KPD provocations against its own branches backfired into repeated defeats

Evidence

In March 1921 the KPD used the resistance by the workforces of several factories to a disarmament action carried out by the Prussian Security Police as an opportunity to call for a general strike and the arming of the workers. The party tried to goad the workers into action by carrying out bomb attacks on its own party branches, on the Victory Column in Berlin, and so on, but suffered a serious defeat, just as it had done earlier in the Berlin struggles of January 1919 and would do again later in the fiasco of the German October' of 1923. — <cite>Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 46</cite> (#corroborates`, via linked claim)

All this might be condemned as putschism', but it could also be seen by impatient young left-wingers as evidence of the party's willingness to commit itself to revolutionary action. — <cite>Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 46</cite> (#qualifies`, via linked claim)

Communist Party (KPD) had increased in the regional and district elections, and this development continued even after the value of the mark stabilized in November 1923 and after the temporary banning of the KPD in the winter of 1923-4. In the general election to the Reichstag in May 1924, the KPD, with 3.7 million votes, had 12.6 per cent, trailing the Social Democrats with 20.5 per cent, the Deutschnationale Volkspartei (German National People’s Party) with 19.5 per cent and the Zentrum/Bayrische Volkspartei (Centre/Bavarian People’s Party) with 16.6 per cent. The fact that the KPD had been banned, following the miserable failure of its attempted insurrection in October 1923, had hardly damaged its image at all. It held its Ninth Party Conference in Frankfurt from 7 to 10 April 1924. Since arrest warrants were still out against many party officials even after the lifting of the ban on the party itself on 1 March, the conference was held illegally. The trade fair was going on at the same time, and the gathering of 163 delegates did not attract any notice. It was only in April that the police (who were under the control of tolerant Social Democrats) found out that the Communist Party Conference had been held in a religious hostel in Frankfurt. This sort of affair could only reinforce the KPD’s image as a radical and active political party, giving it influence and weight beyond the numbers of its actual members. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 82 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The early KPD adopted putschist tactics that repeatedly ended in defeat — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 46; The KPD’s abortive uprisings doubled as recruiting signals for impatient leftists — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 46; The KPD’s failed 1923 insurrection and ban barely damaged its electoral standing — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 82

Broader Connections

• The early KPD adopted putschist tactics that repeatedly ended in defeat #corroborates (0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 46
• The KPD’s abortive uprisings doubled as recruiting signals for impatient leftists #qualifies (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 46
• The KPD’s failed 1923 insurrection and ban barely damaged its electoral standing #qualifies (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 82