Anarchy and the Nation: German Anarchism, Nationalism, and Revolution in Spain, 1933-1937 Matthew Alh L University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations May 2014 Anarchy and the Nation: German Anarchism, Nationalism, and Revolution in Spain, 1933-1937 Matthew alH l University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Hall, Matthew, "Anarchy and the Nation: German Anarchism, Nationalism, and Revolution in Spain, 1933-1937" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 405. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/405 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ANARCHY AND THE NATION: GERMAN ANARCHISM, NATIONALISM, AND REVOLUTION IN SPAIN, 1933-1937 by Matthew Hall A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in History at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee May 2014 ABSTRACT ANARCHY AND THE NATION: GERMAN ANARCHISM, NATIONALISM, AND REVOLUTION IN SPAIN, 1933-1937 by Matthew Hall The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2014 Under the Supervision of Professor Winson Chu The relationship between anarchism and nationalism is poorly articulated in the scholarly literature and heavily contested within the modern anarchist movement. Between 1933 and 1937, a group of German anarchists, living in Spain and caught in that country’s civil war and revolution in 1936, dealt with this question in their time in exile in Barcelona. Never explicitly confronting the issue of nationalism within their ranks, the Gruppe Deutsche Anarchosyndikalisten im Auslands (Gruppe DAS) nevertheless used nationally motivating iconography, discourse, and institutions to strengthen their constituencies and attract new ones. Driven by the demographic and social-situation in pre-war and wartime Barcelona, and motivated by their belief that the NSDAP was the real enemy of their movement, the war waged in Spain by the German anarchists was as nationally conscious as it was anarchist. By creating German-centric institutions, through isolation within the city of Barcelona, and under pressure to perform in the Civil War (particularly when confronted with German enemies, i.e. the NSDAP), the German anarchists began to understand their struggle as both anarchistic and national in nature. ii © Copyright by Matthew Hall, 2014 All Rights Reserved iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES………………………………………………………………….. vi TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………. vii INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………… 1 Literature Review……………………………………………………………........ 6 Archival Material………………………….……………………………………… 17 The Pages Ahead………………………...………………………………………... 20 I. TOWARDS A GERMAN ANARCHISM…………………................................. 24 The Mystic and the Martyr……………………………………………………...... 32 The Intellectual Milieu of German Anarchism and the Gruppe DAS……………. 46 II. THE GEOGRAPHY OF EXILE……………………………………………….. 50 Understanding the Geography of Exile………………………………………....... 56 The German L’Eixample: Geography, Isolation, and the Nation in Exile……….. 64 Cultural Production and the Conditions of Exile……………………………........ 74 Conclusions………………………………………………………………….......... 76 III. WAR, REVOLUTION, AND WORK…………………………........................ 78 German-Anarchist Organization……………………………….............................. 82 Opportunity and Xenophobia Behind the Barricades……………......................... 95 IV. HOW LANGUAGE AND SYMBOLS CONSTRUCT THE NATION........... 100 Anarchists into Germans………………………………………………………….. 102 Anarchist Symbols, National Symbols……………………………………………. 108 V. FIGHTING THE REAL ENEMY…………………………………………….... 113 Anderson and the Centrality of Print to the Nation…………................................. 115 The Schwarz-Rotbuch and the Focus On the NSDAP……………………………. 118 Die soziale Revolution and German “Tourism”…………………………………... 122 National Images…………………………………………………………………… 126 Rudolf Rocker: the Backlash Against Nationalism…………………………......... 135 CONCLUSION…………………………………………………………………......... 142 Cut Short: The Repression and Disappearance of German Anarchism in Spain…. 143 German Anarchists in Spain………………………………………………………. 146 Thinking Globally, Acting Locally: The Relevance of the Gruppe DAS Today…. 148 BIBLIOGRAPHY...………………………………………………………………..... 144 APPENDIX A………………………………………………………………………. 152 APPENDIX B………………………………………………………………………... 157 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 German militiamen ……………………………………………………..... vii Figure 2 Map of Barcelona from 1919 …………………………………………….. 152 Figure 3 Map of industrial and demographic growth in Barcelona ……………….. 153 Figure 4 Map of major settlement areas for Germans in Barcelona.......…………... 154 Figure 5 Map and graph of German population density (by barrio)……………..... 155 Figure 6 Map of Barcelona’s anarchist barrios……………………………………. 156 Figure 7 Spanish propaganda images, featured in Die soziale Revolution, Is. 7-8, March 1937…………………………………………………………………………. 157 Figure 8 Cartoon from Die soziale Revolution, Is. 5-6, February 1937…………… 158 Figure 9 Cartoon from Die soziale Revolution, Is. 2, 11 January 1937……………. 158 Figure 10 Erich Mühsam, circa 1931……………………………………………... 159 Figure 11 Rudolf Rocker, circa 1950……………………………………………... 159 Figure 12 Gustav Landauer, circa 1890…………………………………………... 159 Figure 13 Rudolf Michaelis………………………………………………………. 160 Figure 14 Augustin Souchy………………………………………………………… 160 Figure 15 Helmut Rüdiger, 1953…………………………………………………. 160 Figure 11 Back cover of the Schwarz-Rotbuch, circa 1937……………………….. 161 v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AND TERMS Gruppe Gruppe deutsche German Anarcho-syndicalists in DAS Anarchosyndikalisten im Auslands Exile FAUD Freie Arbeiter Union Deutschland Free Workers’ Union of Germany Freie Vereinigung deutsche Free Association of German Trade FVdG Gewerkschaften Unions Sozialdemokratische Partei Social-Democratic Party of SPD Deutschland Germany KPD Kommunistische Partei Deutschland Communist Party of Germany National Sozialistische deutsche National Socialist German NSDAP Arbeits Partei Workers’ Party Confederación Nacional del Trabajo- National Confederation of Labor- CNT-FAI Federación Anarquista Ibérica Anarchist Federation of Iberia POUM Partei Obrera Union Marxista Unified Marxist Workers’ Party Föderation der Kommunistische Federation of Communist- FKAD Anarchisten Deutschland Anarchists in Germany Confederación Española de Spanish Confederation of CEDA Derechas Autónomas Autonomous Right-wing Groups Sozialerevolutionäre deutsche Social-Revolutionary Libertarian SRDF Freiheitsbewegung Movement of Germany Partit Socialista Unificat de Unified Socialist Party of PSUC Catalunya Catalonia PSOE Partido Socialista Obrero Español Spanish Socialist Workers' Party UGT Unión General de Trabajadores General Union of Workers Räterepublik Council Republic Catalan Left Republican Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya Nationalist Party Nacionales Nationalists (the Francoists) vi Figure 2 German militiamen (and possibly women) in camp at the Aragon Front. From Die soziale Revolution, Is. 3 (January 1937) 1. vii 1 INTRODUCTION In the German anarchists’ militia newspaper, Die soziale Revolution, published in the spring of 1937, an above-the-fold front-page cartoon depicted a group of stylized Nazi soldiers leading a group of caricatures representing the factions within the Spanish nacionales forces, as well as a representative of Italian fascism.1 The meaning of the cartoon was clear: the NSDAP not only intervened in Spain, but also virtually controlled the insurgent military and political forces. Alone, such a cartoon exemplified the broader left-wing position that the NSDAP controlled every fascist movement in Europe, especially in Spain. However, the existence of this cartoon in the newspaper of the Gruppe Deutsche Anarchosyndikalisten im Auslands (Gruppe DAS, the political representatives of German anarchists exiled in Spain in the 1930s) brings new significance to the image. This Die soziale Revolution cartoon represented but a piece of a wide variety of evidence showing that anarchists exiled from Germany experienced a kind of “national awakening” in Spain. In other words, because of demographic and socio-economic forces, a greater degree of national solidarity occurred with the German anarchists’ community, centered in Barcelona. Furthermore, Swiss, Austrian, and ethnic Germans melded into a collective, forming a new kind of Grossdeutschland national consciousness, with the view that the NSDAP as a threat intrinsic to their survival, not only as leftists but also as Germans. This national awakening spurred the creation of 1 Figure 7, Die soziale Revolution, Is. 5-6 (February 1937), 1; this cartoon is discussed in detail in chapter 6; The term nacionales (“nationals” in Spanish) is used throughout to denote the rebel forces against the Republican government in Spain. This denotes their distinction from the later Francoist Falange Espanola Tradicionalista y de las JONS, created after the reconstitution of the rebel forces in 1937. Furthermore, the use of the Spanish term for Nationalists, rather than the more common English translation, creates a separation between the ideologically neutral idea of “nationalism” and the ideology that became Francoism, later in/after the war. The term “Nationalists” was most often used in English sources, though the Spanish themselves preferred nacionales; Antony Beevor, The Battle for Spain: The Spanish Civil War 1936-1939 (New York: Penguin Books, 2006) 37. 2 work collectives,