Laufenberg's comrade who brought the IWW's industrial unionism to Hamburg, and a proponent of National Bolshevism
German Jewish communist politician and writer. He joined the SPD in 1909 and in 1910–1913 edited a paper of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) in San Francisco, where he adopted the idea of a single revolutionary organisation in place of separate party and union. In Hamburg he became Heinrich Laufenberg's closest collaborator and led the local KPD; after advancing "National Bolshevism" in 1919 he was expelled from the KPD and then from the KAPD. Arrested by the Nazis, he died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
Also known as: Friedrich Wilhelm Wolffheim
Activities and affiliations
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1909–
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)
Social movements and organizing -
1910–1913
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
Social movements and organizing -
1919
Communist Party of Germany (KPD)Main
Political and party leadership -
1920
Communist Workers' Party of Germany (KAPD)
Social movements and organizing
Career Timeline
- 1909Joined the SPD.
- 1910–1913Edited an IWW paper in San Francisco.
- 1913Settled in Hamburg.
- 1919.10Expelled from the KPD with Laufenberg.
- 1920.08Forced out of the KAPD.
- 1936Arrested by the Nazis.
- 1942.03.17Died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp.
From industrial unionism to National Bolshevism
From 1910 to 1913 Wolffheim lived in San Francisco, a member of the Socialist Party of America and of the Industrial Workers of the World, editing the IWW's German-language paper and serving as secretary of the movement in San Francisco alongside Lala Har Dayal. There he became convinced that a single revolutionary organisation was needed instead of the separate party and trade union, and on settling in Hamburg in 1913 he spread the idea in the local party; Anton Pannekoek too adopted it enthusiastically. As a result, in early 1919 the Hamburg KPD declared membership of the party incompatible with membership of a traditional union.
When war broke out in 1914, opponents of the SPD's Burgfrieden policy gathered in Hamburg around Wolffheim and Heinrich Laufenberg; the two published the paper Der Kampf and were repeatedly jailed for anti-war activity. In the 1918 revolution he was among the leaders of the Hamburg Workers' and Soldiers' Council. He joined the KPD in 1919 and became a spokesman of its anti-parliamentary left, but in October was expelled with Laufenberg on a charge of syndicalism.
That October the two proposed "National Bolshevism" to Karl Radek: a dictatorship of the proletariat that would harness German nationalism and, allied with Soviet Russia, renew the war against the Allies, putting cross-class cooperation for national liberation before class war and so breaking with Marxist orthodoxy. Wolffheim even suggested fusing far-left combat units with elements of the far-right Freikorps. Lenin rejected it as nonsense and Radek criticised it strongly. He took part in founding the KAPD in April 1920 but had to leave it over these ideas in August. Thereafter he drifted ever further from Marxism towards the national revolutionaries; arrested by the Nazis in 1936, he died in the Ravensbrück concentration camp in 1942.