Paul Frölich

Paul Frölich (7 August 1884 – 16 March 1953) was a German journalist and author. As a left-wing political activist, he was a founding member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and founder of the party's paper, Die Rote Fahne. A KPD deputy in the Reichstag on two occasions, Frölich was expelled from the party in 1928, after which he joined the organized German Communist Opposition movement. Frölich is best remembered as a biographer of Rosa Luxemburg.

Biography

Early years Paul Frölich was born 7 August 1884 in Leipzig into a German working-class family. He was the second child of eleven. As a young man, he studied history and social science at the Leipzig Workers' School. Frölich joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1902. He had a daughter with Louise Hoppe, Edda, who was born on 5 August 1922.

Political career Members of the Reichstag faction of the KPD 1921. Sitting from left to right: Joseph Herzfeld, Clara Zetkin, Emil Eichhorn, Georg Berthelé. Standing from left to right: Max Heydemann, Walter Stoecker, Wilhelm Koenen, Wilhelm Bartz, Heinrich Malzahn, Paul Frölich. Frölich worked as a journalist during the first decade of the 20th century, writing for the Hamburger Echo from 1910 to 1914 and for the Bremer Bürgerzeitung from 1914 to 1916. A new edition of this work appeared in English in 2010, published by the Chicago-based publisher Haymarket Books.

Works Die Politik des Hamburger Arbeiterrats (The Politics of the Hamburg Workers' Council). Berlin: G. Schumann, c. 1919. Keinen Pfennig den Fürsten! (Not a Penny for the Prince!) Berlin: Vereinigung Internationaler Verlagsanstalten, c. 1919. Der Weg zum Sozialismus (The Way to Socialism). Hamburg: Kommunistische Arbeiterzeitung, 1919. Die Bayerische Räterepublik. Tatsachen und Kritik (The Bavarian Soviet Republic: Facts and Criticism). Leipzig: Franke, 1920. Taktik und Organisation der revolutionären Offensive: Die Lehren der März-Aktion (Tactics and Organization of the Revolutionary Offensive: Lessons of the March Action). Leipzig : Frankes Verlag, 1921. Wider den weissen Mord (Against the White Murder). Berlin: Vereinigung Internationaler Verlagsanstalten, 1922. Der Steuerbote nimmt dein Brot! Ein Kapitel indirekte Steuern (The Tax Collector Takes Your Bread! A Chapter on Indirect Taxes). Berlin: Vereinigung Internationaler Verlags-Anstalten, 1922. 1848: Ein Lesebuch für Arbeiter (1848: A Reading Book for Workers). Berlin : Vereinigung Internationaler Verlags-Anstalten, 1923. 10 Jahr Krieg und Bürgerkrieg (Ten Years of War and Civil War). Berlin: Vereinigung Internationaler Verlags-Anstalten, 1924. —Memoir. Die deutsche Sozialdemokratie: 14 Jahre im Bunde mit dem Kapital (German Social Democracy: 14 Years in League with Capital). With A. Schreiner. Berlin: 1925. "Introduction" to Speeches of Georges Jacques Danton. New York: International Publishers, 1928. Rosa Luxemburg: Her Life and Work. Edward Fitzgerald, trans. London: Victor Gollancz, 1940. Illustrierte Geschichte der deutschen Revolution (Illustrated History of the German Revolution). Berlin: Internationalen Arbeiter-Verlag, 1929. In the Radical Camp: A Political Autobiography 1890-1921 (Im radikalen Lager: Politische Autobiographie 1890-1921, BasisDruck Verlag GmbH, 2013). Reiner Tosstorff, editor; David Fernbach, translator. Leiden: Brill, 2020.