Willi Münzenberg
Willi Münzenberg | |
|---|---|
Münzenberg c. 1924 | |
| International Secretary of the Young Communist International | |
| In office November 1919 – June 1921 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Voja Vujović |
| Member of the Reichstag for Hesse-Nassau | |
| In office 27 May 1924 – 28 February 1933 | |
| Preceded by | Multi-member district |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Wilhelm Münzenberg August 14, 1889 Erfurt, German Empire |
| Died | June 1940 (aged 50) Saint-Marcellin, France |
| Political party | SPD (before 1914) USPD (1914–1919) KPD (1919–1939) |
| Other political affiliations | SP (1910s) |
Wilhelm Münzenberg (14 August 1889 – June 1940) was a German Communist activist and publisher who served as the first head of the Young Communist International from 1919 to 1921 and as a member of the Reichstag from 1924 to 1933. He also founded the famine relief and propaganda organization Workers International Relief in 1921.
He was a leading propagandist for the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the Weimar Era, but later grew disenchanted with the USSR due to Joseph Stalin's Great Purge of the 1930s. Condemned by Stalin to be purged and arrested for treason, Münzenberg left the KPD and in Paris became a leader of the German émigré anti-fascism and anti-Stalinist community until forced to flee the Nazi advance into France in 1940. Arrested and imprisoned by the Daladier government in France, he escaped prison camp only to be found dead a few months later in a forest near the commune of Saint-Marcellin, France. Walter Laqueur described him as "a cultural impresario of genius".