K-Groups (Germany)


K-Groups is a term referring to various small, Maoist organizations and political parties that sprang up in West Germany at the end of the 1960s, following the collapse of the Socialist German Students' Union, and general collapse of the West German student movement. K-Groups played a particularly important role within the New Left in West Germany during the first half of the 1970s. The term "K-Group" was used primarily by competing left-wing groups and in the media. It served as a collective term for the numerous, often fiercely divided groups and alluded to their shared self-image as communist cadre organizations.
Various organizations referred to as K-Groups included the Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists, the Communist Party of Germany , the Communist League, the Communist League of West Germany, the Communist Workers Union of Germany, and the Bavarian-based .
In 1971 the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution estimated that Germany had around twenty active Maoist groups, with 800 - 15,000 members between them. Following the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, K-Groups began to fade in membership and salience. Numerous activists subsequently joined the newly formed peace and environmental movement and the resulting Green Party. Maoist activists from workplace interventions and factory groups, who had initially hoped for immediate revolution, now became long-term active members of workers' council and trade unions. Only the Marxist–Leninist Party of Germany has established itself permanently.
Other contemporary German far-left parties, such as the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin and German Communist Party, were not considered K-Groups, as they were oriented towards Eastern European "real socialism." Today however, the term is sometimes used somewhat vaguely in German media as a collective term for all small socialist or communist parties/organizations beyond the Social Democratic Party of Germany and Die Linke.

History

Origins within the Student Movement

Previously mentioned, K-groups emerged toward the end of the West German student movement in the late 1960s. Most K-Groups emerged from various regional chapters of the disintegrating Socialist German Students' Union. Although efforts were made to reach out to apprentices, workers, and especially former members of the banned Communist Party of Germany, most K-groups remained dominated by students and intellectuals. Many K-groups were characterized by an elitist attitude among their members. Unlike the student movement, they often propagated an ascetic lifestyle. Culturally, the K-groups often drew inspiration from the proletarian literature of the Weimar Republic, Chinese socialist realism, and Albanian folklore.
According to German Sociologist Gunnar Hincks, he theorized that the adoption of authoritarian power and subjugation techniques by children from middle-class backgrounds was often caused by family disruptions during the war and post-war period and a period of orientation that gave rise to a strong need for recognition and group affiliation, even to the point of sectarianism.

Ideological "Role Models"

Almost all K-groups viewed themselves as legitimate heirs of the historic Communist Party of Germany. They were united in their rejection of Eastern European socialism following Khrushchev's De-Stalinization campaign in 1956, which they dismissed as "revisionist." K-Groups ideologically referred to Mao Zedong's Chinese model of socialism, or to Joseph Stalin's tenure as General Secretary of the CPSU. After Mao's death and the associated change of course in China, some groups re-oriented themselves toward Albania under Enver Hoxha. Given the ideological breadth of the K-Groups, and a lack of unity, controversy and splits were common and often difficult for outsiders to understand. Critics have therefore often accused the K-groups of a tendency toward ideological "self-flagellation" and political sectarianism. There were, however, attempts to emphasize common themes and overcome fragmentation among themselves. In isolated cases, there was even cooperation with Trotskyist groups that had previously been strongly opposed, which lead to the founding of the United Socialist Party in 1986 By this time, however, the K-groups had already lost importance.

Reception by the Political Establishment

Viewing the K-Groups as an "interface to terrorism," the Christian Democratic Union of Germany demanded that the K-Groups be banned, with specific focus on the KBW, KPD, and KPD/ML.

Decline and Transition

Following the Decline of the K-Groups in the 1970s, many former members went onto contribute their views to the activities of segments of the new social movements, such as the environmental movement, peace/anti-war movement, and anti-imperialist movement. Through these movements, numerous former K-Group members turned activists later found a new political home within the German Green Party, or the establishment left such as:

Similar Organizations in Europe

At the same time in other countries in Western Europe, left-wing extra-parliamentary student movements in the 1960s sprang-up, with ensuing successor and splinter parties comparable to the German K-groups in terms of content and structure emerged, and continued to emerge. Similar parties in Western Europe rejected the Eastern European, Brezhnevite, "real socialism" and were also generally oriented towards Maoist China or Hoxhaite Albania, all generally declining after the death of Mao Zedong.