Anton Pannekoek
Anton Pannekoek
The astrophysicist who mapped the Milky Way, and the council communist Lenin attacked in 'Left-Wing Communism'
One summer night in Bremen, 1908 — after teaching a workers' class — Pannekoek went out with his telescope. His verbal descriptions of the Milky Way clouds, notebook after notebook, would later become the evidence that let stellar statisticians first gauge the distance to our galaxy's spiral arms.
Dutch astronomer and founder of council communism. He won the RAS Gold Medal for his work on stellar atmospheres and galactic structure. In the Dutch and German left he built the theory of workers' council revolution, becoming the principal target of Lenin's 'Left-Wing Communism'.
Career timeline
- 1899Observer at Leiden Observatory; PhD on Algol variability
- 1901Joins the Dutch SDAP
- 1906–1914Active in the SPD left wing in Berlin and Bremen; party-school teacher
- 1909Co-founds the Social Democratic Party, forerunner of the Dutch CP
- 1918–1921Co-founds the Dutch CP; Comintern Amsterdam Bureau
- 1920Target of Lenin's pamphlet; replies with 'World Revolution and Communist Tactics'
- 1921–1927Expelled from CP; active in KAPN and the Communist Workers' International
- 1925–1942Professor at University of Amsterdam; founds the astronomical institute
- 1938Publishes 'Lenin as Philosopher' under pseudonym J. Harper
- 1946Publishes 'Workers' Councils' as P. Aartsz