Paul Levi

For the American composer, seePaul Alan Levi.For the picture framer, seePaul Levi (picture framer).

Paul Levi
Chairman of theCommunist Party of Germany
In office March 1919 – February 1921
Succeeded by	Heinrich Brandler
Member of theReichstag
In office 24 June 1920 – 9 February 1930
Succeeded by	Georg Graupe
Constituency	Reichswahlvorschlag(1920–1924) 30, Chemnitz-Zwickau (1924–1930)
Personal details
Born	(1883-03-11)11 March 1883 Hechingen,Province of Hohenzollern,Kingdom of Prussia,German Empire
Died	9 February 1930(1930-02-09)(aged 46) Berlin,German Republic
Political party	SPD(1906–1916) USPD(1917–1918) KPD(1918–1921) KAG(1921–March 1922) USPD (March–September 1922) SPD (from September 1922)

Paul Levi(11 March 1883 – 9 February 1930) was a German communist and social democratic political leader. He was the head of theCommunist Party of Germanyfollowing the assassination ofRosa LuxemburgandKarl Liebknechtin 1919. After being expelled for publicly criticising Communist Party tactics during theMarch Action,he formed theCommunist Working Organisation (KAG /Kommunistische Arbeitsgemeinschaft)which in 1922 merged with theIndependent Social Democratic Party.This party, in turn, merged with theSocial Democratic Partya few months later and Levi became one of the leaders of its left wing.

Biography

Early years

Paul Levi was born on 11 March 1883 inHechingeninHohenzollern Provinceto a well-to-doJewishmerchant family.He attended the Gymnasium in Stuttgart.Levi started work as a lawyer in Frankfurt in 1906and also joined theSocial Democratic Party of Germany(SPD) the same year. There he became part of the party's left wing together withRosa LuxemburgandKarl Liebknecht.Beginning in 1913, Levi was also Luxemburg's lawyer in political cases.In 1914 he was elected as an SPD town councillor in Frankfurt.

Levi was one of the twelve delegates to the meeting in March 1915 which led to the formation of theGruppe Internationalewhich became theSpartacist League.The following month he wasconscriptedto the army and sent to the Vosges.After starving himself, Levi was discharged on medical grounds in 1916, settling in Switzerland and associating withKarl Radek,Grigory ZinovievandVladimir Lenin,becoming a part of the bureau of theZimmerwald Leftand helping foundLa nouvelle internationalewhich he wrote for under the pseudonym 'Hartstein'.He was one of the signatories to a declaration approving of Lenin and other Russian revolutionaries actions in travelling through Germany in a sealed train.

Levi returned to Germany after theOctober Revolutionand from March 1918 lived mostly in Berlin where he was one of the three editors of theSpartakusbriefe.At the founding conference of theCommunist Party of Germany(KPD) on 30–31 December 1918, he introduced the discussion on 'The National Assembly'.Levi was amongst the majority on the KPD Zentrale who opposed the initiatives ofKarl LiebknechtandWilhelm Pieckwho had supported a Revolutionary Committee with theIndependent Social Democratic Party of Germany(USPD) and theRevolutionary Stewardsto lead what became known as theSpartacist Uprisingin January 1919.

Communist leader

Paul Levi at the 2nd World Congress of the Comintern, 1920.

After the killing of the KPD's main leadersRosa Luxemburg,Karl Liebknecht,andLeo Jogiches,Levi took over as the central leader of the Communist Party.At the KPD's second congress in October 1919, Levi expelled the party'sCouncil Communistultra-left, around half the membership many of whom formed theCommunist Workers' Party of Germany.During theKapp PutschLevi was in prison.

Levi headed theGerman delegationto the2nd World Congressof theCommunist International(Comintern) inMoscowin 1920, where he threatened that the KPD delegation would leave due to the presence of representatives of the KAPD.

He led the party away from the policy of immediate revolution, orientating it to wider layers of workers. These efforts were rewarded when a substantial section of the USPD joined the KPD after a debate at their Halle congress, making it a mass party for the first time with around 449,700 members.This was followed up by an 'Open Letter' which Levi, alongside Radek, convinced the KPD Zentrale to issue to other working class organisation to join in a joint struggle around their common interests, based on a successful initiative of Communists in Stuttgart.

Levi attended the 1921 Livorno Congress of theItalian Socialist Party(PSI) which had joined the Comintern, where Levi had supportedGiacinto Serratiagainst the faction aroundAntonio GramsciandAmadeo Bordigawho went on to form theItalian Communist Party(PCI) supported by Comintern representativesMátyás RákosiandKhristo Kabakchiev.Following a debate at the Zentrale over Italy where Levi and his supporters lost the vote by a small majority after being opposed by Radek and Rákosi, he resigned from the chairmanship of the Communist Party in early 1921, alongside his co-chairmanErnst DäumigandClara Zetkin,Otto BrassandAdolph Hoffmannalso resigned from the Central Committee.This had been preceded by the "small bureau" of the Comintern condemning the "Open Letter"and awarding the KAPD sympathising section status.Shortly after, under the influence ofBéla Kun,the party launched theMarch Actionof 1921.

As leader of the KPD, Levi frequently criticized "putschism," or the repeated efforts on behalf of Communists to take power without the broader support of the masses. He first observed this phenomenon in the failed revolutionary experiences inBavariaandHungaryin 1919.Later on, after the disastrous March Action, Levi wrote his most famous pamphletUnser Weg: Wider den Putschismus.In it, he laid out his criticisms of the Comintern, the KPD, and what he called the "Bakuninist" influence behind what he argued were numerous premature attempts to take state power. Levi cited both Engels and Marx on insurrection, showing how other Party members of the KPD had overlooked the careful preparatory work of the Bolsheviks leading up to the October 1917 Revolution. He simultaneously criticized Comintern representatives such asBéla Kun,Grigory ZinovievandKarl Radekfor their encouragement of these accelerationist policies both in Germany and Italy. Levi's criticism of the Comintern and "putschism" served as an early attempt to explain the failure of European Revolutions in the 1918-1923 period.

Following the failure of the uprisings Levi was expelled from the Communist Party for publicly criticizing party policies in his pamphletUnser Weg.Lenin and Trotsky substantially agreed with his criticisms, but not the way in which he had made them. Lenin sent him a private letter through his friendClara Zetkin,in which he asked Levi to accept the expulsion for "breach of discipline" and then adopt a friendly approach towards the KPD and cooperate with it in the class struggle in a loyal manner. If Levi would do so, Lenin would then push for his reinstatement in the party.Levi did not accept this proposal and continued to criticize the party sharply and condemn its leaders.This led Lenin to revise his previously still favourable attitude towards Levi.

Later life, death, and legacy

After being expelled from the Communist Party, Levi formed the Communist Working Collective (KAG) with supporters expelled from the KPD at its Jena congress in September 1921, which included 13 of the KPD'sReichstagdeputies (including Levi himself).In 1922 he joined the USPD, with whom he subsequently rejoined the SPD.

Levi began rethinking his previous policies and wrote introductions to Rosa Luxemburg'sThe Russian RevolutionandLeon Trotsky'sLessons of October,which were sharply critical of the Bolsheviks.In the summer of 1921 Levi founded a monthly magazine namedUnser Weg( "Our Way" ), which he later replaced with a weeklySozialistiche und politische Wochentliche(also known asLevi-Korrespondenz) when he rejoined the SPD.

Because of his Jewish roots, he became the target and symbol of a campaign in the press. He responded by attacking prominent Nazis, such asAdolf Hitler,Ernst Röhm,Alfred Rosenberg,andWilhelm Frickin left-wing publications.

In 1924, Levi was re-elected to the Reichstag in Zwickau for the SPD, where he held meetings in remote village, conducted some legal cases and held education classes.Although his interventions were restricted in the Reichstag, he represented the SPD on the Reichstag's legal committee and spoke on issues of civil liberties.Levi also began to specialise in defending writers and newspapers that disclosed government secrets, but took up other civil liberties cases, including those of KPD members such asWilli Münzenberg.

Levi died on 9 February 1930 inBerlinafter succumbing to injuries suffered when he fell from the window of his fifth floor attic flat.He had been taken to bed with pneumonia during a trial, where he had become feverish and delirious.Levi received numerous obituaries, including fromAlbert Einstein.However Lazitch & Drachkovitch relate: "He committed suicide in 1930 by jumping from a window at a clinic where he was being treated."After his death the Reichstag held a minute of commemoration during which the representatives of the Communist Party and the Nazi Party ostentatiously left the assembly hall.At his funeral, fellow dissident communistValeriu Marcupresented the eulogy.

Bibliography

• Grunwald, Henning (2012).Courtroom to Revolutionary Stage Performance and Ideology in Weimar Political Trials.Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.ISBN978-0-19-960904-8.

Further reading

• Balabanoff, Angelica(1968).Impressions of Lenin.
• Hallas, Duncan(1985)."The Comintern".Marxist Internet Archive. Accessed August 9, 2009
• Jones, Mike (1985). "The Decline, Disorientation and Decomposition of a Leadership".Revolutionary History,Vol 2 No 3, Autumn 1989. On-line atRevolutionary History- accessed August 9, 2009
• Lenin, Vladimir(1921)."A Letter to the German Communists".Marxist Internet Archive. Accessed August 9, 2009
• Trotsky, Leon(1922)."Paul Levi and Some 'Lefts'".The First Five Years of the Communist International.Marxist Internet Archive. Accessed August 9, 2009
• Ben Fowkes, Communism in Germany under Weimar Republic. London: Macmillan Press, 1984

External links

• Paul Levi Archive at marxists.org
• Paul Levi,Leaving Leninism,written in 1927 and translated by Mike Jones
• Karl Radek,The Downfall of Levi
• Walter Held,Why the German Revolution Failed
• Jean Van Heijenoort,The German Revolution in the Leninist Period
• Udo Winkel,Paul Levi and His Significance for the Communist Movement in Germany
• Theodor Bergmann,The Tragedy of Paul Levi: A German Revolutionary Between Communism and Social Democracy
• Todd Chretien,Pierre Broué's German Revolution 1917-1923Archived2020-09-21 at theWayback Machine
• Newspaper clippings about Paul Leviin the20th Century Press Archivesof theZBW