Germans against Hitler; The Thaelmann Brigade.pdf

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Germans
The
against
Hitler:
Thaelmann
Brigade
Arnold Krammer
On 17 July I936, when the insurgentsraisedthe bannerof revolt
against the RepublicanGovernmentof Spain, an anxious world
chose sides and waited. Massive military aid was supplied by
Hitler and Mussolini to Franco,and later by the Soviet Union to
the Republic,but officiallythe Spanishconflictwas regardedas a
civil war and this attitude was embodied in a non-intervention
agreement signed by all interested governments. Some 40,000
officialpolicy, and made their
people, however,chose to disregard
way to Spain in defence of the beleaguredRepublic.
These foreignvolunteers,mainly French, German,Italian,and
were
American- althoughmore than a score of other nationalities
-
represented formedthe first armyof its kind in modernhistory:
the International
Brigades.
Initially, the volunteersformed units of their own nationality
or joinedSpanishunits holdingpoliticalviews similarto theirown.
The originalunits were called centurias,
denoting groups of one
hundredmen or less, and were namedafterrevolutionary
person-
and dates. As they grew in number, and more
ages, places,
into larger units became
volunteersarrived,their reorganization
necessary;this occurredfirst at Albacete at the time when four
rebel columns were advancingon Madrid. These larger defence
units were organizedaccordingto languageand nationality,using
as
the earliercenturias the nucleus wheneverpossible; by the end
of December 1936 they had been reorganizedinto five brigades
which, in an effort to make them appearmore formidableto the
enemy, were called the XIth, XIIth, XIIIth, XIVth, and XVth
More than 5,000 Germanexiles, emigres,
International
Brigades.1
see Verle B. Johnston, The International Brigades in the Spanish Civil War
1 For a comprehensivestudy of the formationand organization the Brigades
of
(PennsylvaniaUniversity Press, I967).
65
5
CONTEMPORARY
HISTORY
and fugitives - communists, adventurers, and idealists of every
political shade - fought in the brigades as members of the Thael-
mann and Edgar Andre units. Now long forgotten, they were the
first armed German opposition to Hitler's armies.
While it is difficult to determine the exact number of German
emigres who volunteered during those early days in August and
September, it appears that about fifteen men, without organized
recruiting or direction, formed themselves into the Ernst Thael-
mann Group, naming themselves after one of Germany's leading
communists, imprisoned by the Gestapo in I933.2 Further German
volunteers crossed the Pyrenees along a route originating in Paris,
the principal headquarters for exiles and emigres during the late
I930s, and small groups of Germans were smuggled out of Ger-
many by underground channels to Austria, and then, without
passports, to Switzerland. From there they were sent to France
and directed over the Pyrenees.3
The German Communist party, illegal in Germany, was
particularly active in the loyalist cause and in recruiting volunteers
for the International Brigades. On 7 August 1936 its central
committee issued a manifesto which appeared in all countries
where there were German emigres: 'We call on all German
anti-fascists abroad who have undergone military training to place
themselves at the disposal of the Spanish People's Front.'4
During the course of the Spanish conflict, these illegal organiza-
tions continued to promote the Spanish republican cause, not only
in other countries, but also among German industrial workers.5
The Thaelmann battalion quickly built up its strength to about
five hundred men, and left Aragon in October to join the Inter-
national Brigades forming at Albacete. Its commander was Ludwig
Renn, a German communist writer whose real name was Arnold
Vieth von Golssenau; the leader of the original unit, Hans
Beimler, later to lose his life in the Republican cause, now became
the political commissar of the entire Brigade and general commis-
sar for all German volunteers in Spain. His subordinate in the
2
Tom Wintringham, English Captain (London,
I939),
26.
3
Terence Prittie, Germans Against Hitler (Boston,
1964),
139.
Work of the Eleventh International
4
Franz Dahlem, 'The Military-Political
Brigade', The Communist International, May I938, 446.
5
Der Freiheitskampf des spanischen Volkes und die internationale Solidaritdt
(Berlin [East], I956), 362; Arturo Barea, The Forging of a Rebel (New York,
1946), 584.
66
GERMANS AGAINST HITLER
Thaelmannbattalionwas anotherGermancommunistjournalist,
Gustav Regler. Reorganized once again, the battalion became
one of the three officially included in the XIIth International
Brigade,underthe commandof one GeneralLukacz(a Hungarian
communistwriter, Mata Zalka),and was rushed immediatelyto
the defence of the beleaguredcapital.6
The political commissariat Albacetereceivedinstructionsto
at
dispatch another brigade to Madrid at the earliest possible
moment.Four largeunits wereformed:the FrenchParisbattalion
was enlargedand given the name Commune de Paris; from the
survivorsof the Gastone Sozzi and Guistiziae Liberta came the
Garibaldibattalion; Polish and other Slav volunteers combined
to form the Dombrowskibattalion;and the newly arrivedGerman
and Hungarianvolunteersformedthe Hans battalion.During the
first week in November these four battalions were formally
Brigade,and placedunder
organizedinto the XIth International
the commandof GeneralEmil Kleber.7The Hans battaliontook
its name from its commander,Hans Kahle, but as the Brigade
was preparing leaveon 4 Novemberto join the Republicanarmy
to
at Madrid,news arrivedthat the GermancommunistEdgarAndre
had been executed by the Gestapo, and the battaliondecided to
change its name to the EdgarAndre. On 6 November the XIth
International
Brigade,consistingof some
1,900
men, left Albacete.
Before being moved up to the combat zone outside Madrid, the
pay scale for the Edgar Andre and Thaelmannwas established.
a
Accordingto Tom Wintringham, volunteerat Albacete:
After the short period when everyonegot the same three pesetas a day,
officersand volunteers,we settled down to a level of ranksand pay that
was roughly as follows: volunteersand N.C.O.'s, seven pesetas a day;
company commanders and lieutenants, over twenty pesetas a day;
battalion commanders, captains, over thirty pesetas; principal staff
officers, majors, over forty pesetas; brigade commanders,lieutenant-
colonels and colonels got even greater sums. These rates of pay were
and the volunteers of
thirteennations, I formed a new ThaelmannBattalionin one morning,and the
same afternoon,we left by train for the front.' Ludwig Renn in Esquire,April
7
The need was great for a non-Soviet leader, and it was in this light that he
was introduced to the world. He was in fact Lazar Ster, a graduate of the
Frunze MilitaryAcademyin Moscow and a formermemberof the Intelligence
Departmentof the Soviet General Staff.
6
'With the remnant of the Thaelmann centuria ...
I938.
67
CONTEMPORARY HISTORY
generous,but there was not much to spend your money on except food
and clothes and it was quite useless to save it up, becausethe exchange
rate of the peseta was sliding down.8
There is little to support Franco's repeated charges that the
InternationalBrigades were composed of foreign mercenaries.
The fact that the question of pay seldom if ever enters into the
memoirsandaccountsof the participants
suggeststhatthe majority
of volunteers were motivated, upon occasion, by the thrill of
adventure,but most often by political convictionratherthan the
desire for money.
The political leanings of the volunteersrangedfrom moderate
and hard-coreMarxismof
to
republicanism socialism,anarchism,
to
and
severalvarieties;many were adventurers idealistsaffiliated
of
no particular
party.The diversityof the politicalcomposition the
brigadesis borne out by a Germanvolunteerwho statesthat in his
battalion'possiblyone-thirdwere absolutecommunists,one-third
a mixtureof liberals,GermanJews,socialistsandotherswho were
democraticanti-Nazis,and one-thirdwere soldiersof fortuneand
youths attractedby adventureand war'.9
Many of the volunteers in the two German battalions were
anti-fascist refugees who could not return to their native land;
and
they had fled Germanywith bittermemoriesof imprisonment
their condemnation
persecutionand were anxiousto demonstrate
of the acts perpetrated by their countrymen under national-
socialism. Franz Borkenau,an astute observer in Spain, wrote
that 'the Germans have to wash away the ignominy of their
defencelessretreatbefore the forces of Hitler'.10
Driven by this determinationto halt in Spain what they had
been unableto halt in Germany,the Thaelmannand EdgarAndre
battalionsquicklygained the reputationof being the bravestand
best-trainedunits in the Brigades.'If one has to pick out the crack
unit of all the Internationals... the choice would have to lie
between them [Thaelmannand Edgar Andre] and the Garibaldi
Anotherobserverwritesthatthey exhibited
battalionof Italians.'11
8 Wintringham, English Captain, 246.
9 Herbert Greene, Secret Agent in Spain (London, 1938), 235. See also Hugh
Thomas, The Spanish Civil War (New York, I96I), 298-300, and Louis Fischer,
Men and Politics (London, I94I), 394, 405, for more information on the political
composition of the Brigades.
10 Franz Borkenau, Spanish Cockpit (London, I937), 268.
11
Herbert Matthews, Two Wars and More to Come (New York, 1938),
213.
68
GERMANS AGAINST HITLER
'bitter, terrible courage - at rare intervals in war, priceless, essential
but always costly - and they continued to be shock troops, men
who did or tried to do the impossible and paid for it'.12 Michael
Koltsov, one of the chief Soviet journalists and political commen-
tators of the conflict, wrote that the 'International Brigades...
are showing great heroism, especially the Thaelmann and Edgar
Andre ... Many were killed'.13
While it is difficult to estimate accurately the losses suffered by the
two German battalions during the early campaigns of the war, it is
evident that, having led most of the attacks, their share of the
casualties was high. In its first month of combat the XIth Inter-
national Brigade suffered over
900
killed and wounded out of
1,900
men, while the XIIth lost 750 out of 1,500 men in its first
three weeks of action.14 One month later, both units spearheaded
a week-long battle at Las Rozas-Remisa; fewer than fifty volun-
teers survived.15 Yet following each such offensive new volunteers
appeared, although in decreasing numbers as the conflict pro-
gressed; when the two German battalions were brought up to
full strength again they were sent once more into action.16
The death of the political commissar, Hans Beimler, was notable
for several reasons. He was a high ranking political officer and one
of the original members of the Thaelmann centuria, and his death
came as a great shock to the volunteers. It also produced a sudden
vacuum at the apex of the political commissariat structure, and
speculation ran high concerning the identity of his successor.
Perhaps most important, a feeling spread that there were sinister
forces at work within the brigades and that Beimler did not die
the hero he was made out to be. He was killed while on a night
mission outside Madrid's University City at the end of November
I936, and it was alleged that, in the chaos of battle, he was shot
13
Michael Koltsov, 'Ispanskii Dnevnik', serialized in Novy Mir
(Moscow),
12 Wintringham, English Captain, p. 36.
June-September I938.
14
Fischer, Men and Politics, 393; Geoffrey Cox,
Defence of Madrid (London,
I937), I44.
15 Ludwig Renn, Der Spanische Krieg (Berlin, I956), I38-43.
16
In mid-January I937, the Brigades began a three-week offensive at Jarama;
casualties suffered by the Thaelmann and Edgar Andre battalions were especially
high. Robert Colodny states that of the Thaelmann's
500
effectives, 450 were
killed or wounded, and of the 500 volunteers of the Edgar Andre, 300 were
listed as casualties. The Struggle for Madrid (New York, I958), 318.
69

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