Die Rote Fahne

Wilhelm Hasselmann of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (now SPD) and member of the German Reichstag founded a short-lived, weekly newspaper called Die rote Fahne.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RsSlLCxOUkUC&q=wilhelm+hasselmann+die+rote+fahne&pg=PA60|title=The Haymarket Conspiracy: Transatlantic Anarchist Networks|last=Messer-Kruse|first=Timothy|date=2012-07-26|publisher=University of Illinois Press|isbn=9780252037054|language=en}}

File:Karl Liebknecht.jpgFile:Rosa Luxemburg.jpg Using the newspaper's subtitle as indicator of its political allegiance, Die Rote Fahne was successively the central organ of:

• Spartacus League: 9 November 1918{{Cite web|url=https://fontsinuse.com/uses/24736/die-rote-fahne-1-9-nov-1918-and-16-16-jan-191|title=Die Rote Fahne, #1 (9 Nov 1918) and #16 (16 Jan 1919)|last=Hardwig|first=Florian|date=2019-01-15|website=Fonts in Use|access-date=2019-06-27}} to 30 December 1918
• Communist Party of Germany: 1 January 1919 to 19 September 1920 (reflecting the KPD's submission to the Comintern on
• Communist Party of Germany: 19 September 1920 to roughly 23 March 1933 (date of passage of the Nazi Enabling Act)

The publication was proscribed from October 1923 to March 1924, as part of the ban on the German Communist Party. The newspaper continued in illegal production and distribution, sometimes renamed "Rote Sturmfahne" ("Red Storm Flag") or "Die Fahne der Revolution" ("The Flag of the Revolution"). In 1926, the newspaper moved into the Karl Liebknecht House, to which it added in July 1928 a rotary press. On 23 February 1933, Nazi police occupied Karl-Liebknecht-Haus and closed it the following day, anticipating the Nazi ban on all communist and socialist press after the Reichstag fire a few days later (28 February 1933).

Many prominent Germans and others worked on the newspaper:

• Founders included: Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, Paul Frölich{{Cite web|url=https://publishup.uni-potsdam.de/opus4-ubp/frontdoor/deliver/index/docId/41304/file/ppr144.online.pdf|title=Paul Frölich, American Exile, and Communist Discourse about the Russian Revolution|last=Altieri|first=Riccardo|website=publishup.uni-potsdam.de|access-date=27 June 2019}}
• Publishers included: Hans Marchwitza{{Cite web|url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363;-1424.html?ID=2213|title=Biographische Datenbanken: Marchwitza, Hans|website=bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de|access-date=27 June 2019}} and Johannes R. Becher{{Cite news|url=https://www.zeit.de/1981/33/ueber-das-hartnaeckige-autoritaere-denken|title=Unvermutete Verwandtschaft zwischen Bert Brecht und Johannes R. Beches: Über das hartnäckige autoritäre Denken|last=ZEIT (Archiv)|first=D. I. E.|date=1981-08-07|work=Die Zeit|access-date=2019-07-02|language=de-DE|issn=0044-2070}}
• Editors included: Ernst Meyer{{Cite web|url=http://wildetexte.blogsport.de/2011/01/17/ernst-meyer-weggefaehrte-rosa-luxemburgs-in-der-weltkriegszeit-und-sein-kampf-um-ihr-erbe-in-der-kpd/|title=Ernst Meyer, Weggefährte Rosa Luxemburgs in der Weltkriegszeit und sein Kampf um ihr Erbe in der KPD|last=Wilde|first=Von: Dr Florian|date=2011-01-17|website=Wilde Texte|language=de-DE|access-date=2019-07-02|archive-date=2019-07-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190702072641/http://wildetexte.blogsport.de/2011/01/17/ernst-meyer-weggefaehrte-rosa-luxemburgs-in-der-weltkriegszeit-und-sein-kampf-um-ihr-erbe-in-der-kpd/|url-status=dead}} (1918–1919), August Thalheimer{{Cite web|url=https://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/Utopie_kreativ/98-7/97_8_Haible.pdf|title=August Thalheimer- Zur Erinnerung an einen revolutionären Kommunisten|last=Haible|first=Wolfgang|website=rosalux.de|access-date=2 July 2019}} (1919–?), Julian Gumperz{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/frankfurtschooli0000wigg|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/frankfurtschooli0000wigg/page/31 31]|quote=Julian Gumperz rote fahne.|title=The Frankfurt School: Its History, Theories, and Political Significance|last=Wiggershaus|first=Rolf|date=1994|publisher=MIT Press|isbn=9780262731133|language=en}} (1920? – later, second husband of Hede Massing), Werner Scholem{{Cite web|url=https://www.lokalkompass.de/event/bochum/c-information/ausstellung-im-haus-der-geschichte-des-ruhrgebiets-in-bochum-erinnert-an-den-frueheren-reichtstagsabgeordneten-werner-scholem-und-die-ehefrau-emmy_e233853|title=AUSSTELLUNG im Haus der Geschichte des Ruhrgebiets in Bochum erinnert an den früheren Reichtstagsabgeordneten WERNER SCHOLEM und die Ehefrau EMMY|website=Lokalkompass|language=de|access-date=2019-07-02}} (1920--?), Gerhart Eisler (1921–?? already, first husband of Hede Massing), Arkadi Maslow{{Cite web|url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=4759|title=Biographische Datenbanken- Maslow, Arkadi|website=bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de|access-date=2 July 2019}} (1921-?), Heinz Neumann{{Cite web|url=https://kommunismusgeschichte.de/jhk/jhk-2008/article/detail/heinz-neumanns-bussrituale-auch-ein-nachtrag-zum-protokoll-der-bruesseler-konferenz-der-kpd/|title=Heinz Neumanns Bußrituale- auch ein Nachtrag zum Protokoll der Brüsseler Konferenz der KPD|last=Müller|first=Reinhard|website=kommunismusgeschichte.de|access-date=2 July 2019}} (1922–1928?), Max Matern (1925-?), Hans Lorbeer{{Cite web|url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363;-1424.html?ID=2144|title=Biographische Datenbanken- Lorbeer, Hans|website=bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de|access-date=2 July 2019}} (1928--?), Erika Heymann (1930–1933), Albert Norden{{Cite web|url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363;-1424.html?ID=2533|title=Biographische Datenbanken- Norden, Albert|website=bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de|access-date=2 July 2019}} (1930–1933), Lutz Łask{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bFh3DwAAQBAJ&q=Lutz+%C5%81ask+%22rote+fahne%22&pg=PT117|title=Was bleibt, ist die Liebe: Von Beethovens Mutter bis Kafkas Braut|last=Grieser|first=Dietmar|date=2018-06-06|publisher=Amalthea Signum Verlag|isbn=9783903217188|language=de}} (1930s and husband of Franz Kafka's lover Dora Diamant), Franz Koritschoner,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AKVoDwAAQBAJ&q=Franz+Koritschoner+%22rote+fahne%22&pg=PA345|title=Revolution in Wien: Die literarische Intelligenz im politischen Umbruch 1918/19|last=Wolf|first=Norbert Christian|date=2018-08-13|publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht|isbn=9783205200789|language=de}} György Lukács,{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=be5FDwAAQBAJ&q=Gy%C3%B6rgy+Luk%C3%A1cs+%22rote+fahne%22&pg=PA136|title=Klassik im Vergleich: DFG-Symposion 1990|last=Vosskamp|first=Wilhelm|date=2016-02-17|publisher=Springer-Verlag|isbn=9783476055583|language=de}} Wolfgang Harich
• Contributors included: Emil Barth (1918?), Lilly Becher{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wWqWYbloUEoC&q=Lilly+Becher+%22rote+fahne%22&pg=PA149|title=Zwischen Vertrauen und Verrat: deutschsprachige kommunistische Intellektuelle und ihre sozialen Beziehungen (1918-1960)|last=Danzer|first=Doris|date=2012|publisher=V&R unipress GmbH|isbn=9783899719390|language=de}} (1921–?), Willi Schlamm{{Cite news|url=https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-43065669.html|title=HEILSKÜNDER / SCHLAMM: Chuzpe|date=1960-05-11|work=Spiegel Online|access-date=2019-07-02|volume=20}} (1923–?), Albert Hotopp (1923–1926), Hanns Eisler (1927),{{Cite web|url=https://www.lexm.uni-hamburg.de/object/lexm_lexmperson_00002566|title=Object Metadata @ LexM|website=www.lexm.uni-hamburg.de|access-date=2019-07-02}} Erich Mielke (1928–1931), John Sieg (1928–1933?), Jürgen Kuczynski (1930–1933), Max Zimmering (1935–1938?), Thomas Ring
• Artists included: John Heartfield{{Cite web|url=https://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/19310/1/Harth_Die_Photomontage_Heartfields.pdf|title=Die Photomontage Heartfields: das ist Photographie plus Dynamit|last=Harth|first=Dietrich|website=archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de|access-date=2 July 2019}}

Outlawed after the end of the Weimar Republic and the Reichstag fire in 1933, it was illegally distributed during the Nazi regime by underground groups close to the Communist Party{{Cite web|url=https://ns-ministerien-bw.de/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Kommunistische-T%C3%A4tigkeiten-anhand-Karlsruher-Beispielen.pdf|title=Ein Tanz auf Messers Schneide- Kommunistische Tätigkeiten vom Ende der Weimarer Republik bis in die frühe Bundesrepublik anhand ausgewählter Karlsruher Beispiele|last=Marotta|first=Alina|website=ns-ministerien-bw.de|access-date=11 July 2019}} until 1942. Wilhelm Guddorf was known to have been an editor of the newspaper in the late 1930s.{{cite book|author=Shareen Blair Brysac|title=Resisting Hitler: Mildred Harnack and the Red Orchestra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5nEXxloJxQYC&pg=PT206|access-date=6 February 2019|date=23 May 2002|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-992388-5|page=206}}

Following the events of 1968, several projects of ideologically divergent groups of the so-called old and the new left arose in the Federal German Republic to build a new communist party. In addition to the German Communist Party (DKP), which is widely known as the West German KPD successor party and publishes the newspaper Unsere Zeit as a party organ, various competing small communist parties, the so-called K groups, were founded, each of which was associated with different ideological concepts of communism (from Maoism to Stalinism to Trotskyism). Out of these groupings, there were several newspaper projects in the 1970s called Rote Fahne.

The Communist Party of Germany (KPD), a fringe party founded in 1990 by disgruntled members of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, publishes its own version of Die Rote Fahne.

{{Reflist}}

• [http://zefys.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en/list/title/zdb/24352111/ Die rote Fahne] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181215142337/http://zefys.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/en/list/title/zdb/24352111/ |date=2018-12-15 }} - Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
• [https://www.rf-news.de/ Rote Fahne News]
• [https://www.rf-news.de/rote-fahne/2019/nr01 Rote Fahne Magazine]

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Category:1918 establishments in Germany

Category:Communism in Germany

Category:Communist Party of Germany

Category:Communist newspapers

Category:Defunct newspapers published in Germany

Category:Newspapers published in Berlin

Category:German-language newspapers

Category:German-language communist newspapers

Category:Newspapers established in 1918

Category:Publications with year of disestablishment missing

Category:Daily newspapers published in Germany