BANNEDTHOUGHT.NET
Suppression of News in Germany and
Revolutionary or Progressive Political
Documents Prevented from Reaching the People
In Germany, as in so many other countries, much of the real news about what is happening to the working class and the poor, and within the revolutionary movement, is either suppressed, or at the very least is not widely reported. And for reasons like this the claims that Germany enjoys a true “democracy” and “a free press” are gross exaggerations of the real situation. We at BANNEDTHOUGHT.NET will try to help break down this government and media news and information embargo.
Some of the documents here have the file extension “.djvu”. These files require the WinDjView program to read them. This reader can be obtained for free at: http://www.windjview.sourceforge.net (Some PDF reading programs under Windows, such as the free SumatraPDF, can also read .djvu files. Linux users have the capability to read .djvu files integrated into their PDF readers of the major desktops: Okular in KDE, Evince in GNOME.)
If you know of other suppressed or hard to find documents and news reports that should be posted here, please contact us at: freespeech@bannedthought.net
Suppression of News or Opinion in Germany:
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Execution of a Communist
in Munich in 1919.
- [News reports about the suppression of ideas in Germany to be added.]
Kommunistische Arbeiterbund Deutschlands [KABD] (Communist Workers’ League of Germany) [1972-1982]:
Was formed by the August 1972 merger of two organizations which sprang from the 1968 student movement, the Kommunistisher Arbeiterbund/Marxisten-Leninisten (KAB/ML) and the KPD/ML-Revolutionärer Weg [Communist Party of Germany/Marxist-Leninist—Revolutionary Path]. Membership never exceeded 900 and on average seems to have been around 600. In 1982 it was reorganized into the Marxistisch-Leninistische Partei Deutschlands (MLPD) which has evolved away from Maoism.
- “China aktuell” Series [Present-Day China], 7 pamphlets in total:
- “1. Die Führung Chinas segelt im Wind von rechts!: eine Dokumentation über die Entwicklung des Klasserkampfes in der Volksrepublic China”, [“China’s leadership sails in a wind from the right! Documenting the development of the class struggle in the PRC”], 1977, 70 pages. In German: WinDjView format [15,740 KB]
- “2. Die ‘Drei-Welten-Theorie’ als strategische Konzeption hat den Wind von rechts im Rücken!”, [“The ‘Three Worlds Theory’ as a Strategic Conception Smacks of Right-Wing Opportunism!”], 1978, 50 pages. In German: WinDjView format [11,688 KB]; In English: MS Word format (.docx) [37 pages; 52 KB]
- “3. Verteidigt die Maotsetungideen!: offener Brief der Zentralen Leitung des KABD an das ZK der Partei der Arbeit Albaniens”, [“Defend Mao Tsetung Thought: Open letter to the Central Committee of the KABD to the CC of the Party of Labour of Albania”], c. 1978-1979. [A friend of BannedThought.net who recently looked at this document describes it as “atrociously boring reading”.] In German: Cover only, in WinDjView format [109 KB]
- “4. Die Führung Chinas zerstört die Diktatur des Proletariats!: eine Dokumentation über die Wiederherstellung des Kapitalismus in China”, [“China’s leadership destroys the dictatorship of the Proletariat: Documenting the restoration of capitalism in China”], 1979, 64 pages. In German: WinDjView format [16,549 KB]
- “5. Hoxha Versus Mao Tsetung: Defend Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tsetung Thought”. This is the 1981 English translation of the original German document published in July 1980, 33 double pages. (The German version is not yet available to us.) The text of this English PDF pamphlet version is somewhat difficult to read; our apologies. In English: PDF pamphlet format [992 KB]
The same document in more legible form: HTML format [138 KB]- “6. Von der Restauration des Kapitalismus zum Sozialimperialismus in China”, [“From the Restoration of Capitalism to Socialimperialism in China”], I. Teil: Die Revisionistische Innenpolitik, Mai 1981, 77 pages. In German: WinDjView format [17,876 KB]
- “7. Von der Restauration des Kapitalismus zum Sozialimperialismus in China”, [“From the Restoration of Capitalism to Socialimperialism in China”], II. Teil: Sozialimperialistische Außenpolitik, Mai 1981, 72 pages. In German: WinDjView format [17,123 KB]
Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
- General:
- [Book:] “Creating German Communism, 1890-1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State”, by Eric D. Weitz, (Princeton Univ. Press, 1997), 465 pages. Searchable PDF format [20,985 KB]
- Rosa Luxemburg:
- [Book:] “Rosa Luxemburg on the National Question”, by Rosa Luxemburg, (Marxist Internet Archive edition, with internal hyperlinks as well as outside links to other documents on the MIA site), 146 pages. Searchable PDF format [6,633 KB]
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- “The Russian Revolution”, by Rosa Luxemburg, (NY: Workers Age Publishers, 1940; Marxist Internet Archive edition, 2020), 41 pages. Searchable PDF format [361 KB]
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- [Book:] “The Accumulation of Capital”, by Rosa Luxemburg, (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1951), translated by Agnes Schwarzschild, Introduction by Joan Robinson, 474 pages. This important book received a lot of criticism, some of it just, much of it unjust, including from Lenin and Bukharin. Searchable PDF format [474 KB]
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- [Book:] “The Accumulation of Capital—An Anti-Critique”, by Rosa Luxemburg, (written in 1915, first published in German in 1921); and “Imperialism and the Accumulation of Capital”, by Nikolai Bukharin (written in 1924), two separate works in one volume, edited with an Introduction by Kenneth Tarbuck, (NY: Monthly Review Press, 1972). Luxemburg’s work is a reply to critics of her 1913 work (see above), while Bukharin’s work is another critique of Luxemburg which focuses on her 1915 Anti-Critique. [For a short discussion of some weaknesses on both sides in this theoretical dispute between Luxemburg, on the one side, and Lenin and Bukharin on the other, see the DRM entry “Luxemburg, Rosa — Disputes with Lenin” at https://www.massline.org/Dictionary/LU.htm#Luxemburg_Rosa_disputes_with_Lenin, especially the final supplementary paragraph about Bukharin’s extremely serious error. —S.H.]
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- [Book:] “Rosa Luxemburg — Letters to Karl and Luise Kautsky from 1896 to 1918”, edited by Luise Kautsky, translated from German by Louis P. Lochner, (NY: Robert M. McBride & Co., 1925), 249 pages. Searchable PDF format [3,873 KB]
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- Many other writings by Luxemburg are available (mostly in HTML format) on the Marxist Internet Archive at: https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/index.htm
- Karl Liebknecht:
- [Book:] “Militarism & Anti-Militarism”, by Karl Liebknecht, written in 1907, (Cambridge, England: Rivers Press, 1973), Marxist Internet Archive version, 206 pages. Searchable PDF format [1,280 KB]
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- [Book:] “The Future Belongs to the People: Speeches Made Since the Beginning of the War”, by Karl Liebknecht, (NY: Macmillan, November 1918), 148 pages. Searchable PDF format [1,827 KB]
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- [Book:] “Voices of Revolt: Speeches of Karl Liebknecht”, by Karl Liebknecht, (NY: International, 1927), 104 pages. Searchable PDF format [1,607 KB]
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- [Book:] “Karl Liebknecht: Man Without a Country”, by Karl W. Meyer, (Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs Press, 1957), 191 pages. Searchable PDF format [4,388 KB]
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- “In Memoriam to Our Comrades Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, Martyrs to the German Revolution”, by Max Bedacht, (Socialist Party of San Francisco, 1919), 16 pages. Searchable PDF format [1,467 KB]
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- During the Weimar Era:
- [Book:] “Communism in Germany Under the Weimar Republic”, by Ben Fowkes, (London: Macmillan, 1984), 134 pages. (Fowkes is a historian and is a translator of Marx’s Das Kapital into English. However, you may wish to form your own opinions about some of his comments about the KPD during the Weimar Era, and about various revolutionaries of that era.) Searchable PDF format [3,554 KB]
- [Book:] “Barricades in Berlin”, by Klaus Neukrantz, (NY: International/London: Martin Lawrence, Ltd., n.d. but circa 1933), 191 pages. This is a novel based closely on the actual events of the police attack on the 1929 May Day demonstrations in Berlin. Searchable PDF format [3,048 KB]
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- During the Nazi Era:
- [Book:] “The German Communist Resistance: 1933-1945”, by T. Derbent, (Paris: Foreign Languages Press, 2021), 128 pages. English: Searchable PDF format [2,586 KB]
- “Ernst Thaelmann — Fighter Against War and Fascism”, (NY: International Labor Defense, 1935), 16 pages. Searchable PDF format [961 KB]
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- Die Rote Fahne [“The Red Flag”]: (Newspaper of the Spartacus League and then the KPD. Unfortunately these are poor image scans of old and damaged issues.)
- Issue #1 — 1918 - November 9, 4 pages. German: PDF format [4,334 KB]
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- Issue #2 — 1918 - November 10, 6 pages. German: PDF format [5,871 KB]
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Nazi Regime and Its Crimes (1933-1945)
- [Book:] “Fatherland”, by Karl Billinger, (NY: International Publishers, 2nd ed., 1935), 290 pages. Searchable PDF format [4,955 KB]
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World War II Era — and Resistance
- Europe in General:
- [Book:] “Partisanas: Women in the Armed Resistance to Fascism and German Occupation (1936-1945)”, by Ingrid Strobl, (AK Press, 2008 [Original German edition was in 1989]), 338 pages. English: Searchable PDF format [6,659 KB]
German Social-Democracy in the Late 19th Century and Early 20th Century:
- General:
- [To be added.]
- Karl Kautsky:
- [Book:] “Ethics and the Materialist Conception of History”, by Karl Kautsky, (publication data not provided, but the original book was written in 1906), 216 pages. English: Searchable PDF format [2,572 KB]
- [Book:] “Terrorism and Communism: A Contribution to the Natural History of Revolution”, by Karl Kautsky, (London: National Labour Press, Ltd., n.d. (but first published in 1920)), 245 pages. English: Searchable PDF format [4,937 KB]
- Otto Bauer:
- [Book:] “Otto Bauer (1881-1938): Thinker and Politician”, by Ewa Czerwinska-Schupp, (Leiden: Brill Open Access, 2017), 442 pages. English: Searchable PDF format [3,147 KB]
- Die Neue Zeit: Wochenschrift der Deutschen Sozialdemokratie [“The New Age: Weekly Journal of Social Democracy”] (1883-1923)
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit: Wochenschrift der Deutschen Sozialdemokratie: General-Register”, an index of articles, authors, names and topics in this German-language newspaper for Volumes 1-30, 1883-1912, together with an introduction by its long-time editor, Karl Kautsky, 552 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [18,154 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 32, part 1, 1913-1914 October-March, 324 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [10,432 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 32, part 2, 1914 April-September, 1,122 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [28,014 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 33, part 1, 1914-1915 October-March, 822 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [79,605 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 33, part 2, 1915 April-September, 864 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [83,664 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 34, part 1, 1915-1916 October-March, 880 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [41,577 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 34, part 2, 1916 April-September, 752 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [27,455 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 35, part 1, 1916-1917 October-March, 650 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [19,938 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 35, part 2, 1917 April-September, 644 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [72,139 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 36, part 1, 1917-1918 October-March, 642 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [17,011 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 36, part 2, 1918 April-September, 644 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [18,843 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 37, part 1, 1918-1919 October-March, 642 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [18,101 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 37, part 2, 1919 April-September, 644 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [63,978 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 38, part 1, 1919-1920 October-March, 642 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [64,124 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 38, part 2, 1920 April-September, 672 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [20,843 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 39, part 1, 1920-1921 October-March, 652 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [65,260 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 39, part 2, 1921, April-September, 706 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [22,748 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 40, part 1, 1921-1922, October-March, 700 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [23,572 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 40, part 2, 1922, April-September, 660 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [17,350 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 41, part 1, 1922-1923, October-March, 824 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [28,737 KB]
- [Book:] “Die Neue Zeit”, Volume 41, part 2, 1923 April-September, 340 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [12,552 KB]
- [Note: Other volumes of Die Neue Zeit can be viewed at the HathiTrust database website at https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ls?q1=%22Die+Neue+Zeit%22&field1=ocr&a=srchls&ft=ft&lmt=ft, though it is difficult to download them.]
- [Note 2: A few of the vast number of articles in this publication are available in English translation at: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/social-democracy/neue-zeit.htm]
- Vorwärts [“Forward”] (Began in 1876. Suppressed by the Nazis in 1933, but re-established after World War II. [More info])
- [Book:] Vorwärts — Volume 1: October 1, 1876 - June 29, 1877, 508 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [Big file: 111,282 KB]
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- [Book:] Vorwärts — Volume 2: 1877, July 1 - December 30, 344 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [Big file: 87,509 KB]
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- [Book:] Vorwärts — Volume 3: 1878, January 2 - October 27, 550 pages. German: Searchable PDF format [Big file: 160,602 KB]
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- [Other issues not available.]
Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands [SED] (Socialist Unity Party of Germany):
The totally revisionist (and social-fascist) party governing the German Democratic Republic [East Germany] while it existed.
- 1969:
- “12th Session of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany”, Berlin, Dec. 12-13, 1969, two parts: 230 pages & 198 pages. Document 1: Searchable PDF format [4,321 KB]; Document 2: Searchable PDF format [5,665 KB]
- 1970:
- “13th Session of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany”, Berlin, June 9-10, 1970, 279 pages. Searchable PDF format [5,602 KB]
- “13th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany”, Berlin, June 9-10, 1970, 102 pages. Searchable PDF format [2,198 KB]
- “14th Session of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany”, Berlin, Dec. 9-11, 1970, 70 pages. Searchable PDF format [1,860 KB]
- “14th Plenum of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany”, Berlin, Dec. 9-11, 1970, 134 pages. Searchable PDF format [2,730 KB]
- “Twenty Five Years after the Unification of the Working Class”, speech by Walter Ulbricht, 1st Secretary of the Central Committee of the SED, Dec. 17, 1970, (Berlin: 1970), 70 pages. Searchable PDF format [1,341 KB]
- 1971:
- “2nd Session of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany”, Berlin, Sept. 16-17, 1971, 174 pages. Searchable PDF format [3,539 KB]
- “The Advanced Socialist Society: The tasks facing the social sciences after the Eighth Congress of the SED”, speech by Kurt Hager, member of the Politburo and Secretary of the SED Central Committee, Oct. 14, 1971, 134 pages. Searchable PDF format [2,479 KB]
- “4th Session of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany”, Berlin, Dec. 16-17, 1971, 98 pages. Searchable PDF format [1,860 KB]
Academic and Historical Works on the Revolutionary Movement in Germany:
- General and Overall:
- [Book:] “The German Revolution, 1918-1919”, by Ralph Haswell Lutz, (Stanford University, 1922), 187 pages. Searchable PDF format [3,780 KB]
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- The November Revolution (of 1918) and the Overthrow of the Emperor:
- [Book:] “And the Kaiser Abdicates: The story of the death of the German Empire and the birth of the Republic”, told by an eyewitness, S. Miles Bouton, (New Haven, Conn: Yale University, 1920), 280 pages. Searchable PDF format [3,839 KB]
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- [Book:] “Germany after the Armistice”, by Maurice Berger, (NY: Putnam, 1920), 374 pages. About prevailing social conditions and attitudes. Searchable PDF format [42,183 KB]
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- [Book:] “Ebert and the German Republic”, by Robert George Brehmer, Jr., (University of Wisconsin MA thesis, 1926), now in the public domain, 172 pages. Supportive of Ebert’s bourgeois-democratic politics. Searchable PDF format [7,599 KB]
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- The Spartacist Revolt: The Attempted Socialist Revolution following World War I:
- [Book:] “Failure of a Revolution: Germany 1918-1919”, by Sebastian Haffner, (Chicago: Banner Press, 1986), 224 pages. Somewhat messy scan; our apologies. Searchable PDF format [6,450 KB]
Epub format [347 pages; 1,068 KB]- “The Forgotten Revolution — Germany — A Conceptual Map”, by Gaard Kets and James Muldoon, (2019), 24 pages. Searchable PDF format [298 KB]
- [Book:] “The Spartacist Uprising of 1919, and the Crisis of the German Socialist Movement”, by Eric Waldman, (Milwaukee: Marquette Univ. Press, 1958), 269 pages. Searchable PDF format [4,949 KB]
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- On the KPD up until World War II:
- [Book:] “We are Neither Visionaries nor Utopian Dreamers: Willi Münzenberg, the League Against Imperialism, and the Comintern, 1925-1933”, by Fredrik Petersson, (Ph.D Thesis, 2013), 598 pages. Searchable PDF format [3,956 KB]
- On the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the SED:
- [Book:] “Marxism-Leninism in the German Democratic Republic: The Socialist Unity Party (SED)”, by Martin McCauley, (London: MacMillan, 1979), 287 pages. Searchable PDF format [31,295 KB]
— NOTICE —
Due to the repressive legislation and judicial decisions in the United States, we at BANNEDTHOUGHT.NET want to make it completely clear that we do not have any connection whatsoever with any Communist or other parties or groups in Germany, or in any other country for that matter. We do not aid, promote, assist, support, coordinate with, or provide any sort of services or advice to any German or other parties or organizations. However, we do support the right of free speech, and the right of the people in both Germany and internationally to read the views and publications of all parties and organizations. And for this reason alone we are making copies of many of their documents available on this site.