Germany in the early 1920s After leaving Siemens, Mattick's employment became sporadic. He traveled to
Hanover and
Bremen, a center of radical activity, working briefly as an electrician before returning to Berlin. He found a clerical job with a sugar industry trade association, where he engaged in petty theft of mail and eventually sold the association's entire archive to a paper-recycling dealer, using the proceeds for his youth group. He also hawked newspapers to earn money for meals. A relationship with Selma Babad, a multilingual typist eight years his senior, began during this period. Babad assisted Mattick with forging documents for employment, as he lacked complete apprenticeship papers. Their correspondence covered a wide range of political and literary topics. Babad, more moderate politically, encouraged Mattick to pursue regular employment and further professional training. The relationship eventually ended, with Babad criticizing Mattick's recklessness and perceived immaturity. The radical left in Germany was in decline, with the KAPD shrinking significantly by 1922 due to internal splits and dwindling support. One major schism involved the relationship with the Russian
Bolsheviks; another concerned the structure of the movement, with some advocating for a "unity organization" (
Allgemeine Arbeiter Union-Einheitsorganisation, AAUE) that would merge political and workplace (Allgemeine Arbeiter Union Deutschlands, AAUD) functions. Despite these issues, the combined KAPD-AAUD-AAUE still had around 50,000 adherents in mid-1922. Mattick worked briefly at
Deutz Engines in
Cologne, a physically demanding job in locomotive production. He helped instigate a strike there, leading to his arrest warrant for destruction of property, though charges were later dropped. He also participated in an AAUD strike at the
Hoechst chemical complex in
Leverkusen, which involved a two-week factory occupation. During these years, Mattick developed important friendships. Reinhold Klingenberg, whose family home in Berlin provided a sanctuary and exposure to art and literature, shared a similar radical political trajectory. Karl Gonschoreck, a fellow working-class writer and expropriator, encouraged Mattick's literary efforts and published in the same KAPD and AAUD papers, such as
Kommunistische Arbeiter Zeitung (KAZ) and
Kampfruf. Between 1924 and 1926, Mattick published around twenty pieces, including vignettes, political commentary, and book reviews. He also had contact with the
Cologne Progressives, a group of radical artists including
Franz Seiwert, through his acquaintance Paul Kühne. In Cologne, Mattick met Frieda Olle (née Schnorrenberg, formerly Rheiner), the widow of the expressionist poet
Walter Rheiner. Seven years his senior, charismatic, and involved in Cologne's radical art and publishing scene, Frieda had two young children, Renee and Hans. After Walter Rheiner's death by drug overdose in June 1925, Frieda faced pressure from welfare authorities due to her cohabitation with Mattick and her reliance on public support. To prevent her children from being placed in foster care, Paul and Frieda married four months after Rheiner's death.
Emigration to the United States Chronic unemployment and the declining radical movement in Germany led the Matticks to consider emigration. Distant relatives in
Benton Harbor, Michigan, provided affidavits for the voyage. Mattick secured funding for his passage from the city of Cologne, arguing it was cheaper than long-term unemployment support. He sailed in March 1926, just before his twenty-second birthday, listed as a "library clerk" on the ship's manifest. The twelve-day voyage in third class was an unpleasant experience, culminating in a day-long processing at
Ellis Island, which Mattick found immense, impersonal, and bureaucratic. Mattick found factory work in Benton Harbor arranged by his relatives, who had hoped he would marry one of their daughters. When they learned he was already married, relations cooled, and Frieda and the children were isolated upon their arrival five months later. The family struggled with debt, and life in the small town was a sharp contrast to their cosmopolitan experiences in Germany. A miscarriage added to Frieda's distress. In spring 1927, Mattick learned of his father's death in Berlin from suspected
lead poisoning. His mother, then forty-eight, returned to work as a laundress. Despite the difficulties, Mattick resumed writing in German, contributing
cultural criticism and fictionalized accounts of
American working-class life to the German radical press, particularly
KAZ and
Kampfruf. He analyzed
working-class obsessions with sports and
stock markets, the pervasiveness of
religion, and the influence of
advertising.
Great Depression and Chicago In September 1928, Mattick moved to
Chicago and began working as a mechanic at
Western Electric's
Hawthorne Works, a massive telecommunications equipment plant. Employment there peaked at 43,000 during the speculative surge before the
Great Depression. The company offered extensive corporate welfare programs, though Mattick was subject to fines for lateness due to his preoccupation with reading and writing. In Chicago, Mattick connected with the
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), distributing
KAZ and
Kampfruf at German-speaking events. He initiated discussions about amalgamating the IWW with German
council communist groups (KAPD/AAUD), leading to extensive correspondence and translation projects. Key differences emerged regarding political affiliations and organizational forms; the IWW insisted that the AAUD reconstitute itself as IWW chapters, which German colleagues saw as a "
Bolshevisation" reminiscent of earlier Comintern dictates. Mattick's article "On International Affiliations" (1930), his first in English, appeared in several IWW papers and AAUD publications, sparking wide debate. Ultimately, the amalgamation efforts failed, and Mattick drifted from the IWW. , 1931 The Great Depression hit Chicago hard, with unemployment reaching 28% by early 1931. Mattick lost his job at Western Electric (where employment had fallen to 16,000) in early 1931. He became active with the
Proletarian Party, teaching classes on socialist theory, and the Worker Educational Association (WEA), a German-style group fostering self-education and political agitation. He played a central role in reviving the
Chicagoer Arbeiter Zeitung (CAZ) on behalf of the
Kartell, a coalition of German socialist clubs. Between February and December 1931, Mattick wrote substantial portions of the ten issues published, covering international events, local politics, crisis theory, and the history of the Chicago labor movement. The CAZ faced intense opposition from the
Communist Party, which saw it as a rival, leading to a bitter struggle that ultimately contributed to the paper's demise. In the spring of 1932, Mattick embarked on a months-long tramping tour of the southern United States, traveling by car, foot, and hitchhiking through
New Orleans,
Pensacola, and
Georgia, where he spent two weeks with
Seminole Indians. He later spent several months in
New York.
Henryk Grossman's
The Law of Accumulation and Breakdown of the Capitalist System (1929) profoundly influenced Mattick's understanding of Marxist
crisis theory, becoming a central theme in his work. He discussed Grossman's ideas extensively with Reinhold Klingenberg in Berlin and Henk Canne Meijer in the Netherlands. == Unemployed movement and council communism ==