KPD chief ideologist of the social-fascism line who coined "Beat the fascists wherever you meet them"
Born into a middle-class Berlin family, Neumann joined the KPD in 1920 and became an editor of Die Rote Fahne. In 1925 he became the party's representative to the Comintern, and in 1927 he went to China as a Comintern envoy and helped organise the Guangzhou Uprising. Back in Germany in 1928 he became the party's "chief ideologist" beside Thälmann and Remmele, driving the social-fascism thesis and the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition. From 1931 he broke with Stalin and Thälmann over the Nazi danger and lost all his posts in 1932. Arrested in Moscow in 1937, he was shot.
Also known as: Heinz-Werner Neumann
Activities and affiliations
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1920–1932
Communist Party of Germany (KPD)Main
Ideology and propaganda -
1925–1927
CominternKPD representative to the Comintern; Comintern envoy in China
Diplomacy and international organization -
1930–1932
Germany state institutionsMember of the Reichstag
Legislature and state representation
Career Timeline
- 1920Joined the KPD.
- 1922Became an editor of Die Rote Fahne.
- 1925KPD representative to the Comintern.
- 1927.12.11Helped organise the Guangzhou Uprising with Lominadze.
- 1928Returned to Germany; editor-in-chief of Die Rote Fahne and the party's chief ideologist.
- 1930Elected to the Reichstag.
- 1932.04Lost his party posts after a factional defeat.
- 1937.04.27Arrested by the NKVD.
- 1937.11.26Sentenced to death and shot the same day.
From chief ideologist of social fascism to purge victim (1928–1937)
Neumann spoke with Stalin in Russian in 1922 and remained an ardent supporter of his until 1932. As the KPD's representative to the Comintern from 1925 he drove "Bolshevisation" from Moscow and played a large part in removing Ruth Fischer and Arkadi Maslow from the party leadership. In 1927 he went to China as a Comintern envoy and, with the Georgian communist Lominadze, organised the Guangzhou Uprising of 11 December, which ended in disaster.
Back in Germany in 1928, after the Wittorf affair had pushed out the "Conciliators", Neumann became the most important party politician beside Thälmann and Remmele, "the head of the Politburo behind the scenes". As editor-in-chief of Die Rote Fahne and "chief ideologist" he was responsible for the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition and the social-fascism thesis, an ultra-left line aimed at toppling the ruling SPD. At the same time he urged street fighting against the Nazis with the slogan "Beat the fascists wherever you meet them!"
From 1931, however, he broke openly with Stalin and Thälmann, arguing that by fixing on the SPD the party underestimated the Nazi threat. Defeated in the factional fight in April 1932, he lost all his party posts and in November his Reichstag seat. The Comintern sent him to Spain; living illegally in Switzerland, he was forced into self-criticism in January 1934. Deported to the Soviet Union in 1935, he was arrested in April 1937 in the NKVD's "German operation" and shot on 26 November. His partner Margarete Buber-Neumann was also arrested and handed over to Nazi Germany in 1940.