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Oscar Sterner

Germany 1900–1918: the radical left and the founding of the Communist Party

Marxism 2024

At the turn of the 20th century, Germany was one of the world's most advanced capitalist countries, yet also one of the youngest. Economic and military competition between Germany and the established empires of Britain and France helped to foster a crisis in the global system which would eventually break out into WWI. It also drove the organisation and radicalisation of the German working class, who would eventually end the war by overthrowing their old rulers in the November Revolution of 1918. This session will discuss the experience of revolutionary socialists in Germany as they attempted to clarify their tasks and strategies at a time of unprecedented turmoil.