The KPD in the Spanish Civil War and the building of a Popular Front: some reflections
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/hispania.2014.007Keywords:
German Communist Party (KPD), Spanish Civil War, International Brigades, Popular Front, German ExileAbstract
The aim of this article is to demonstrate the importance for the Communist German Party (KPD) of its participation in the Spanish Civil War, the redefinition of its political line, and the elaboration of a strategy to build in his exile a Front Popular against the Nazi dictatorship, especially in Germany. I have used the documentation from Bundesarchiv (Berlin) and Archives Nationales / LE CARAN (Paris). I have analyzed the debates of the exiled International Brigades between German communists and socialists. Besides, I studied some characteristics of the German communists, members of the International Brigades to draw a profile helpful to understand the behaviour of the KPD’s members in Spain. I conclude that the active participation of the German Communists in the civil war allowed, in contrast to the enormous difficulties in the resistance inside Germany, to have a leading role in promoting the front populist line in its fight against fascism, thereby recovering the confidence and self esteem of these militants, to redeem part of the responsibility of the KPD in the inability to stop, with the SPD, the arrival to power of National Socialism.
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