Clara Zetkin (1857-1933) |
Clara Zetkin, maiden name Eissner (born 5 July 1857 in Wiederau,
Saxony;
died 20 June 1933 in Archangelskoye near Moscow) was an influential socialist
German politician and a fighter for women's rights. Until 1917 she was active in the
Social Democratic Party of Germany, then she joined the Independent Social Democratic
Party of Germany (USPD) and its far-left wing, the Spartacist League; this later became
the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), which she represented in the Reichstag during the
Weimar Republic from 1920 to 1933.
Early life as Socialist
Having studied to become a teacher, Zetkin developed connections with the women's movement
and the labour movement in Germany from 1874. In 1878 she joined the Socialist Workers' party
(Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei, SAP). This party had been founded in 1875 by merging two
previous parties: the ADAV formed by Ferdinand Lassalle and the SDAP of August Bebel and
Wilhelm Liebknecht. In 1890 its name was changed to its modern version Social Democratic
Party of Germany (SPD).
Because of the ban on socialist activity in Germany placed by
Bismarck in 1878, Zetkin left
for Zurich in 1882 then went into exile in Paris. During her time in Paris she played an important
role in the foundation of the Socialist International socialist group. She also adopted the name
of her partner, the Russian revolutionary Ossip Zetkin, with whom she had two sons. Later,
Zetkin was married to the artist Georg Friedrich Zundel from 1899 - 1928.
In the SPD, Zetkin, along with Rosa Luxemburg, her close friend and confidante, was one of the
main figures of the far-left revolutionary wing of the party. In the debate on Revisionism at
the turn of the twentieth century she attacked the reformerist theses of Eduard Bernstein
along with Luxemburg.
Fighter for Women's Rights
Zetkin was very interested in women's politics, including the fight for equal opportunities
and women's suffrage. She developed the social-democratic women's movement in Germany; from
1891 to 1917 she edited the SPD women's newspaper "Die Gleichheit" (Equality). In 1907 she
became the leader of the newly-founded "Women's Office" at the SPD. She started up the
first "International Women's Day" on 8 March 1911.
During the First World War Zetkin, along with Karl Liebknecht,
Rosa Luxemburg and other influential SPD politicians, rejected the party's policy of Burgfrieden
(a truce with the government, promising to refrain from any strikes during the war). Among other
anti-war activities, Zetkin organised an international socialist women's anti-war conference in
Berlin in 1915. Because of her anti-war opinions, she was arrested several times during the war.
Radicalisation towards Communism
In 1916 Zetkin was one of the co-founders of the Spartacist League and the Independent Social
Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) which had split off in 1917 from its mother party, the SPD,
in protest at its pro-war attitude. In January 1919, after the German Revolution in November of
the previous year, the KPD (Communist Party of Germany) was founded; Zetkin also joined this and
represented the party from 1920 to 1933 in the Reichstag.
Until 1924 Zetkin was a member of the KPD's central office. From 1927 to 1929 she was a member
of the party's central committee. She was also a member of the executive committe of the Communist
International (Comintern) from 1921 to 1933. In 1925 she was elected president of the German
left-wing solidarity organisation Rote Hilfe (Red Aid). In August 1932, as the chairperson of
the Reichstag by seniority, she called for people to fight National Socialism.
When Adolf Hitler and his National Socialist
German Workers Party took over power, the Communist Party of Germany was banned from the
Reichstag, following the Reichstag fire in 1933. Zetkin went into exile for the last time,
this time to the Soviet Union. She died there on 20 June 1933 aged nearly 76. She was buried
by the wall of the Kremlin in Moscow.
Banknote displaying Clara Zetkin
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