Karl Volk
Encyclopedia
Karl Volk was a Communist politician, journalist and German Resistance
fighter against Nazism
.
(today Ukraine) to a middle-class Jewish family and grew up in Moravian Prostějov
, where he attended gymnasium
. He studied economics
and philosophy
at Charles University in Prague
. He was involved with the socialist
-zionist
Poale Zion
and with others in its left wing, joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
in 1921. He then went to Soviet Russia
and worked short-term in the soviet diplomatic service as a secretary at the embassy in Beijing
and at the Soviet Russian press agency in Vienna
. At the end of 1922, Volk moved back to Germany, where under the assumed name of Robert, he worked full-time as a functionary of the Communist Party of Germany
(KPD). From 1923–1924, he was the political leader of the regional KPD in Lower Saxony
and during the Hamburg Uprising
, acted as political commissar
. After a brief period on the Comintern
staff in Moscow
, he moved back to Germany in 1924, where he headed the KPD daily newspapers, Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung in Leipzig
and Der Kämpfer in Chemnitz
until 1925. In 1926, he became head of the central KPD news service in Berlin
.
Initially Volk was in the left wing of the party, aligned with Ruth Fischer
, Arkadi Maslow
and Ernst Thälmann
, but in 1928, modified his views, becoming a leading member of the Conciliator faction
. The ultra-left party line
of the KPD leadership under Thälmann labeled the moderates social fascists
, according to the position taken by the Comintern
. As a result, Volk was relieved of his party functions and in a disciplinary move, sent to Hamburg
, where he headed the KPD newspaper, the Hamburger Volkszeitung. After the Wittorf affair
, he was relieved of this position, as well. In 1929, after the power of the Conciliator faction was weakened within the party, he continued to lead the faction discreetly, working with Georg Krausz and Heinrich Süßkind to build a Conciliator organization within the Berlin KPD.
After the Machtergreifung
by the Nazi Party in 1933, Volk's Conciliator group went underground to fight the Nazi government, concentrating on factories. Here, as in exile, Volk maintained close contact with social democratic
and socialist
groups, like Neu Beginnen
and the Revolutionary Socialists of Germany. Volk was forced to flee to France in 1933 and later that year, he took part in the Conciliator meeting in Zurich
. His hope for a reformed KPD was strengthened after the retreat from the ultra-left party line in 1934 and the 7th Comintern Congress in 1935. However, he was disillusioned by the Moscow trials
and most of all, by the execution of Nikolai Iwanowitsch Bucharin, which caused him to break with the KPD in 1938. After the outbreak of World War II
, Volk was able to flee to the United States, where he lived underground until the end of the war and afterwards, as a journalist specialized in Soviet issues. During this time, he maintained political connections with the Social Democratic Party of Germany
, but never joined.
German Resistance
The German resistance was the opposition by individuals and groups in Germany to Adolf Hitler or the National Socialist regime between 1933 and 1945. Some of these engaged in active plans to remove Adolf Hitler from power and overthrow his regime...
fighter against Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
.
Biography
Volk was born in Schowkwa, GalizienGalizien
Galizien may refer to:*German for Galicia*Ukrainian SS Division "Galizien"...
(today Ukraine) to a middle-class Jewish family and grew up in Moravian Prostějov
Prostejov
Prostějov is a city in the Olomouc Region of the Czech Republic. Today the city is known for its fashion industry and special military forces based there....
, where he attended gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
. He studied economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
and philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
at Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague
Charles University in Prague is the oldest and largest university in the Czech Republic. Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe and is also considered the earliest German university...
. He was involved with the socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
-zionist
Zionism
Zionism is a Jewish political movement that, in its broadest sense, has supported the self-determination of the Jewish people in a sovereign Jewish national homeland. Since the establishment of the State of Israel, the Zionist movement continues primarily to advocate on behalf of the Jewish state...
Poale Zion
Poale Zion
Poale Zion was a Movement of Marxist Zionist Jewish workers circles founded in various cities of the Russian Empire about the turn of the century after the Bund rejected Zionism in 1901.-Formation and early years:Poale Zion parties and organisations were started across the Jewish diaspora in the...
and with others in its left wing, joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
Communist Party of Czechoslovakia
The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in Czech and in Slovak: Komunistická strana Československa was a Communist and Marxist-Leninist political party in Czechoslovakia that existed between 1921 and 1992....
in 1921. He then went to Soviet Russia
Soviet Russia
Soviet Russia usually refers to the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, one of the fifteen republics of the Soviet Union. It may also denote:* Soviet Russia , magazine of the Friends of Soviet Russia in the United States...
and worked short-term in the soviet diplomatic service as a secretary at the embassy in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and at the Soviet Russian press agency in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
. At the end of 1922, Volk moved back to Germany, where under the assumed name of Robert, he worked full-time as a functionary of the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(KPD). From 1923–1924, he was the political leader of the regional KPD in Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony
Lower Saxony is a German state situated in north-western Germany and is second in area and fourth in population among the sixteen states of Germany...
and during the Hamburg Uprising
Hamburg Uprising
The Hamburg Uprising was an insurrection during the Weimar Republic in Germany. It was begun on October 23, 1923 by the one of the most militant sections of the Hamburg district Communist Party , the KP Wasserkante. From a military point of view, the attempt was futile and it was over within 24...
, acted as political commissar
Political commissar
The political commissar is the supervisory political officer responsible for the political education and organisation, and loyalty to the government of the military...
. After a brief period on the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
staff in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, he moved back to Germany in 1924, where he headed the KPD daily newspapers, Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung in Leipzig
Leipzig
Leipzig Leipzig has always been a trade city, situated during the time of the Holy Roman Empire at the intersection of the Via Regia and Via Imperii, two important trade routes. At one time, Leipzig was one of the major European centres of learning and culture in fields such as music and publishing...
and Der Kämpfer in Chemnitz
Chemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...
until 1925. In 1926, he became head of the central KPD news service in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
Initially Volk was in the left wing of the party, aligned with Ruth Fischer
Ruth Fischer
Ruth Fischer was a German Communist, a co-founder of the Austrian Communist Party in 1918. According to secret information declassified in 2010, she was a key agent of the American intelligence service known as "The Pond."-Life and work:Born in Leipzig, Ruth Fischer was the daughter of the...
, Arkadi Maslow
Arkadi Maslow
Arkadi Maslow , born Isaak Jefimowitsch Tschemerinski was a communist politician.-Early life and education:...
and Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann was the leader of the Communist Party of Germany during much of the Weimar Republic. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years, before being shot in Buchenwald on Adolf Hitler's orders in 1944...
, but in 1928, modified his views, becoming a leading member of the Conciliator faction
Conciliator faction
The Conciliator faction was an opposition group within the Communist Party of Germany during the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich. In East Germany, after World War II, the German word for conciliator, Versöhnler, became a term for anti-marxist political tendencies.- Background :The faction...
. The ultra-left party line
Party line (politics)
In politics, the line or the party line is an idiom for a political party or social movement's canon agenda, as well as specific ideological elements specific to the organization's partisanship. The common phrase toeing the party line describes a person who speaks in a manner that conforms to his...
of the KPD leadership under Thälmann labeled the moderates social fascists
Social fascism
Social fascism was a theory supported by the Communist International during the early 1930s, which believed that social democracy was a variant of fascism because, in addition to a shared corporatist economic model, it stood in the way of a complete and final transition to communism...
, according to the position taken by the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
. As a result, Volk was relieved of his party functions and in a disciplinary move, sent to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
, where he headed the KPD newspaper, the Hamburger Volkszeitung. After the Wittorf affair
Wittorf affair
The Wittorf affair was an embezzlement scandal in Germany in 1928. John Wittorf, an official of the Communist Party , was a close friend and protégé of party chairman Ernst Thälmann. Thälmann tried to cover up the embezzlement, for which he was ousted from the central committee...
, he was relieved of this position, as well. In 1929, after the power of the Conciliator faction was weakened within the party, he continued to lead the faction discreetly, working with Georg Krausz and Heinrich Süßkind to build a Conciliator organization within the Berlin KPD.
After the Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung
Machtergreifung is a German word meaning "seizure of power". It is normally used specifically to refer to the Nazi takeover of power in the democratic Weimar Republic on 30 January 1933, the day Hitler was sworn in as Chancellor of Germany, turning it into the Nazi German dictatorship.-Term:The...
by the Nazi Party in 1933, Volk's Conciliator group went underground to fight the Nazi government, concentrating on factories. Here, as in exile, Volk maintained close contact with social democratic
Social democracy
Social democracy is a political ideology of the center-left on the political spectrum. Social democracy is officially a form of evolutionary reformist socialism. It supports class collaboration as the course to achieve socialism...
and socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
groups, like Neu Beginnen
Neu Beginnen
Neu Beginnen was a fringe opposition group on the socialist wing of SPD, which was greatly influenced by the ideas of Lenin. It was formed in 1929. After the Machtübernahme in 1933, the members of the small group discussed what the future of Germany should be after the National Socialist movement...
and the Revolutionary Socialists of Germany. Volk was forced to flee to France in 1933 and later that year, he took part in the Conciliator meeting in Zurich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
. His hope for a reformed KPD was strengthened after the retreat from the ultra-left party line in 1934 and the 7th Comintern Congress in 1935. However, he was disillusioned by the Moscow trials
Moscow Trials
The Moscow Trials were a series of show trials conducted in the Soviet Union and orchestrated by Joseph Stalin during the Great Purge of the 1930s. The victims included most of the surviving Old Bolsheviks, as well as the leadership of the Soviet secret police...
and most of all, by the execution of Nikolai Iwanowitsch Bucharin, which caused him to break with the KPD in 1938. After the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Volk was able to flee to the United States, where he lived underground until the end of the war and afterwards, as a journalist specialized in Soviet issues. During this time, he maintained political connections with the Social Democratic Party of Germany
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
, but never joined.
Publications
- Pattern for World Revolution. Chicago/New York (1947) (with Julian GumperzJulian GumperzJulian Gumperz was a United States-born German sociologist, communist activist, publicist, and translator.-Institute for Social Research:...
, authored and edited under the pseudonym Ypsilon)
External links
- Karl Volk, brief biography Revolutionary History. Letters (scroll down, do not use hotlink). Retrieved July 20, 2011