The German Left and the Weimar Republic
A Selection of Documents
Edited and translated by Ben Fowkes
Description
The German Left and the Weimar Republic illuminates the history of the political left by presenting a wide range of documents on various aspects of socialist and communist activity in Germany. Separate chapters deal with the policy of Social Democracy in and out of government, the attempts of the Communist Party to overthrow the Weimar Republic, and then later to support it. Later chapters move away from the political scene to deal with the attitudes of the parties to key social issues, in particular questions of gender and sexuality.
The book concludes with a presentation of documents on various groups of socialist and communist dissidents. Many of the documents are made accessible for the first time, and each chapter begins with an original introduction indicating the current state of research.
Author Bios
Ben Fowkes taught history at the universities of Sheffield and North London. He carried out archival research in Vienna, Bonn, Prague and Moscow, and wrote a number of books, includingCommunism in Germany under the Weimar Republic. He also did a number of translations, such as Karl Marx: The Economic Manuscript of 1863-1865 (Capital, Book Three) and Henryk Grossman: Selected Works (edited by Professor Rick Kuhn).
More Info
Publication date: December 29, 2015
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
General Introduction
Chapter 1 Social Democracy in Government: Measures of Reform in Theory and Practice
Chapter 2 The Council Idea: Workers’ Councils and Factory Councils
Chapter 3 Communism and Insurrection
Chapter 4 In Defence of Democracy
Chapter 5 The Weimar Left Between Opposition and Coalition: Varied Strategies
Chapter 6 The Moscow Connection: The KPD and the Comintern
Chapter 7 Socialism and Foreign Policy
Chapter 8 The Search for Democracy in the Armed Forces
Chapter 9 Questions of Gender and Sexual Politics
Chapter 10 Long-term Political Objectives: Similarities and Differences
Chapter 11 The Parties, their Supporters and the Proletarian Milieu
Chapter 12 Parties and Groups of the Dissident Left
Bibliography
Index
