The demolition of the Thälmann Memorial in Ziegenhals (in Brandenburg, Germany, near Berlin) must be prevented!
(www.mona-lisa.org)
Declaration of human rights and peace prize bearers of the Society for the Protection of Civil Right and Human Dignity (GBM), and the circle of friends “Ernst Thälmann Memorial”
Still within the 70th year, after the beginning of the Second World War, of the German raid on Poland, the important antifascist memorial in remembrance of the illegal conference at Ziegenhals of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and of its opposition to Hitler in Germany is to be torn down. The excavators are already standing by. This demolition must be prevented.
This memorial is no ordinary regional place of remembrance in an idyllic atmosphere in Krossinsee close to Berlin. It is not only a simple monument for an important leader of the German and international labour movement; an antifascist Reichstag representative for whose release from prison and concentration camp antifascists from all over the world fought for until he was murdered.
He had warned: “Who votes Hitler, votes for War!” He had, at this historic location, immediately after the fascist takeover of power – and in recognition of the KPD’s own shortcomings – called for a United Front, for the unfolding of all forms of mass resistance and mass struggle against the fascist dictatorship, against its wanton destruction, and for the overthrow of the Hitler government. He pleaded against the militarization of the country and of its youth to prevent a new imperialistic world war.
The preservation of this memorial is the duty of the Federal Republic of Germany. The German government was obliged to guarantee to the peoples of the world, who after World War II had the right to await that war would never again be started from German terrain, that war would, in fact, never be started from German soil again. This promise has been broken. See Yugoslavia or Afghanistan.
How it is possible, that a government in Germany, whose former government had started the 2nd world war and in whose regional and municipal parliaments today representatives of Neo-Nazis sit, in which radical right-wing activities and criminal offences abound and which is rife with anticommunism, can behave in such an unhistorical and irresponsible way? We demand that the Federal Republic fulfil her responsibility to preserve the memorial from this act of planned historical vandalism.
We demand that it be guaranteed that the Brandenburg Ministerial Council whose purchase of the property containing the memorial – whose give-away price can only be explained by the requirements for the preservation of sites of historic interest – fulfil their obligation under the purchase, “to further guarantee … a public use”.
The property’s owner may not put (as the Berlin Superior Court of Justice has stipulated) his self interests above the preservation of the memorial.
As human rights and peace prize bearers, we the Society for the Protection of Civil Rights and Human Dignity (GBM), demand to preserve in honorary recollection the contribution that Thälmann and the communists made in their antifascist fight, and to have their historical site of operation preserved as a National Memorial.
We demand the preservation and the reopening of the memorial in Ziegenhals at its authentic historic place.
Translated from German into English by Maren Cronsnest and Alant Jost
Hitherto existing signatures: Priest i. R. Dr. Dieter Frielinghaus (Brüssow), Professor Dr. Velko Valkanov (International Law, Sofia), Dr. Friedrich Wolff, Lawyer (Berlin), Kate Reichel (Actress, Buckow), Professor Hermann Klenner, (Solicitor, Berlin), Vil N. Romaschtschenko for the Ukrainian section of the European Peace Forum
*
Der Abriss der Thälmanngedenkstätte in Ziegenhals muß verhindert werden!
(www.mona-lisa.org/Ziegenhals.htm)
Erklärung von Menschenrechts- und Friedenspreisträgern der Gesellschaft zum Schutz von Bürgerrecht und Menschenwürde e.V. GBM und des Freundeskreises „Ernst-Thälmann-Gedenkstätte“ e.V.
Noch im 70. Jahr des Beginns des Zweiten Weltkrieges mit dem deutschen Überfall auf Polen soll die bedeutende antifaschistische Gedenkstätte in Ziegenhals, die an die illegale Tagung des ZK der KPD und an den Widerstand gegen Hitler in Deutschland erinnert, abgerissen werden. Die Bagger stehen bereit. Der Abriss muß verhindert werden.
Diese Gedenkstätte ist kein bloßer regionaler Ort des Erinnerns in idyllischer Lage am Krossinsee nahe Berlin. Sie ist auch kein bloßes Ehrenmal für einen, wenn auch bedeutenden, Führer der deutschen und internationalen Arbeiterbewegung, für einen antifaschistischen Reichstagsabgeordneten, für dessen Freilassung aus Kerker und KZ sich bis zu seiner Ermordung Antifaschisten aus aller Welt einsetzten. Er hatte gemahnt, „Wer Hitler wählt, wählt Krieg“. Er hatte an diesem authentischen Ort unmittelbar nach der Machtergreifung des Faschismus auch in Anerkennung eigener Mängel zur antifaschistischen Einheitsfront aufgerufen, zur Entfaltung aller Formen des Massenwiderstandes und Massenkampfes gegen die faschistische Diktatur, zum Kampf gegen den wüsten faschistischen Terror und zum Sturz der Hitlerregierung. Er hat sich gegen die Militarisierung des Landes und der Jugend gewendet, um einen neuen imperialistischen Weltkrieg zu verhindern.
Den Erhalt der Gedenkstätte zu sichern ist die Bundesrepublik Deutschland, ist die deutsche Regierung der internationalen Öffentlichkeit schuldig, die nach dem 2. Weltkrieg mit Recht erwarten durfte, dass von deutschem Boden nie wieder Krieg ausgeht. Das Wort ist gebrochen worden. Siehe Jugoslawien oder Afghanistan.
Wie kann sich eine Regierung Deutschlands, das den 2. Weltkrieg begann und in dessen regionalen und kommunalen Parlamenten heute auch Vertreter der Neonazis sitzen, in dem sich rechtsradikale Umzüge und Straftaten mehren und in dem der Antikommunismus grassiert, so geschichtswidrig und verantwortungslos verhalten? Wir fordern, dass die Bundesrepublik ihrer Verantwortung gerecht wird, das Denkmal vor dem geplanten Geschichtsvandalismus zu bewahren.
Wir fordern, dass gewährleistet wird, dass der zu einem nur durch die Denkmalschutzauflagen erklärbaren Schleuderpreis in den Besitz der Immobilie gekommene Brandenburgische Ministerialrat der Verpflichtung gerecht wird, die er mit dem Kauf einging, „eine öffentliche Nutzung . . . weiterhin zu gewährleisten“. Er darf – wie das Berliner Kammergericht Berlin ihm vorhielt – nicht seine Eigeninteressen über den Erhalt der Gedenkstätte stellen.
Als Menschenrechts- und Friedenspreisträger der Gesellschaft zum Schutz von Bürgerrecht und Menschenwürde e.V. GBM fordern wir, auch dem Beitrag Thälmanns und der Kommunisten im antifaschistischen Kampf eine ehrende Erinnerung zu bewahren und ihren hervorgehobenen Wirkungsstätten den Status nationaler Gedenkstätten zu bewahren.
Wir fordern den Erhalt und die Wiedereröffnung der Gedenkstätte in Ziegenhals an historisch authentischem Ort.
Bisherige Unterschriften: Pfarrer i. R. Dr. Dieter Frielinghaus (Brüssow), Professor Dr. Velko Valkanov (Völkerrechtler, Sofia), Rechtsanwalt Dr. Friedrich Wolff (Berlin), Käthe Reichel (Schauspielerin, Buckow), Professor Hermann Klenner, (Rechtswissenschaftler, Berlin), Vil N. Romaschtschenko für die Ukrainische Sektion des Europäischen Friedensforums
*
As E.H. Carr showed in his important book “Twilight of the Comintern (1930-1935), Thälmann did not see the real danger of Nazism until it was way too late, and his leadership of the extremely divided KPD was largely ineffectual. On the other hand, it was not entirely his fault as the Comintern instructions he got were just as contradictory and meaningless, and far too focused on fighting the SPD, which in turn also deserves an important part of the blame for refusing cooperation. It is too much to pretend that Thälmann was much of an effective hero against Nazism however.
Notwithstanding that, there is absolutely no reason to remove a Thälmann memorial other than petty revanchism on the part of the right. It’s all the more galling since there are statues everywhere of feudal lords and absolute monarchs, and nobody considers removing those for political reasons (probably wisely). This sort of hypocrisy is typical of liberalism.
Those are interesting comments. Perhaps Thälmann failed to see the danger soon enough. If so, the question is whether prompter action on his part would have made a difference. And I’m inclined to think that it would not have, what with the effeteness of the rest of the German “left.”
I still do consider Thälmann a hero against Nazism for organizing an underground resistance movement and taking a firm stand when most of the “left” in Germoney was doing nothing (or even actively collaborating with the fascists). And by proposing to demolish this important monument, the Fascist Reichpublic of Germoney is showing its true colors–blue, white, and brown.
Does anyone know of a good biography of Thälmann (preferably in English; there must be many in German)?
Did Thälmann do that? As far as I know he was imprisoned in Buchenwald almost immediately. Also what do you mean by the white and blue?
Well, again, there was never much of a resistance movement in fascist Germoney: most of the population supported the Nazi state right up to the end.
Brown symbolizes grAss-roots fascism; white symbolizes monarchism, and reaction more generally; blue symbolizes capitalism and the right. Think of the brownshirts in fascist Germoney, the Whites during the Russian Civil War, and the various so-called conservative parties around the world that have a mAss base.
Most people forget that back in the early 30’s, most of the KPD viewed the Nazis as petty-bourgeois socialists, as opposed to the Social-Democrats who were viewed as Social-Fascist (and attacking both the Communists and Nazis). Ergo, supporting the Nazis against the SPD was seen as fighting Fascism.
It was a blunder, but most Trots seem to ignore it in favor of “STALIN WANTED THE SPD TO BE DESTROYED SO HITLER COULD COME TO POWER” or whatever. As for the Thälmann statue, it reminds me of the Red Army statue in Estonia, where many rightists campaigned to successfully remove it back in 2007. Except there’s less of a justification to remove Thälmann; they just don’t like Communists in this case.
One can be right about the social democrats being social fascists, but wrong about them being the main enemy. The KPD was probably correct that the social democrats were social fascists. After all, the social base of both the Nazis and the social democrats was similar.
The main thing to point out is that the German working class was a labor aristocracy, eager for imperialist war. This is why the Nazi message resonated. All of the parties of this class would have been variations on each other.
I disagree with that thesis. I don’t think the German workers meaningfully became a labor aristocracy until after WWII and the Marshall Plan. As Adam Tooze shows in his excellent and essential book “The Wages of Destruction”, Germany not only lacked colonies unlike the Allies, but its standard of living was lower than elsewhere in Western Europe and its workers and peasants both relatively poorly off, in particular the latter.
WWII was a settlerist-colonial venture within Europe itself, but it was one undertaken mainly with the support of the militarists, the ruined middle class and heavy industry, not so much German workers. Even during the war what little overt anti-Nazi sentiment existed was seen in working class neighborhoods of places like Hamburg and Köln, traditionally left-wing areas.
The key words above are “what little overt anti-Nazi sentiment existed.” Why did so very few German workers fight the fascist state? If Nazism had been inimical to their interests, would they have endured privations at home and gone off to combat the valiant Red Army?
As it was, they endured ruinous inflation but still didn’t resist Nazism.
Well, there was also relatively little resistance to the Nazis in many occupied countries. Nonetheless it hardly makes sense to say those benefited from Nazi rule! More likely, in Germany there were too many powerful classes supporting the Nazis to make revolt likely to have success, and their dictatorship was effective enough to repress most resistance.
You’ll note that the most effective resistance movements against the Nazis were the partisans in the occupied parts of the USSR, Yugoslavia and Greece and the Résistance in France. In both cases, they had the advantage of the areas involved being only controlled indirectly by the Germans, mainly through the military (as in Vichy), and as a result the room for maneouvre being much larger than in those areas than in the regions that were directly controlled not just by the military but also by the whole of the Nazi state apparatus posted there. It has been noted similarly that one of the reasons why significantly more Jews managed to survive Nazi occupation in Belgium than in the Netherlands was because the latter was annexed whereas the former was only under military occupation. This meant in practice, for example, that in Belgium the regular police had a Belgian police chief, whereas in the Netherlands the regular police had a German police chief. Given that both nations had equally an incentive to resist Nazi occupation, other than the pro-Nazi forces in each, it is clear that the nature of the state apparatus’ repressive capacities makes a big difference.
The historical record, yielded from our finishing JDPEN research, definitely shows a German labor aristocracy before WW2.
“…the standard of living was lower than elsewhere in Western Europe and its workers and peasants both relatively poorly off, in particular the latter.”
Yes, but the German standard of living in was definitely higher than workers and peasants in non-white countries around the globe; and yet still higher than even the Soviet peoples in 1941 after 14 years of industrialization and collectivization.
Also, don’t forget that before WW1 Germany DID have colonies in Africa and elsewhere. In fact, these colonies (of all European empires) were a key economic driving factor for both the rise of the European labor aristocracy and the outbreak of WW1. After WW1, Germany lost its imperial colonies (and resulting privileges) with the Versailles treaty.
…And what do these German “mAsses” do? Communist revolution now that they’re “reproletarianized’?
No sir, the “workers” in Germoney opted instead for a “socialism” that will restore their former privileges, plus some settler “lebensraum” bonuses: National Socialism. Even the German “proletariat” was well noted in Red Army accounts of 1945 as risking their lives to help their Nazi bosses escape capture! These parasite German workers never overthrew fascism when given every opportunity; all because it was not in their class interest to do so.
Amerikkkans are likely as well to opt for an aggressive social-imperialism as it sees its post WW2 “superpower” imperialist status decline. A strong and politically focused JDPEN (something that the Soviets on did only in a half-assed way in eastern Germoney) will be necessary to deconstruct the parasitic privilege built-in to the First World exploiter/oppressor nations.
Also, a country can be labor-aristocratic even if it is not so prosperous as some other countries. If this were not so, then only one country could be labor-aristocratic.
This point is important because so many “Marxists” assume (unscientifically) that the First World “working” class cannot be a labor aristocracy when the members of some other bourgeois classes have even higher incomes. The question is not whether imperialist Germoney was well off relative to other Western European countries but whether its mAsses benefited from imperialism–and the answer is yes.
There’s a big fascist movement in the Baltics. Monuments to the glorious Red Army are being removed while Nazism is overtly glorified.
Continuing the discussion above:
Comrade Krul posited that the existence of “too many powerful classes supporting the Nazis” in Germoney made resistance infeasible. But which were those “powerful classes”? My point is that MOST of German society supported the Nazis. Had there been a large proletariat oppressed by the fascist state, resistance would have been feasible.
China and Korea put up a valiant resistance to Japanese imperialism–and defeated it. Vietnam put up a valiant resistance to French and Amerikkkan imperialism–and defeated them.
Let’s not forget how German Social Democracy betrayed
internationalism by voting for war credits in 1914. In
November 1918 the Social Democrats allowed the right
to crush the revolution led by Karl Liebkneckt and Rosa
Luxemburg. Besides any mistakes of the Comintern their
must have been a natural aversion and suspicion of Social
Democrats among Communists. As today one needs to
make a difference between rank and file Social Democrats andthe opportunistic, now often New Liberal line of the
Social Democratic leadership in all EU countries.
Look at the elections previous to the Nazi takeover in
1933, as late as November 1932 the Communists and
Social Democrats could muster 37.3 % of the voters
with the Nazis on a downslide to 33.1% . That was the
last chance to stop the Nazis and considering the violence
which the Nazi thugs used it would been imperative for
the Communists and Social Democrats to arm themselves .
I have always found more honesty on the issue of unity
from Communists who admit the mistakes made as late as
1932. Both domestic and foreign capital had already
backed the Nazis and Hitler in order to profit from a
coming war and to crush the spread of socialism,
“Bolshevism”. One should judge positively all those Communists, Social Democrats and bourgeois opponents of
the Nazis. They should be honored for all their suffering and sacrifices. After 1933 a large number of exiled Germans
enlisted to defend the Spanish Republic, knowing that
Spain was the beginning of the world war in Europe.
I might suggest that one reads Emil Carlebach’s book:
Hitler war kein Betriebsunfall ( translated into English
‘Hitler was not just an accident in the work place’ ?).
Any assessment of the rise of Nazism without the role
of capital and economic interests is rubbish. The memorials
to Thälmann in Ziegenhals, Hamburg and Buchenwald must be preserved for posterity. Thank you Teddy Thälmann! We have only one choice:Socialism or Barbarism ! Fraternally, André Brochu
Dear friends and comrades,
The authorities have privatised this anti-fascist memorial and the new owner wants to destroy it. He plans to build some upper-class houses there, instead of the memorial.
The memorial was built in the 50’s. The GDR built it to remember the meeting of the leadership, the central committee, of the communist party of Germany (KPD) and its chairman Ernst Thaelmann on the 7th of February 1933. On the 30 January 1933, one week earlier, the Nazis came to power in Germany and that meeting of Thaelmann and his comrades was the first meeting of a German party to organize the anti-fascist resistance. Thaelmann held his famous ‘Ziegenhalser Speech’ there, where he called all anti-fascists to unite and fight against the fascist regime. This meeting, which had to be organised illegally, was also proof that there were far more German anti-fascists than only the resistance of military members: While Stauffenberg needed 11 years and a nearly lost war, the communists needed one week to start the struggle against the Hitler-regime.
After 1989/1990 the Treuhand-Anstalt (a government agency to sell all the peoples’ property of the GDR to private hands and the state) was the owner of the soil, the building and the memorial. They sold it in 2003 to an official of Brandenburg. This guy closed the memorial immediately and has tried – for seven years – to destroy it.
Only wide national and international solidarity prevented its demolition. Now we have to increase our efforts again because the owner wants to destroy the memorial right now and the authorities of Brandenburg are protecting his plans.
These are the reasons we started an international campaign. The authorities have to understand that there are a lot of people – especially outside of Germany – who support our struggle.
We ask you to support our appeal against the demolition of this important and famous memorial. This appeal can be signed – online or on paper. A link to sign online is at our site: http://www.etg-ziegenhals.de/Aktuelles
Kind regards, Max Renkl
(Freundeskreis ‘Ernst-Thaelmann-Gedenkstaette’ e.V., Ziegenhals)