History of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
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- Kategorie: Grundsatzdokumente
- Veröffentlicht am Freitag, 01. November 2019 22:33
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1918 - 1945
Our party, the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), was founded in 1918/19 during the November Revolution. Famous co-founders were Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg and Wilhelm Pieck.
The historical roots of the KPD date back to the mid-19th century, to the Communist League of 1847/1848. The programmatic basis of the KPD is the manifesto of the Communist Party (Communist Manifesto), the theory of Marxism-Leninism.
It combines the experiences of the German and international workers' movement and of the construction of socialism in the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America. In the class struggles of the 1920s and 1930s, the KPD grew into a mass party of workers whose interests the KPD most consistently defended. In the antifascist resistance struggle against the emerging fascism, our party made the biggest sacrifices.
Many of its members were murdered by the fascists, among them the chairman of the KPD, comrade Ernst Thälmann. Many Communists and Social Democrats were punished and sent to prison, jail and fascist concentration camps. Many Communists participated in the Spanish Civil War in the International Brigades to liberate Spain from the fascist Franco regime.
Alongside the Red Army and the other Allied forces, Communists participated in the armed struggle against the fascist armies and helped smash fascism in Germany.
1945-1990
After the destruction of fascism in Germany by the glorious Red Army, the army of the first socialist country in the world, the KPD and the SPD united on 20 April 1946 and, on the territory of the Soviet occupation zone in Germany, founded the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (SED) on April 21, 1946. At its side, the Communists in West Germany fought for the creation of a unified labor party.
After the founding of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) on October 7, 1949 the SED took over the lead to build socialism. The socialist social order was destroyed in 1989 in the GDR by the counterrevolution from outside as well as from within in a creeping process.
The Communists remained true to their scientific worldview, Marxism-Leninism. The KPD has drawn conclusions from the temporary defeat and resolutely continues the fight for socialism.
After the SED / PDS broke away from Marxism in 1990 and a new SPD was founded in East Germany, the Communist Party of Germany was logically re-established in January 1990. It is the rightful successor to the KPD of Liebknecht and Luxemburg, Thälmann and Pieck.
In its scientifico-communist policy the Communist Party of Germany is guided by the purity and unity of the party and its scientific basis, Marxism-Leninism. It fights against opportunism and all varieties of revisionism and social democratism as the causes of the destruction of socialism.
Since 1990
Since its re-founding in the GDR in 1990, the KPD has firmly been committed to a comprehensive alliance of all left-wing forces and to a unified pan-German Communist Party, a Marxist-Leninist party. Our goal is socialism / communism. In accordance with its tradition, the KPD fights in particular for the social and political rights of workers and wage-earning employees as well as those exploited and disadvantaged by capitalism. The KPD resolutely opposes the persecution and discrimination of Communists and other progressive forces in the FRG as well as the revenge campaign against former GDR citizens.
The KPD does not fall under the prohibition of the KPD 1956 in the old FRG.
The KPD is committed to the existence of socialism in the GDR and the other states in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. It does not portray the socialism destroyed by the counterrevolution in these states as an attempt, but as reality.
The KPD maintains relations with communist and workers' parties around the world. It advocates a new international alliance and coordinated action by the communist world movement.
Since its re-founding in 1990, the KPD has been admitted to take part in all elections to the German Bundestag and the regional parliaments (Landtag) as a legal party.
At the 25th Party Congress of the KPD in April 2007, a new programme and a revised statute were adopted taking account of the current fighting conditions against democracy and welfare, against war and neo-fascism and for a broad anti-imperialist alliance and the objectives mentioned above.
The KPD publishes the newspaper "Die Rote Fahne" and the series of publications "Contributions to the Theory and Practice of Marxism-Leninism".