KPD Politburo member who led the "social fascism" line with Thälmann and Neumann
A miller's son who trained as a turner, Remmele joined the SPD and the metalworkers' union in 1897. He co-founded the USPD in 1917 and in 1920 moved with its left wing to the KPD, sitting on its Central Committee and in the Reichstag until 1933. He was briefly party chairman in 1924 and joined the Comintern Executive in 1926. From 1929 he led the party with Thälmann and Heinz Neumann, pressing the social-fascism thesis and the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition, until he and Neumann lost a factional fight in 1932. In Moscow exile he was arrested in 1937 and shot in 1939.
Activities and affiliations
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1897–1917
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)
Social movements and organizing -
1917–1920
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD)
Social movements and organizing -
1920–1933
Communist Party of Germany (KPD)Main
Political and party leadership -
1920–1933
Germany state institutionsMember of the Reichstag
Legislature and state representation -
1923–1926
Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
Ideology and propaganda -
1926–1933
CominternMember of the ECCI
Diplomacy and international organization
Career Timeline
- 1897Joined the SPD and the German Metal Workers' Union.
- 1917Co-founded the USPD.
- 1919.02Co-initiated the Mannheim council republic.
- 1920–1933KPD Central Committee member and Reichstag deputy.
- 1924Briefly party chairman.
- 1926Joined the Comintern Executive.
- 1930Chairman of the Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus.
- 1932.10Left the Central Committee Secretariat after losing a factional fight.
- 1937.05.15Arrested in Moscow.
- 1939.03.07Sentenced to death and shot the same day.
The Thälmann–Neumann–Remmele leadership and the social-fascism line (1929–1932)
Of the sixteen members of the KPD Politburo in 1924, Remmele and Thälmann were the only two still in office in 1929. After the Wittorf affair of 1928 pushed out the "Conciliators", he formed the party's effective leadership with Ernst Thälmann and Heinz Neumann. Backed by Stalin until 1931, this leadership pursued the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO) and the social-fascism thesis, an "ultra-left" line that made the SPD the main enemy. From 1930 Remmele chaired the Kampfbund gegen den Faschismus, but the party's fire was still aimed at the Social Democratic leadership.
In What Next? (1932) Trotsky criticised "Thälmann, Remmele and Neumann" together: their ultimatism, demanding that Social Democratic workers accept Communist leadership in advance, blocked an anti-fascist united front.
When Stalin went over to their opponents inside the party in 1931, however, Remmele and Neumann lost the factional fight. Remmele was summoned to Moscow in August 1932 and left the Central Committee Secretariat in October; in November 1933 he was also expelled from the Central Committee and the Politburo. In January 1934 he and Neumann were accused of trying to split the party. In the Great Purge he was arrested in May 1937, together with his wife and son. He was sentenced to death on 7 March 1939 and shot the same day; a Soviet court rehabilitated him in 1988.