Born in
Berlin into a middle-class family, Neumann studied
philology and came into contact with
Marxist ideas. In 1920, he was admitted into the Communist Party by
Ernst Reuter, then
General Secretary.
August Thalheimer took him under his wing. Neumann began writing editorials for various KPD newspapers in 1921. He dropped out of university in 1922 and became editor of the
Rote Fahne (
Red Flag). He was arrested and spent six months in prison, during which he took up
Russian and learned it so well that he could speak to Soviet party officials without an interpreter. In 1922, he met
Joseph Stalin on a trip and spoke to him in Russian. From that point until 1932, he was a strong supporter of Stalin. He first belonged to the left wing of the KPD, led by
Ruth Fischer. In 1923, he aligned himself with
Arthur Ewert and
Gerhart Eisler and became the political leader of the "Middle Group" in the party's
Mecklenburg district. He participated in the
Hamburg Uprising as a member of the party's
Antimilitärischer Apparat and in 1924 had to flee to
Vienna from where he was expelled to the
Soviet Union in 1925. There, he succeeded
Iwan Katz as Communist Party representative to the
Comintern. From July to December 1927, he represented the Comintern in
China. Working with Georgian communist
Vissarion Lominadze, he helped
Chinese communists organise the
Guangzhou Uprising on 11 December 1927. The rebellion was a complete failure and resulted in great casualties. The Chinese communist leader
Zhang Guotao blamed Neumann for that and claimed that the German had insisted that
Guangzhou should be held at all cost against a
National Revolutionary Army counter-offensive although that was not feasible for the local communists. Neumann went back to
Germany in 1928 and after the
Wittorf Affair became one of the most important politicians of the KPD. He was considered the major theoretician of the party and became editor in chief of the
Rote Fahne. As the chief ideologist, he was responsible for the ultra-left policies, the
Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts Opposition and the
social fascism policy, which were aimed mainly at toppling the ruling SPD. At the same time, he encouraged fighting the
Nazis whenever expedient and coined the slogan
Schlagt die Faschisten, wo ihr sie trefft! ("Beat the fascists wherever you meet them!"), which was valid until 1932. Along with fellow Reichstag deputy
Hans Kippenberger, Neumann was the leader of the KPD's
paramilitary wing, the '''' (Party Self-Defence Unit, a part of the AM-Apparat). As such, Neumann had a major role in planning the 1931
assassination of Paul Anlauf and Franz Lenck, both of whom were SPD members and Precinct Captains in the
Berlin Police. However, Neumann's partner at the time,
Margarete Buber-Neumann, denied any such involvement: "Heinz Neumann was an opponent of individual terror and had nothing to do with the KPD's terror apparatus." portrait, 1930 Elected to the
Reichstag in 1930, in 1931, Neumann began to disagree openly with both Stalin and the KPD leader,
Ernst Thälmann. Neumann felt that by focusing exclusively on toppling the ruling SPD, the KPD was underestimating the growing threat posed by the
Nazi Party, with which the KPD was often allying itself against the SPD. In retaliation for his dissenting stance, Neumann's motion was defeated and in April 1932 he was relieved of all his party functions; in November he even lost his seat in the Reichstag.
Leo Flieg and
Franz Dahlem, Central Committee members
Willi Münzenberg, and ,
Baden-
Palatinate political leader
Karl Fischer,
Berlin-
Brandenberg organizational leader
Albert Kuntz, illegal
RFB first secretary , Women's Section head
Roberta Gropper, Central Committee technical secretary ,
KJVD leaders
Kurt Müller, , , and , and
Die Rote Fahne editor
Alexander Abusch and deputy editor
Albert Norden, most of whom were also punished. Neumann was sent to the
Second Spanish Republic to represent the Comintern and then lived illegally in
Switzerland. In September 1933, the
public prosecutor of Berlin, based on the confessions of 15 of his co-conspirators, charged Neumann with
first-degree murder for his involvement in the murders of Captains Anlauf and Lenck. In January 1934, while still a fugitive from the German police, Neumann was accused of having tried to split the KPD and was forced to write a criticism and
self-criticism. In late 1934, he was arrested in
Zurich by the Swiss immigration authorities and was imprisoned for six months after which he was expelled. He was sent to the Soviet Union, where he fell victim to the
Great Purge. == Death ==