Private company

Kommunistischer Arbeiterbund Deutschlands

Logo: KABD, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Communist party in Germany, 1972–1982

The Communist Workers Union of Germany (German: Kommunistischer Arbeiterbund Deutschlands, KABD) was a K-Gruppe, and a Communist party in West Germany. The party was founded on August 5, 1972, through a split from the Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 21, 2026.

Overview

1972Founded1
Rote Fahne 1973-pjt
Photo: Pjt56, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons5

The Communist Workers Union of Germany (German: Kommunistischer Arbeiterbund Deutschlands, KABD) was a K-Gruppe, and a Communist party in West Germany. The party was founded on August 5, 1972, through a split from the Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists.2

The story

The organization reportedly "fully supported" the works of Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao. The declared aim of the KABD was to build "a new Marxist-Leninist party" away from the "revisionist degeneration" of the German Communist Party (DKP). Willi Dickhut, one of the initiators of the split, was expelled from the DKP in 1966.

Dickhut served as the editor of the party's theoretical organ Revolutionary Way: Problems of Marxism-Leninism (Revolutionärer Weg: Probleme des Marxismus-Leninismus). The organization's central organ was the "Red Flag" (Rote Fahne), which exists today as the MLPD's "Red Flag Magazine" (Rote Fahne Magazin). The organization's youth wing was the Revolutionary Youth League of Germany. The party's membership hovered around 900 people.

On January 17, 1981, the leadership of the federation announced the prospect of founding a party. This was realized in 1982 with the formation of the Marxist–Leninist Party of Germany (MLDP).

From Wikipedia’s article on Communist Workers Union of Germany (1972), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Timeline

  1. 1982Dissolved Dissolved1
  2. 1972Founded Founded1