Wittorf affair

The Wittorf affair was an embezzlement scandal, which was triggered by the fact that the Communist Party functionary John Wittorf (1894-1981) 1,500 to 3,000 Reichsmarks appropriated from the electoral coffers during the campaign for the general election in 1928. The Communist Party chairman as well as a friend and supporter Wittorfs, Ernst Thalmann, knew about the embezzlement, but hid it from campaign- tactical motifs. After rumors were leaked about the embezzlement in the press, the Central Committee of the Communist Party ruled out on September 26, 1928 Wittorf and three other Hamburg officials from the party. Thalmann was forced to resign from his party posts provisional.

However, the deposition Thalmann did not fit into the plans of Stalin, who had already caused in 1925 for a strengthening of Thalmann positions to fight with his help, the " ultra-left " KPD Course Ruth Fischer and Arkadi Maslow. Stalin wanted Thalmann continue to keep as a reliable ally to clean the Communist Party of right and left tendencies. In a telegram to Molotov on October 1, 1928 Stalin called for Thalmann: its motives were " disinterested ". " Proposal has no mitigating circumstances " Stalin saw, however, in relation to the Central Committee members and " conciliators " Arthur Ewert and Gerhart Eisler, who over the party and the Comintern had asked his opinion, their factional interests.

Stalin's attitude was to the maxim: Already on October 6, 1928, the Executive Committee of the Communist International took a decision in which they are " full political trust " uttered Thalmann. Finally, the Central Committee of the Communist Party decided on 20 October 1928 under pressure from Moscow and, after an obstinate resistance of some well-known officials, the reinstallation Thalmann as party chairman.

In their scope Wittorf affair meant a final step in the Stalinization of the KPD and a final manifestation of the expansion of Stalinist cadre policy to foreign communist parties. Here, the Soviet leader was based on loyal "Newcomer " to turn real and perceived political opponents. The discussion had in the Comintern to the removal and reinstallation of Thalmann far-reaching consequences for other communist parties, including the Communist Party of Italy.