The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, officially the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and also known as the Hitler–Stalin Pact and the Nazi–Soviet Pact, was a non-aggression pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, with a secret protocol establishing Soviet and German spheres of influence across Northern Europe. The pact was signed in Moscow on 23 August 1939 by Soviet Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Schaffhausen, historically known in English as Shaffhouse, is a town with historic roots, a municipality in northern Switzerland, and the capital of the canton of the same name; it has an estimated population of 36,000 as of December 2016. It is located right next to the shore of the High Rhine; it is one of four Swiss towns located on the northern side of the Rhine, along with Neuhausen am Rheinfall, the historic Neunkirch, and medieval Stein am Rhein.
The Communist Party of Germany was a major far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, an underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and a minor party in West Germany during the postwar period until it was banned by the Federal Constitutional Court in 1956.
Ernst Johannes Fritz Thälmann was a German communist politician and leader of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) from 1925 to 1933.
The canton of Schaffhausen, also canton of Schaffhouse, is the northernmost canton of Switzerland. The principal city and capital of the canton is Schaffhausen. The canton's territory is divided into three non-contiguous segments, where German territory reaches the Rhine. The large central part, which includes the capital, in turn separates the German exclave of Büsingen am Hochrhein from the rest of Germany.
The Anti-Comintern Pact, officially the Agreement against the Communist International was an anti-Communist pact concluded between Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan on 25 November 1936 and was directed against the Communist International (Comintern). It was signed by German ambassador-at-large Joachim von Ribbentrop and Japanese ambassador to Germany Kintomo Mushanokōji. Italy joined in 1937, but it was legally recognized as an original signatory by the terms of its entry. Spain and Hungary joined in 1939. Other countries joined during World War II.
The Swiss Party of Labour is a communist party in Switzerland.
The Liberal Party of Switzerland or Swiss Liberal Party was a political party in Switzerland with economically liberal policies. It was known as a party of the upper class. On 1 January 2009 it merged with the larger Free Democratic Party (FDP/PRD) to form FDP.The Liberals.
German–Soviet Union relations date to the aftermath of the First World War. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, dictated by Germany ended hostilities between Russia and Germany; it was signed on March 3, 1918. A few months later, the German ambassador to Moscow, Wilhelm von Mirbach, was shot dead by Russian Left Socialist-Revolutionaries in an attempt to incite a new war between Russia and Germany. The entire Soviet embassy under Adolph Joffe was deported from Germany on November 6, 1918, for their active support of the German Revolution. Karl Radek also illegally supported communist subversive activities in Weimar Germany in 1919.
Wilhelm Münzenberg was a German Communist political activist and publisher.
Social fascism was a theory developed by the Communist International (Comintern) in the early 1930s which saw social democracy as a moderate variant of fascism.
The Old Swiss Confederacy, also known as Switzerland or the Swiss Confederacy, was a loose confederation of independent small states, initially within the Holy Roman Empire. It is the precursor of the modern state of Switzerland.
Communist Party Opposition was a Swiss communist party 1930–1935, connected to the German Communist Party Opposition. It was the Swiss affiliate to the International Communist Opposition. In 1921, most radical of the left wing left the Communist International and formed the Communist Party of Switzerland.
The Wittorf affair was a political scandal that occurred in the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) during the Weimar Republic in 1928. Chairman Ernst Thälmann was ousted from the KPD Central Committee when his close friend John Wittorf had embezzled from a party campaign fund and Thälmann tried to cover up the embezzlement. Joseph Stalin had Thälmann reinstated as KPD Chairman using the influence of Comintern, completing the Stalinization of the KPD and beginning a purge of moderates from the party.
Heinz Neumann was a German politician from the Communist Party (KPD) and a journalist. He was a member of the Communist International, editor in chief of the party newspaper Die Rote Fahne and a member of the Reichstag. He was one of the many victims to Stalin's Great Purge.
The Swiss Socialist Federation was a political party in Switzerland.
Eugen Fried was a Czechoslovak communist who played a leading role in the French Communist Party in the 1930s and early 1940s as the representative of the Communist International. He ensured that the party leaders were loyal to Joseph Stalin and followed the instructions of Moscow. He was ruthless but discreet, and stayed out of the public eye.
Philipp Dengel was a German communist journalist and politician. Dengel was a member of the Reichstag for the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) between 1924 and 1930, a member of the KPD Central Committee and Politburo, and an editor of Die Rote Fahne. Dengel was a close ally of KPD leader Ernst Thälmann until they fell out over the so-called Wittorf affair in 1928, for which he was demoted within the KPD and removed as a candidate for the 1930 federal election. Dengel lived principally in Moscow and worked as an official for Comintern between 1931 and 1947. Dengel returned to Germany shortly before his death in East Berlin in 1948.
