Anton Grylewicz

Anton Grylewicz (8 January 1885 – 2 August 1971) was a German communist politician.

Early life

Grylewicz was born into a working-class family in Berlin, where he finished school and was apprenticed as a locksmith. From 1907 to 1909 he did his military service and in 1912 he married Anna-Maria Bräuer, He was recalled to active duty in the army in 1915 and served for two years on the Eastern front until being injured.

Communist Party Years

Grylewicz had become the chairman of the USPD's Greater Berlin district and a leader of the party's left by the time of the fusion conference with the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and became secretary of the Berlin-Brandenburg organisation of the KPD. Grylewicz took part in the technical preparations in Moscow for the abortive 1923 uprising and was tried alongside Arkadi Maslow but was granted an amnesty. During this period he was also elected onto the KPD Zentrale, and was a KPD member of the Reichstag from 4 May to 20 October. When Maslow and Ruth Fischer were removed from the leadership of the KPD in 1926, he was removed from the Zentrale and was excluded from the party altogether after acting as a spokesman for the Left Opposition at 11th party conference.

Oppositionist

Grylewicz was a founder member of the Leninbund and became the leading figure of its Trotskyist minority, eventually fusing with other groups to form the United Left Opposition of the KPD. During this time Grylewicz ran a publishing house for many of Trotsky's works.

When the Nazis came to power in 1933, the SA destroyed Grylewicz's home and private library and he fled to Czechoslovakia, first living in Reichenberg, then Prague. His wife was under arrest in early 1933 and only joined him in July.

Later years

From 1937 Grylewicz dropped out of the Trotskyist movement without renouncing his views. He moved to France the same year where he was detained at the outbreak of World War II before receiving a visa from Cuba in 1941. In 1955 he returned to Berlin and rejoined the SPD.