Historical Events of the Revolutionary World Movement

Hamburg Uprising of 1923

Hamburg Uprising of 1923

1923 - 2013

Greeting Message of the Comintern (SH )

90 years ago, the Hamburg workers took up arms, and gave the signal for the socialist revolution in Germany through their uprising. It was the first time that workers in Germany had organized an armed uprising under the leadership of the Communist Party with Ernst Thalmann at the top, and with the direct guidance and support of the Communist International - namely with the goal of the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

For 3 days ,

Hamburg was in the hands of the workers!

The Hamburg October fighters of 1923 turned the bourgeoisie on the brinks, but after three days, the workers decided their orderly retreat , because the spark of revolution did not spread out on a national scale. Thus, the defeat was avoided and a triumph of counterrevolution thwarted.

The Hamburg uprising was short-lived, but long enough to show the whole world impressively that their is no other alternative of shaking off the yoke of capitalism and to overthrow the bourgeoisie than the armed revolutionary violence of the proletariat.

These teachings of Marxism-Leninism, which have already been brilliantly confirmed by the victory of the Russian October Revolution were consciously implemented in practice by the Hamburg workers.

The Hamburg uprising was a higher form of armed insurrection because it was a socialist uprising led by the Communist Party as a Section of the Communist International, which was founded only four years ago. And this very fact expresses the internationalist character of the Hamburg uprising. The Hamburg workers saw their role as the vanguard not only for the liberation of their city, not only as the shock troops of the German proletarian revolution, but primarily as the standard-bearer of the socialist world revolution in the capitalist world. At the barricades, the Hamburg workers called to the world revolution ("Schiffbek appeal" of comrade Fiete Schulze who was murdered by the Nazis later on). Thus, Hamburg became the beacon for the proletariat all over the capitalist countries.

The Great October Socialist Revolution was the beginning of the world socialist revolution, and in Hamburg it was continued heroically.

Lenin and Stalin had realized that the revolutionary situation in Germany was crucial for the victory of the world revolution, and that this, ultimately, could consolidate the triumph of the Revolution in Russia. That is why the Bolsheviks did their utmost to support the revolution in Germany without shying away from the hardest victims. Although the Russian proletariat itself was very hungry at that time, it sent a Russian grain steamer to the port of Hamburg to rescue the Hamburg proletariat from starvation - truly proletarian internationalism, indeed !

Stalin said that in the autumn of 1923:

"The proletarian dictatorship was getting ready to render direct assistance to the German revolution"

The great heroism of the Hamburg workers is now documented in numerous writings, images and a movie ("Ernst Thalmann - son of his class"). We are proud to present the most comprehensive online archive of the world about the Hamburg Uprising in 1923. Among the writings, published by us, there are also those that were edited in the social fascist GDR. We have selected a few of them in which valuable historical material is included (only for the purpose of studies !). Of course, we must handle these texts critically, because we know that the revisionists (although in favor of the armed struggle by lips-service) deny and betray the Marxist-Leninist principle of the violent overthrow of the bourgeois class. Thus, the modern revisionists also betrayed our communist leader Ernst Thalmann! The betrayal of the Rightists and Conciliators within the KPD was finally one of the major reasons why the Revolution in Hamburg could not spread throughout the country on a national scale. The German proletariat was ready to move to the final battle, but the right-wing leadership in the Communist Party, Brandler - Thalheimer and Co., they attacked the German socialist revolution from behind.