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Paul Levi (1883 - 1930) was a German Jewish Communist political leader. He was the head of the Communist Party of Germany following the assassination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in 1919.
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Paul Levi was born 11 March 1883 in Hechingen in Hohenzollern Province into a Jewish middle-class family, joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) in 1906. There he became part of the party’s left wing together with Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Beginning in 1913, Levi was also Luxemburg's lawyer in political cases.
During World War I Levi was conscripted. Discharged in 1916, he settled in Switzerland, associating with Karl Radek and Vladimir Lenin, becoming a part of the Zimmerwald Left. He was recalled to the army, again discharged and became one of the leaders of the Spartacist League in 1918, which soon became the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). He opposed the initiatives of Karl Liebknecht in January 1919.
After the failure of the German Revolution of 1918/1919, and the killing of the KPD’s main leaders Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and Leo Jogiches, Levi took over as the central leader of the Communist Party, waging struggles against the party's Council Communist ultra-left. He led the party away from the policy of immediate revolution, in an effort to win over SPD and Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) workers. These efforts were rewarded when a substantial section of the USPD joined the KPD, making it a mass party for the first time.
Levi headed the German delegation to the 2nd World Congress of the Communist International in Moscow in 1920.
Following disputes within the KPD around splits within the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), which were fuelled in part by the role of the Comintern, Levi resigned from the chairmanship of the Communist Party in early 1921, alongisde his co-chairman Ernst Däumig and Clara Zetkin, Otto Brass and Adolf Hofman also resigned from the Central Committee. Shortly after, under the influence of Béla Kun, the party launched the March uprisings of 1921.
Following the failure of the uprisings Levi was expelled from the Communist Party for publicly criticizing party policies. Lenin and Trotsky substantially agreed with his criticisms, but not the way in which he had made them. Lenin sent him a private letter through his friend Clara Zetkin, in which he asked Levi to accept the expulsion for "break of discipline" and then adopt a friendly approach towards the KPD and cooperate with it in the class struggle in a loyal manner. If Levi would do so, Lenin would then push for his reinstatement in the party. Levi did not accept this proposal and continued to criticize the party sharply and condemn its leaders.
Levi edited a monthly Sowjet ("Soviet"), later named Unser Weg ("Our Way").
After being expelled from the Communist Party, Levi formed the Communist Working Collective (KAG). In 1922 he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. Later, he rejoined the Social Democratic Party.
Levi died on 9 February 1930 in Berlin. He succumbed to injuries suffered when he fell from his window. After his death the Reichstag held a minute of commemoration during which the representatives of the Communist Party and the Nazi Party ostentatiously left the assembly hall.
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