The late 1920s and early 1930s saw rising tensions mainly between three broad groups, the
Communist Party of Germany (KPD) on one side, the
Nazi Party a second, and a coalition of governing parties, mainly
social democrats,
conservatives and
liberals, making up a third side.
Berlin in particular was the site of regular and often very violent clashes. , the
KPD became a
Stalinist party and viewed the
SPD as both its main adversary and as "
social fascists". Under the leadership of
Ernst Thälmann, the KPD became a
Stalinist party that was fiercely loyal to the
Soviet government. Since 1928, the KPD was largely controlled and funded by the Soviet government through the
Comintern. Up until 1928, the KPD pursued a
united front policy of working with other working class and socialist parties to combat
fascism. It was in this period, in 1924, that the ("Red Front Fighters League"; RFB), the KPD's paramilitary and propaganda organisation and first anti-fascist front, had been formed. The RFB was often involved in violent clashes with the police. After the
Communist International's abrupt turn in its
Third Period from 1928, the KPD regarded the
Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) as its main adversary and adopted the position that the SPD was the main fascist party in Germany. This was based on the theory of
social fascism that had been proclaimed by
Joseph Stalin and that was supported by the Comintern during the late 1920s and early 1930s, which held that
social democracy was a variant of fascism. Consequently, the KPD held that it was "the only anti-fascist party" in Germany and stated that "fighting fascism means fighting the SPD just as much as it means fighting
Hitler and the parties of
Brüning." In 1929, the KPD's banned public
May Day rally in Berlin was broken up by police;
33 people were killed in the clash and subsequent rioting. The RFB was then banned as extremist by the governing Social Democrats. In 1930, the KPD established the RFB's
de facto successor, known as ("Fighting Alliance against Fascism"), which had 100,000 members by the end of the year. In late 1931, local ("Red Mass Self-Defence", RMSS), units were formed by Kampfbund members as autonomous and loosely organized structures under the leadership of, but outside the formal organization of the KPD as part of the party's
united front policy to work with other working class groups to defeat "fascism" as interpreted by the party. During the Third Period, the KPD viewed the Nazi Party ambiguously. On one hand, the KPD considered the Nazi Party to be one of the fascist parties. On the other hand, the KPD sought to appeal to the
Strasserite-wing of the Nazi movement by using nationalist slogans. According to
Günter Fippel, the KPD sometimes cooperated with the Nazis in attacking the SPD. In 1931, the Nazis in
an unsuccessful attempt to bring down the SPD state government of Prussia by means of a referendum; the KPD initially opposed it but then joined forces, calling the Nazis "working people's comrades". In the usage of the Soviet Union, and of the Comintern and its affiliated parties in this period, including the KPD, the epithet
fascist was used to describe capitalist society in general and virtually any anti-Soviet or anti-Stalinist activity or opinion. The formation of in 1932 indicated a shift away from the Third Period policies, as fascism came to be recognised as a more serious threat (the two red flags on its logo symbolized Communists in unity with socialists), leading up to the 1934 and 1935 adoption of a
popular front policy of anti-fascist unity with non-Communist groups. In October 1931, a coalition of right-wing and far-right parties established the
Harzburg Front, which opposed the government of the
Centre Party's Heinrich Brüning. However, from the mid-1930s, the term
anti-fascist became ubiquitous in Soviet, Comintern, and KPD usage, as Communists who had been attacking democratic rivals were now told to change tack and engage in coalitions with them against the fascist threat. == Establishment ==