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Paul Levi, Une Biographie Politique

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Paul Levi, Une Biographie Politique Université de Montréal Rebelle devant les extrêmes : Paul Levi, une biographie politique par Frédéric Cyr Département d’histoire Faculté des arts et des sciences Thèse présentée à la Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales en vue de l’obtention du grade de Philosophiæ Doctor (Ph.D.) en histoire Octobre 2011 © Frédéric Cyr, 2011 ii Université de Montréal Faculté des études supérieures et postdoctorales Cette thèse, intitulée : Rebelle devant les extrêmes : Paul Levi, une biographie politique présentée par Frédéric Cyr a été évaluée par un jury composé des personnes suivantes : Samir Saul président-rapporteur Paul Létourneau directeur de recherche Carl Bouchard membre du jury Talbot Imlay examinateur externe Barbara Thériault représentante du doyen iii Sommaire et mots clés Cette thèse de doctorat est une biographie politique de Paul Levi, militant marxiste qui a fait carrière en Allemagne durant la période de l’entre-deux- guerres. Dès 1914, Levi incarne un courant radical à l’intérieur du Parti social- démocrate d’Allemagne (SPD). Il dénonce, entre autres, aux côtés de Rosa Luxemburg l’appui du parti à l’effort militaire national. Levi s’inspire également de Lénine qu’il rencontre pour la première fois en Suisse en 1916-1917. Lorsqu’il prend les commandes du Parti communiste d’Allemagne (KPD) en 1919, Levi dirige celui-ci d’une main de fer, selon le concept du « centralisme démocratique ». Il fait également tout en son pouvoir pour faire éclater la révolution ouvrière en Allemagne afin d’installer une dictature du prolétariat qui exclurait toutes les classes non ouvrières du pouvoir. En ce sens, Levi imagine un État socialiste semblable à celui fondé par Lénine en Russie en 1917. Contrairement à l’historiographie traditionnelle, notre thèse montre conséquemment que Levi n’était guère un « socialiste démocrate ». Il était plutôt un militant marxiste qui, par son radicalisme, a contribué à diviser le mouvement ouvrier allemand ce qui, en revanche, a fragilisé la république de Weimar. Cette thèse fait également ressortir le caractère résolument rebelle de Paul Levi. Partout où il passe, Levi dénonce les politiques bourgeoises des partis non- ouvriers, mais aussi celles de la majorité des organisations dont il fait partie, c’est-à-dire les partis ouvriers de la république de Weimar et le Reichstag. Son tempérament impulsif fait de lui un homme politique isolé qui, d’ailleurs, se fait de nombreux ennemis. En 1921, à titre d’exemple, il se brouille avec d’importants bolcheviques, ce qui met fin à sa carrière au sein du KPD. Les communistes voient désormais en lui un ennemi de la classe ouvrière et mènent contre lui de nombreuses campagnes diffamatoires. Levi, de son côté, dénonce iv ouvertement la terreur stalinienne qui, selon lui, est en train de contaminer le mouvement communiste européen. Notre travail montre également que Levi, cette fois en tant qu’avocat juif, lutte corps et âme contre les nazis. En 1926, dans le cadre d’une commission d’enquête publique du Reichstag chargée de faire la lumière sur des meurtres politiques commis en Bavière, il tente par tous les moyens d’inculper certains criminels nazis. Levi est conséquemment la cible de la presse antisémite allemande. Il refuse toutefois de céder à l’intimidation et choisit plutôt de poursuivre en justice quelques-uns des plus importants membres du Parti nazi, dont Alfred Rosenberg et Hitler lui-même, en plus de forcer de nombreux autres nazis à comparaître devant la commission d’enquête du Reichstag. Bref, si ce travail se veut critique envers la pensée révolutionnaire de Levi, il souligne aussi l’intégrité politique de cet homme dont les convictions sont demeurées inébranlables face aux dérives criminelles des extrêmes idéologiques de son époque. Mots clés : Levi, Paul (1883-1930); république de Weimar (1918-1933); Parti communiste d’Allemagne (KPD); Internationale communiste; Parti social-démocrate d’Allemagne (SPD); communisme; socialisme; marxisme. v Summary and Key-words This Ph.D. thesis is a political biography of Paul Levi, a German Marxist of the interwar period. Already in 1914, Levi embodied a radical faction within the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Alongside Rosa Luxemburg, the leader of this same left wing, he is contesting, above all, the party’s participation in the national war effort. But Levi is also inspired by Lenin, who he met in Switzerland in 1916-1917. In fact, when taking over the leadership of the German Communist Party (KPD) in March 1919, Levi ruled with an iron fist according to the theory of “democratic centralism”. As Lenin has done in Russia in October 1917, Levi also did everything in his power to promote a workers’ revolution in Germany in order to set in power a dictatorship of the proletariat, which would exclude all other social classes from sitting in the government. Consequently, in opposition to traditional historiography, this thesis shows that Levi was not a “democratic Socialist” of the Luxemburg school, but rather a Marxist whose political thought resembled that of the Bolsheviks. In fact, his action contributed to further weaken an already frail Weimar Republic and all its democratic institutions. This study also shows that Levi’s outstanding career was in large part the result of his rebellious character. Throughout his life, Levi consistently denounced the bourgeois politics of the non-workers’ parties, but he also systematically went against the majority within the political organizations in which he took part: the workers’ parties and the Reichstag. His impulsive nature set him apart as a solitary politician. In fact, Levi had many enemies. In 1921, he ran afoul of major Bolshevik leaders, which caused him to lose the leadership of the KPD. The Communists subsequently saw him as an enemy of the working class, slandering him in the press and in the Reichstag. Levi denounced, for his vi part, the Stalinist terror and made a mockery of the KPD, which had become, according to him, no more than a Soviet puppet. But this thesis also reveals that Levi, as a Jewish lawyer, led a major political campaign against the Nazis. In 1926, for example, as he served on a Reichstag public commission investigating Bavarian political assassinations, he tried by all possible means to charge important Nazis with murder. The Nazi press replied with a vicious anti-Semitic press campaign against him. Levi, however, refused to kneel before such intimidation and rather chose to sue important Nazi leaders, such as Alfred Rosenberg and Hitler himself before the court, in addition to summoning many others before the above-mentioned Reichstag commission. In the end, despite the fact that this study very critically evaluates Levi’s ideology, it praises his political integrity, which remained unshakable though faced with adversity and the criminal drift of the political extremes of the interwar period. Key-words: Levi, Paul (1883-1930); Weimar Republic (1918-1933); Communist Party of Germany (KPD); Communist International; Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD); Communism; Socialism; Marxism. vii Table des matières Sommaire et mots clés ........................................................................................... iii Summary and Key-words ....................................................................................... v Table des matières ................................................................................................ vii Liste des sigles et abréviations .............................................................................. xi Remerciements .................................................................................................... xiv Note de l’auteur ................................................................................................... xvi Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 État de la question .............................................................................................. 5 Une mémoire refoulée en République démocratique allemande (RDA) ........ 5 Levi en tant que « socialiste démocrate » : tendance hagiographique en Occident .......................................................................................................... 6 Les historiens marxistes tentent de s’approprier Levi................................... 10 Une biographie politique de Paul Levi ............................................................. 14 Considérations méthodologiques sur la biographie ...................................... 14 Problématique ............................................................................................... 17 Sources .......................................................................................................... 18 Contribution aux connaissances ....................................................................... 23 Rebelle devant les extrêmes .......................................................................... 23 Levi, démocrate? ........................................................................................... 26 Levi et la république de Weimar ................................................................... 27 Chapitre 1 ............................................................................................................. 30 La naissance d’un rebelle ..................................................................................... 30 Hechingen : conservatisme politique et refuge juif .........................................
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