Willi Muenzenberg

Rezensionen / Stimmen

"Willi Muenzenberg is a key reference for anyone interested in anti-war movements since the First World War, left cultural politics, or specific relations between socialist and communist movements and transnational solidarity during the interwar period. And still, his biography and politics have fallen through existing webs of historical narration due to existing biases. Therefore I wholeheartedly welcome John Green's attempt to rediscover and critically re-evaluate Muenzenberg's biography and the extraordinary achievements during his lifetime." - Dr. Uwe Sonnenberg, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Berlin and Internationales Willi-Muenzenberg-Forum, Germany

"Willi Muenzenberg remains one of the twentieth century's most intriguing personalities on the political left. His influence and political legacy still remain largely underrated or misrepresented. John Green's Muenzenberg biography thus forms an important and timely contribution to this complex story, closely related to the rise of international communism and the Soviet Union. This accessible account will help a new generation of readers to discover Muenzenberg and his political activism for international solidarity, anti-colonialism and anti-fascism." - Kasper Brasken, Abo Akademi University, Finland

"My grandmother, Babette Gross, worked for Willi Muenzenberg from 1920. She later became his life partner, living and working with him until his death in 1940. The aim of her Political Biography was to tell the story of his life objectively, supported by historical evidence and relying as little as possible on subjective experience. Subsequent biographers, although drawing on her account, have interpreted Muenzenberg and his activities through their own somewhat tinted historical perspectives and attitudes. John Green's new biography has a more even-handed approach to the historical setting, bringing relevance to this area for a new generation of readers. A welcome addition to the scholarship, it throws a clearer light on the life and times of the enigmatic Willi Muenzenberg and his fellow-travellers." - Dr. Catherine Gross, The Australian National University, Australia

"John Green's new biography, Willi Munzenberg Fighter against Fascism and Stalinism, is a valuable addition to the growing literature on both Munzenberg and the Weimar period. It is particularly useful in its straightforward account of the treacherous behaviour of the leaders of social democracy around the first world war, the defeat of the 1918 German revolution and the consolidation of capitalist power in Germany." - Nick Wright, Morning Star