League of West German Communists

The League of West German Communists (German: Bund Westdeutscher Kommunisten, abbreviated BWK) was a Maoist communist political organization in the Federal Republic of Germany, active between 1980 and 1995 and one of the last surviving "K Groups" established in the aftermath of the German student movement. Following the German reunification, it merged into the Party of Democratic Socialism.

Not to be confused with Communist League (West Germany) or Communist League of West Germany.
League of West German Communists
Bund Westdeutscher Kommunisten
FoundedSeptember 1980
DissolvedMarch 1995
Split fromCommunist League of West Germany
Succeeded byAG BWK
HeadquartersCologne
NewspaperPolitische Berichte
Student wingKommunistische Hochschulgruppen
IdeologyCommunism
Marxism–Leninism–Maoism
National affiliationVolksfront gegen Reaktion, Faschismus und Krieg

Foundation

BWK was founded in Mannheim on September 20, 1980, following a split from the Communist League of West Germany (KBW).[1][2] The split in KBW occurred in the midst of the 1980 Bundestag election campaign.[3] BWK was led by Jörg Detjen (de) and Martin Fochler (de).[2][4] Around 600 KBW militants took part in founding BWK.[5] BWK published the bi-weekly Politische Berichte.[6] The organization had its headquarters in Cologne.[7] In 1980 BWK founded the publishing house Gesellschaft für Nachrichtenerfassung und Nachrichtenverbreitung mbH (GNN) in Cologne.[8]

In West German politics

By the late 1980s, BWK was one of few remaining "K-Groups" in West Germany.[9] As of 1988 BWK reported it was active in seven of the ten States of West Germany. Politische Berichte had a circulation of 1,300, and the pamphlet-review Nachrichtenhefte with a circulation of around 1,000.[6] BWK was a dominant force in the Cologne-based People's Front against Reaction, Fascism and War (Volksfront gegen Reaktion, Faschismus und Krieg, de).[6]

Entry into PDS

On June 5, 1993 BWK set up a Working Group of the League of West German Communists with the Party of Democratic Socialism/Left List (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bund Westdeutscher Kommunisten bei der PDS/LL) in Hamburg. By the end of the year, BWK was active in all West German states, setting up Working Groups in the PDS.[10] BWK was dissolved in March 1995. Its members joined PDS.[11] BWK was the first West German left group to dissolve itself and merge into PDS.[12] The AG BWKs continued to exist within PDS, and later evolved into Forum of Communist Working Groups (Forum kommunistischer Arbeitsgemeinschaften). The Forum of Communist Working Groups was dissolved on December 2, 2007 and replaced in January 2008 by a new association, the Association for Political Education, Left Criticism and Communication (Verein für politische Bildung, linke Kritik und Kommunikation). The board of the new association consisted of Brigitte Wolf, Christoph Cornides, Rüdiger Lötzer, Christiane Schneider, Jörg Detjen, Martin Fochler and Alfred Küstler.[13]

References
  1. Tempel, Karl G., and Hans Willi Weinzen. Die Parteien in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und die Rolle der Parteien in der DDR: Grundlagen, Funktionen, Geschichte, Programmatik, Organisation. Opladen: Leske + Budrich, 1987. p. 211
  2. Der Spiegel. Verschärft ausgebeutet
  3. Olzog, Günter, and Hans-Joachim Liese. Die politischen Parteien in Deutschland: Geschichte, Programmatik, Organisation, Personen, Finanzierung. München ; Landsberg am Lech: Olzog, 1996. p. 220
  4. Krautkrämer, Felix. Die offene Flanke der SPD der Fall Stephan Braun und die Zusammenarbeit von Sozialdemokraten mit Linksextremisten. Berlin: Ed. JF, 2008.
  5. Langguth, Gerd. Protestbewegung – Entwicklung, Niedergang, Renaissance. Die Neue Linke seit 1968, Cologne: Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, 1983, p. 100
  6. Alexander, Robert Jackson. Maoism in the Developed World. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2001. p. 86
  7. Staar, Richard Felix, Milorad M. Drachkovitch, and Lewis H. Gann. Yearbook on International Communist Affairs. Stanford, Calif: Hoover Institution Press, 1991. p. 581 (Yearbook on International Communist Affairs series)
  8. Normann, Lars. Rechts im Spiegel von links: die Zeitschrift "blick nach rechts" als Symptom politischer Kultur der Bundesrepublik Deutschland. München [u.a.]: GRIN-Verl, 2008. pp. 103, 158
  9. Geronimo, and Gabriel Kuhn. Fire and Flames A History of the German Autonomist Movement. Oakland, Calif: PM Press, 2012. p. 61
  10. Lang, Jürgen P., Patrick Moreau, Viola Neu, and Jürgen Hoffmann. Auferstanden aus Ruinen ...?: die PDS nach dem Super-Wahljahr 1994. Sankt Augustin: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, 1995. pp. 17, 56, 75
  11. Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung. Splitterparteien
  12. Thienel, Wolfram. Die PDS. GRIN Verlag GmbH, 1997. p. 13
  13. Verein für politische Bildung, linke Kritik und Kommunikation. Ergebnisse und Materialen. December, 2007.
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