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MANES SPERBER
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preserved his native dialect unabashedly, was a truly outstanding orga–
nizer, a leader who had discovered at a very early stage that no one can
lead and execute at the same time .
At the Reichstag elections of November 1932 the NSDAP received
11,750,000 votes, the SPD 7,250,000, and the KPD around six million;
thus the two workers' parties combined were still far stronger than the
Nazis. But the Communist leadership stuck to its party line and kept
making such statements as this one: "The SPD continues to be the main
social pillar of the bourgeoisie. Our main strategic task continues to be
to direct the main thrust within the working class against the SPD in an
effort to wean millions of workers from fealty to the SPD leaders. Any
neglect of our struggle against the social-fascist leaders, any blurring of
the basic differences between us and the SPD, any capitulation to the
slogans of the SPD leadership, and even the slightest concession to the
opportunistic ideology would endanger the implementation of our
revolutionary mass policies." Even after Hitler's accession to power the
leadership of the KPD repeated such declarations with the same cliches.
In the streets of
red Berlin
one encountered with increasing fre–
quency the brown uniforms of the SA and the black ones of the SS. In
the workers' districts, where these uniforms were even more numerous
than in the middle-class neighborhoods, there were daily clashes between
SA people and the RFB, the Roter Frontkampferbund, and there were
many injuries on both sides, not infrequently deaths as well. It was evi–
dent that the crisis was coming to a head; Germany had to decide
whether it wanted to be red or brown. Were we in a revolutionary
situation, then? The objective preconditions were there, but what about
the so-called subjective ones? The majority of the working class voted
Social Democratic but continued to support the reformist unions and to
have confidence in the SPD. The constant appeals to form a united red
front went unheeded, because the KP was busy directing "the main thrust
... against the SPD." Thus the non-Communists perceived the tactic of
a united front as insincere and even a foolhardy maneuver to which no
sensible person could concede any chance of success. How could one
speak of a revolutionary situation in this case?
Until then "unity," "front," and "struggle" had remained empty
slogans. Now, however, it was a matter of existing or being ruined, and
a union of all leftist forces was an immediate necessity. At that point
something incredible and monstrous suddenly happened: A strike of the
Berlin transportation workers called by the organized National Socialist
cells and directed against the Social Democratic municipal government
was supported by the Communists; the red opposition in the union
