Paul Levi

In the Steps of Rosa Luxemburg

Selected Writings of Paul Levi
Ed. and introd. by David Fernbach

• Gebundenes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

Paul Levi remains one of the most interesting and controversial figures in the early history of the Communist movement. As leader of the KPD after the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, he successfully built up a party of a third of a million members, but by 1921 Comintern pressure for 'Bolshevisation' forced Levi's resignation and expulsion. Until his early death in 1930 he remained 'a revolutionary socialist of the Rosa Luxemburg school' (Carl von Ossietsky), and was described by Albert Einstein as 'one of the wisest, most just and courageous persons I have come across'. The first English edition of Levi's writings fills a long-standing gap in the documents of German Communism.

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Hinweis: Dieser Artikel kann nur an eine deutsche Lieferadresse ausgeliefert werden.

Produktdetails

• Historical Materialism Book Series Vol.31
• Verlag: Brill
• Seitenzahl: 356
• Erscheinungstermin: 12. Juli 2011
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 246mm x 164mm x 25mm
• Gewicht: 716g
• ISBN-13: 9789004196070
• ISBN-10: 9004196072
• Artikelnr.: 33834195

Autorenporträt

David Fernbach, studied at London School of Economics. Freelance writer, editor and translator. Publications include the three-volume edition of Karl Marx's Political Writings (Penguin 1973-4, reissued Verso 2010), and The Spiral Path: a gay contribution to human survival (1981). Translations include Marx's Capital Volumes Two and Three, and works by Georg Lukacs, Rudolf Bahro, Boris Groys, Nicos Poulantzas, Pierre Bourdieu, Alain Badiou and Jacques Rancière.

Inhaltsangabe

Introduction

Part One: Leading the KPD
Address to the Founding Congress of the KPD
Letter to Lenin (1919)
The Munich Experience: An Opposing View
The Political Situation and the KPD (October 1919)
The Lessons of the Hungarian Revolution
The World-Situation and the German Revolution
The Beginning of the Crisis in the Communist Party and the International
Letter to Loriot

Part Two: The March Action
Our Path: Against Putschism
What Is the Crime? The March Action or Criticising It?
Letter to Lenin (1921)
The Demands of the Kommunistische Arbeitsgemeinschaft

Part Three: The Soviet Question
Letter to Clara Zetkin
Introduction to Rosa Luxemburg's pamphlet The Russian Revolution
Introduction to Trotsky, The Lessons of October
The Retreat from Leninism
After Ten Years
Approaching the End
Return

Part Four: The German Republic
The Murder of Erzberger
The Needs of the Hour
Why We Are Joining the United Social-Democratic Party
The Assassination of Rathenau
The Situation after Rathenau's Death
The Reich and the Workers
The Defenders of the Republic
After the Oath

References
Index

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Introduction
Part One: Leading the KPD
Address to the Founding Congress of the KPD
Letter to Lenin (1919)
The Munich Experience: An Opposing View
The Political Situation and the KPD (October 1919)
The Lessons of the Hungarian Revolution
The World-Situation and the German Revolution
The Beginning of the Crisis in the Communist Party and the International
Letter to Loriot
Part Two: The March Action
Our Path: Against Putschism
What Is the Crime? The March Action or Criticising It?
Letter to Lenin (1921)
The Demands of the Kommunistische Arbeitsgemeinschaft
Part Three: The Soviet Question
Letter to Clara Zetkin
Introduction to Rosa Luxemburg's pamphlet The Russian Revolution
Introduction to Trotsky, The Lessons of October
The Retreat from Leninism
After Ten Years
Approaching the End
Return
Part Four: The German Republic
The Murder of Erzberger
The Needs of the Hour
Why We Are Joining the United Social-Democratic Party
The Assassination of Rathenau
The Situation after Rathenau's Death
The Reich and the Workers
The Defenders of the Republic
After the Oath
References
Index

Rezensionen

"Mit [Fernbach's] Auswahl der Texte legt der Band [...] einen anderen Schwerpunkt als die auf Deutsch zugängliche Sammlung, ... Zugleich werden so einige Artikel Levis zugänglich, die auf Deutsch - soweit ersichtlich - nur im Original, nicht aber in einem Nachdruck vorliegen. Gerade dieseTexte sind sehr spannend, zeigen sie doch Levi als politischen Denker, der für innerparteiliche Demokratie Stellung bezieht, und sich als scharfsinniger Analytiker der politischen Lage in der Weimarer Republik erweist." - Thilo Scholle, in: Magazin 188, 65
"Seit 1969 hat es in Deutschland keine Edition der Schriften Paul Levis mehr gegeben, weder in der DDR, wo er bis 1983 als Verräter galt, noch im Westen, wo er in Vergessenheit geraten war. Insofern füllt die unlängst erschienene englischsprachige Levi-Ausgabe eine Lücke. [...] Gegenüber der Ausgabe von 1969 hat Fernbach gut ein Viertel der Texte vollständig neu ediert, darunter zwei Artikel zu den Räte-Experimenten in Budapest und München sowie einen Schlüsseltext Levis, das vierzig Seiten umfassende Protokoll seiner Verteidigungsrede vor dem Zentralausschuss der deutschen Kommunisten im Mai 1921. Einleitung und Bibliographie spiegeln weitgehend den aktuellen Stand der historischen Kommunismusforschung wider." - Rolf Wörsdörfer, in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , 23 May 2012
"With this skillfully edited collection of Levi's speeches and writings, Fernbach, long established as a leading student of Marxism, makes a major contribution to understanding the Left in Europe in the years after WW I. Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." - in: Choice , March 2012
"Levi's writings in English [...] allow English-reading socialists to obtain a fuller understanding of the German revolutionary period after the First World War, a period rich in lessons for anti-capitalists today. [...] Brill and David Fernbach have done a service to the left in making them available to the English reader." - Stuart King, in: Permanent Revolution 22 (Winter 2012), pp. 29-34