People of the Revolution and the USSR
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Clara Zetkin Clara Zetkin
Creator of International Women's Day, she set women's liberation at the heart of class struggle
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1857–1933
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Ernst Friedrich Däumig Ernst Friedrich Däumig
German socialist and a leading figure in the workers’ council movement.
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1866–1922
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Julian Józefowicz Marchlewski Julian Marchlewski
A Pole who passed through the German and Russian revolutions and tried to bring revolution home
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1866–1925
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Karl Liebknecht Karl Liebknecht
The lone vote against the war; the revolution's first martyr
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1871–1919
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Wilhelm Pieck Wilhelm Pieck
From the Spartacus League to GDR head of state, the sole founding member who lived the full arc of German communism
Political and party leadership · East Germany
1876–1960
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Heinrich Brandler Heinrich Brandler
KPD chairman who called off a revolution; co-founder of the International Right Opposition
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1881–1967
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Eugen Leviné Eugen Leviné
Communist who led the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919 and was shot after its fall
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1883–1919
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Paul Levi Paul Levi
From Rosa Luxemburg's lawyer to KPD leader, his 'anti-putschism' took on Comintern adventurism
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1883–1930
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August Thalheimer August Thalheimer
Main theorist of the KPD and Bonapartist analyst of fascism
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany Opposition (KPO)
1884–1948
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Ernst Thälmann Ernst Thälmann
Hitler's personal prisoner, unbroken by eleven years in solitary
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1886–1944
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Karl Korsch Karl Korsch
Co-founder of Western Marxism, the German philosopher who challenged Marxist orthodoxy with Marxism and Philosophy
Scholarship and theory · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1886–1961
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Hugo Eberlein Hugo Eberlein
German Communist who abstained on the Comintern’s founding at its first congress and was later shot in the Great Purge
Social movements and organizing · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1887–1941
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Ernst Reuter Ernst Reuter
The social democrat who became the voice of divided Berlin
Government and administration · Germany state institutions
1889–1953
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Arkadi Maslow Аркадий Маслов
The pianist-turned-revolutionary who drove the KPD's ultra-left turn, and became the anti-Stalinist left's perpetual dissident
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1891–1941
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Hermann Matern Hermann Matern
SED Politburo member and chairman of the Central Party Control Commission who stood by Ulbricht in 1953
Political and party leadership · Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)
1893–1971
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Walter Ulbricht Walter Ulbricht
German communist leader who built the GDR and erected the Berlin Wall
Political and party leadership · Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)
1893–1973
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Ruth Fischer Ruth Fischer
First woman to lead a major European communist party, and its sharpest anti-Stalinist apostate
Political and party leadership · Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
1895–1961
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Fritz Selbmann Fritz Selbmann
East German heavy-industry minister who faced the striking workers outside the House of Ministries on 16 June 1953
Industry and production · East Germany
1899–1975
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Anton Ackermann Anton Ackermann
German communist who drafted the KPD’s 1945 appeal and argued for a “special German road to socialism”
Ideology and propaganda · Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED)
1905–1973
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Erich Honecker Erich Honecker
The long-serving East German leader of the walled republic
Political and party leadership · East Germany
1912–1994