14 Facts About Heinrich Laufenberg

Heinrich Laufenberg was a leading German communist and one of the first to develop the idea of National Bolshevism.

Heinrich Laufenberg became associated with a faction on the left of the party led by Wilhelm Schmitt and Peter Berten and when this group gained the upper hand within the Dusseldorf party in 1904 Laufenberg was appointed editor of the party organ Volkszeitung.

Heinrich Laufenberg worked as an educationalist within the party, offering basic courses on socialism to party members of Dusseldorf.

At this point in his career Heinrich Laufenberg endorsed orthodox Marxism and supported Clara Zetkin in her ideological struggles with revisionists like Gerhard Hildebrand.

Heinrich Laufenberg left the city in 1908 when he moved to Hamburg, leaving the Dusseldorf group without their leading intellectual.

In Hamburg Heinrich Laufenberg continued to work on the left of the SPD before becoming a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, which broke from the SPD following the SPD's support for German involvement in the First World War.

Heinrich Laufenberg's popularity grew as the war dragged on and people began to tire of involvement in the conflict.

Hamstrung by his reliance on the banks and criticism from the SPD Heinrich Laufenberg's stock fell dramatically and he faced widespread demonstrations against his leadership.

Unable to sustain his position, Heinrich Laufenberg resigned on 19 January 1919 and handed leadership of the Council over to the SPD.

Heinrich Laufenberg was part of the faction within the USPD which left to establish the Communist Party of Germany and before long the local party had come under the control of Heinrich Laufenberg and his ally Fritz Wolffheim.

Such support soon ebbed however when Vladimir Lenin publicly denounced the policy, claiming that Heinrich Laufenberg was seeking a war coalition with the German bourgeoisie, before branding him as "absurd".

Heinrich Laufenberg went on to become a founder member of the Communist Workers' Party of Germany, joining Wolffheim at the Heidelberg conference establishing the party.

Heinrich Laufenberg became persona non grata in German communist circles and Radek, who had earlier been a critic, was accused of following his ways when he made a speech praising Albert Leo Schlageter in 1923.

Unlike his ally Wolffheim, who became involved in groups on the fringes of the Nazi Party, he retired from politics and in 1932 was mourned as a pioneer of National Bolshevism by Ernst Niekisch who wrote that "in 1919 Heinrich Laufenberg already thought in terms of continents".