”; expelled from the KPD in May 1938)
- Karl Mewis
"Bern" Conference / 14th Party Congress (1939)
The so-called "Bern" Conference – later called the fourteenth Party Congress – met from January 30 to February 2, 1939, in Draveil near Paris. At the conference, the following Central Committee was elected, to which some who were not present were also elected:
- Anton Ackermann
- Paul Bertz
- Franz Dahlem
- Philipp Dengel (in absentia)
- Wilhelm Florin (in absentia)
- Walter Hähnel (alias "Karl Kunart")
- Wilhelm Knöchel
- Johann Koplenig (Chairman of the KPÖ)
- Paul Merker
- Karl Mewis
- Wilhelm Pieck
- Siegfried Rädel
- Elli Schmidt
- Emil Svoboda (unknown, probably a pseudonym)[1]
- Walter Ulbricht (in absentia)
- Herbert Wehner (in absentia; expelled from the KPD on June 6, 1942)
- Heinrich Wiatrek
Appeal (1945)
The members of the Central Committee named in the Appeal of the Communist Party of Germany of 11 June 1945 are:
- Anton Ackermann
- Martha Arendsee
- Johannes R. Becher
- Franz Dahlem
- Irene Gärtner (pseudonym for Elli Schmidt)
- Ottomar Geschke
- Edwin Hoernle
- Hans Jendretzky
- Bernard Koenen
- Hans Mahle
- Hermann Matern
- Michael Niederkirchner
- Wilhelm Pieck
- Gustav Sobottka
- Walter Ulbricht
- Otto Winzer
In the Soviet Occupation Zone, the KPD and the SPD merged to form the SED at the unification party conference on 21/22 April 1946 (→ List of members of the SED Party Executive).
At the KPD delegate conference in Herne at the end of April 1948, a separate party executive was elected for the western zones for the first time (→ List of members of the KPD Party Executive). After the KPD was banned in the Federal Republic of Germany, a Central Committee was again constituted on 30 September 1956 to lead the illegal party work,[2] which existed until the German Communist Party (DKP) was admitted.[3]
Sources
- Hermann Weber (Hrsg.): Der deutsche Kommunismus. Dokumente 1915–1945. 3. Auflage. Kiepenheuer & Witsch, Köln 1973, S. 433–435.
- Günter Judick, Josef Schleifstein, Kurt Steinhaus (Hrsg.): KPD 1945–1968. Dokumente. Band 1. Edition Marxistische Blätter, Neuss 1989, S. 143.