Heinrich Brandler
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Heinrich Brandler (July 3, 1881-September 26, 1967) was a German communist trade unionist, politician, revolutionary activist and writer. He is most notable as a chairman of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the early 1920s, and as the co-founder of the Communist Party Opposition.
Brandler came from a socialist-oriented working-class family. He joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1901, and became involved in trade unionism while working in factories. He lived in Zurich, Switzerland, from 1909 to 1914. He opposed World War I and was expelled from the SPD in 1915. As a supporter of Rosa Luxemburg he joined the Spartacist League and commanded revolutionaries in Saxony during the unsuccessful German Revolution of 1919.
Due to Comintern pressure, Brandler's faction took over leadership of the KPD in 1921. Brandler worked closely with the Soviet Union and made frequent trips to Moscow, including two trips between August 1923 and October 1923, amidst growing plans for a revolution in Germany. Brandler and his colleague August Thalheimer were largely blamed for the insurrection in Hamburg which came about when the workers in Hamburg were not notified about the cancellation of the revolution.
Brandler lived in the Soviet Union from 1924 to 1928, and then returned to Germany. Brandler became identified with the Right Opposition, and shortly after his return to Germany, he and his allies were expelled from the KPD. Brandler was expelled for Trotskyist sympathies. Though he had been a supporter of Trotsky during the Bolshevik Revolution, he had for several years been a supporter of Trotsky's enemy Nikolai Bukharin. Brandler and Thalheimer founded the Communist Party Opposition (KPO). It never met with electoral success, but it became one of the most prominent parties to be identified with the Right Opposition. Brandler supported an alignment with the left wing of the SPD, but opposed a proposed merger with the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany.
Following the victory of Nazism in Germany in 1933, Brandler and most of the KPO leadership fled to France. Brandler lived in Paris until the beginning of World War II, where he continued to be involved in communist politics. Brandler and Thalheimer fled to Cuba to avoid arrest by the Nazis. After Thalheimer's death in 1948, Brandler left Cuba, and in 1949 he was able to return to West Germany. Brandler was involved in an unsuccessful successor group of the KPO. He also corresponded with Isaac Deutscher and aided Deutscher's research on German communism and the Right Opposition.
