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Full Description
Walter Benjamin derided Werner Scholem as a 'rogue' in 1924. Josef Stalin referred him as a 'splendid man', but soon backtracked and labeled him an 'imbecile', while Ernst Thälmann, chairman of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), warned his followers against the dangers of 'Scholemism'. For the philosopher and historian Gershom Scholem, however, Werner was first and foremost his older brother. The life of German-Jewish Communist Werner Scholem (1895-1940) had many facets. Werner and Gerhard, later Gershom, rebelled together against their authoritarian father and the atmosphere of national chauvinism engulfing Germany during World War I. After inspiring his younger brother to take up the Zionist cause, Werner himself underwent a long personal journey before deciding to join the Communist struggle. Scholem climbed the party ladder and orchestrated the KPD's 'Bolshevisation' campaign, only to be expelled as one of Stalin's opponents in 1926. He was arrested in 1933, and ultimately murdered in the Buchenwald concentration camp seven years later. This first biography of Werner Scholem tells his life story by drawing on a wide range of original sources and archive material long hidden beyond the Iron Curtain of the Cold War era.
First published in German by UVK Verlagsgesellschaft as Werner Scholem - eine politische Biographie (1895-1940), Konstanz, 2014.
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
List of Abbreviations
Introduction
1 Adolescent Years (1895-1914)
The Scholems: A German Family
Four Distinct Brothers
Rebellion(s): From Zionism to Socialism
2 World War and Revolution (1914-18)
War and Socialism in Hanover
A Red in Field Grey: Werner Scholem on the Eastern Front
Hospital Reflections, 1916
Lèse-majesté: A Soldier's Day in Court
Werner and Emmy Scholem: A Mésalliance
All Quiet on the Western Front: Werner Misses the Revolution
3 A Rebel at the Editing Desk, a Rebel in Parliament (1919-24)
Independent Social Democracy and More: Werner Scholem as Agitator in the USPD
Journalism and Judiciary: Werner Scholem as Editor of the Rote Fahne
Reform or Revolution? A Parliamentarian in the Prussian Landtag
Scholem as School Reformer
Anti-Semitism and the Ostjuden Debate
A Reluctant Republican? Fighting Right-Wing Terror and Fascism
The Philosophy of History in the Landtag
Inflation, Crisis and Radicalisation
Reform or Revolution: Scholem's Answer
4 Communism: Utopia and Apparatus (1921-6)
The Berlin Opposition (1921-3)
National Revolution on the Ruhr? Scholem and Schlageter in the Summer of 1923
From the Battle of the Ruhr to the 'German October' of 1923: New Conflicts in the KPD
Reaching for Power: Scholem and His Comrades Take Over the KPD
The Power of the Apparatus: Werner Scholem Organises the KPD
The Apparatus Strikes Back: The Left Opposition on the Defensive
Scholem Versus Stalin: A Question of Democracy?
5 A Reluctant Defector: Werner Scholem as Dissident (1926-8)
A Left Communist in the Reichstag
The Lenin League: Werner Scholem Founds a Party
6 Back to the Lecture Hall: Family and University Life in Berlin
'At Home with Communists': Emmy and Werner in Private
Life as a Lawyer
7 The Triumph of Barbarism (1933-40)
The Arrest
Separate Paths: A Family Falls Apart
Espionage and Intrigue: Werner Scholem as a Literary Figure
The Hammerstein Case: Fiction and Reality
From the Supreme Court to the 'People's Court': Scholem's Last Trial
A Stolen Life: Plötzensee, Lichtenburg, Dachau
Murder in the Quarry
8 Remembering Werner Scholem
Appendices
1 Chronology of Werner Scholem's life
2 List of Werner Scholem's Places of Detention, 1917-40
3 Selected Articles and Publications by Werner Scholem
Bibliography
Index
