Ruth Fischer (1895 – 1961)

Ruth Elfriede Eisler was born on December 11, 1895 in Leipzig. Her father was the philosopher Rudolf Eisler. Her brothers were the composer, Hanns Eisler and the journalist, Gerhart Eisler. The family moved to Vienna in 1901. While in high school she joined the Freideutsche Jugendbewegung a group promoting communist ideals. She studied philosophy at the University of Vienna and in 1914 she founded a leftist student organization. She married the journalist, Paul Friedländer in 1915. The couple would have one son, Friedrich. They would divorce in 1921.

In 1918 she became a co-founder of the KPDÖ (Communist Party of Austria). She edited the new party’s paper, Der Weckruf/Die Rote Fahne (The Wakeup call/The Red Banner). In 1919 she and her husband moved to Berlin. At that time she assumed the name, Ruth Fischer (Fischer had been her mother’s maiden name). In Berlin she was an active member of the KPD (Communist Party of Germany). To be able to remain in Germany she acquired German citizenship in 1923 through a marriage to Gustav Golke and in that context took on the name Elfriede Golke. The couple would divorce again in 1929.

In the following years Ruth Fischer would become an increasingly influential member of the left wing of the communist party. By 1924 she was the chair of the Political Office of the Central Committee of the KPD. Her leadership was more radically leftist than appealed to Moscow at that time. She traveled to Moscow and met with Joseph Stalin. She was detained there for 10 months before she was able to flee once again to Berlin. In Germany she was dismissed from the German communist party (KPD). Thereafter she withdrew from political activity and became a teacher and social worker in Berlin.

In 1933 the Nazi party stripped her of her German citizenship and she fled to France. There she founded the leftist Gruppe Internationale and worked together with Trotzki. Because of those activities, which were viewed with distain by Stalin, she was tried in absentia in Moscow in 1936 and sentenced to death. Pursued by both the Nazis and the Stalinists, she fled France and was able to make her way to New York by 1941. From that time on she undertook a struggle against the Stalinists. Simultaneously she was investigated by Joseph McCarthy’s House Committee on Unamerican Activities. In 1955 she returned to Paris. Ruth Fischer died in 1961 in Paris.

Ruth Fischer, eigentlich Elfriede Golke, wurde am 11. Dezember 1895 in Leipzig geboren und starb am 13. März 1961 in Paris. Sie war Politikerin und Publizistin. Sie studierte Philosophie, Nationalökonomie und Politik in Wien und Berlin. Während des 1. Weltkrieges war sie als Sozialdemokratin aktiv und 1918 war sie eine der Mitbegründer der KPÖ. 1921 wurde sie Präsidentin der Kommunistischen Partei Deutschlands. Sie war Mitglied des Präsidiums der Komintern und Reichstagsabgeordnete. Nach parteiinternen Auseinandersetzungen wurde Ruth Fischer 1926 aus der Partei ausgeschlossen. Sie zog sich von der aktiven politischen Tätigkeit zurück und arbeitete als Sozialfürsorgerin. 1933 emigriert sie nach Paris und 1940 in die USA. Dort arbeitet sie wissenschaftlich und publizistisch für die Harvard University. Seit 1945 lebte sie als Publizistin in Paris. Sie veröffentlichte "Stalin and German Communism" und "Die Umformung der Sowjetgesellschaft".