Wittorf affair

This article is part of a series about Ernst Thälmann
Personal Early life, family, and education Imprisonment and execution Reichstag elections May 1924 December 1924 1928 1930 July 1932 November 1932 March 1933 Early political career SPD USPD German Revolution of 1918–1919 3rd World Congress of the Comintern German October Hamburg Uprising 1925 German presidential election Chairman of the Communist Party of Germany Marxism–Leninism Stalinism Social fascism Roter Frontkämpferbund Conciliator faction Wittorf affair Blutmai Antifaschistische Aktion 1932 German presidential election Legacy Thälmann Battalion Ernst Thälmann Company Pioneer Organisation sessions Ernst Thälmann (film) Ernst Thälmann Island
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The Wittorf affair (German: Wittorf-Affäre) 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.^[1][2]