Adolph Hoffmann

Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) Marxism–Leninism Revolutionary socialism Germany Germany 1858–1930 ○ Natural causes

"Ten Commandments Hoffmann", Zimmerwald delegate and Prussian education minister in the revolution

German socialist politician. A Berlin engraver and gilder, he joined the Socialist Workers' Party in 1876, and his pamphlet The Ten Commandments and the Propertied Class earned him the name "Ten Commandments Hoffmann". He attended the Zimmerwald conference with Ledebour in 1915 and co-founded the USPD in 1917. As Prussian education minister in 1918–1919 he abolished church supervision of schools. In 1920 he led the USPD left into the Communist Party, but followed Levi out and returned to the SPD in 1922.

Also known as: Adolf Hoffmann · Johann Franz Adolph Hoffmann

Activities and affiliations

Career Timeline

From Zimmerwald to the Prussian education ministry

Born out of wedlock, Hoffmann lost his mother early and grew up with his grandparents, in children's homes and with foster parents. After about three years of elementary school he trained as an engraver and gilder, and by way of the Berlin Free Religious Congregation joined the Socialist Workers' Party in 1876. Nicknamed "Ten Commandments Hoffmann" after his 1891 pamphlet The Ten Commandments and the Propertied Class, he attacked the Christianity practised by the wealthy and called for a radical separation of church and state. He entered the Reichstag in 1904, and in 1908 became one of the first eight Social Democrats to win seats in the Prussian House of Representatives despite the three-class franchise; his speeches were known for their sharpness and wit.

He belonged to the SPD left, and at the Zimmerwald conference in September 1915 he and Ledebour signed for the German participants a joint declaration with the French. He co-founded the USPD in 1917, and in the November Revolution became Prussian minister of science, art and popular education alongside Konrad Haenisch of the SPD, abolishing church supervision of schools. His anticlerical remarks raised fears of a new Kulturkampf among Catholic voters and helped the Centre Party mobilise in 1919. Amid the conflicts over the Spartacist uprising he left the ministry on 4 January 1919.

In October 1920 he became co-chair of the USPD left with Ernst Däumig and led it into the Communist Party, and in December he was elected to the KPD Zentrale. Two months later he resigned in sympathy with Paul Levi, and followed Levi's Communist Working Group back through the USPD to the SPD in 1922. He worked with Workers International Relief and in 1926 supported the expropriation of the princes.