Ernst Thälmann

Ernst Thälmann
Ernst Thälmann
	Thälmann in 1932
Chairman of the; Communist Party of Germany
	In office; 1 September 1925 – 3 March 1933
Preceded by	Ruth Fischer
Succeeded by	John Schehr
Member of the Reichstag ; for Hamburg
	In office; 27 May 1924 – 28 February 1933
Preceded by	multi-member district
Succeeded by	Constituency abolished
Personal details
Born	16 April 1886; Hamburg, German Empire
Died	18 August 1944 (aged 58); Buchenwald concentration camp, Weimar, Thuringia, Nazi Germany
Political party	Communist Party of Germany; (1920–1944)
Other political; affiliations	Independent Social Democratic Party (1917–1920); Social Democratic Party; (1903–1917)
Children	1 daughter
Occupation	Politician; Revolutionary; Dockworker;
Military service
Allegiance	German Empire
Years of service	1915–1918
Battles/wars	World War I
Awards	Iron Cross Second Class; Hanseatic Cross; Wound Badge;
	Central institution membership 1924–1933: Full member,; KPD Politburo ; 1923–1939: Full member,; KPD Central Committee ; Other offices held 1924–1925: Deputy Chairman,; Communist Party of Germany ;

Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann (German pronunciation: [ɛʁnst ˈtɛːlman]; 16 April 1886 – 18 August 1944) was a German communist politician, and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933.

A committed communist, Thälmann played a major role during the political instability of the Weimar Republic, especially in its final years, when the KPD explicitly sought to overthrow the liberal democracy of the republic. Under his leadership the KPD became intimately associated with the government of the Soviet Union and the policies of Joseph Stalin. The KPD under Thälmann's leadership regarded the Social Democratic Party (SPD) as its main adversary and the party adopted the position that the social democrats were "social fascists".

Thälmann was also leader of the paramilitary Roter Frontkämpferbund. He was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 and held in solitary confinement for eleven years; for political reasons, Stalin did not seek his release after the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Germany, and Thälmann's party rival Walter Ulbricht ignored requests to plead on his behalf. Thälmann was shot dead by Adolf Hitler's personal order in Buchenwald in 1944.

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