Comrade Emil Eichhorn, one of the old guard of Social Democratic leaders remaining faithful until death to the revolutionary proletariat, died on 26 July.
Comrade Emil Eichhorn was born on 9 October 1863 at Roehrsdorf near Chemnitz. During the period in which the “Socialist Law” was in force, he joined the then prohibited Social Democratic movement, and took an energetic part in the illegal work of this movement. He was a metal worker by trade, participated in the labour movement from his earliest youth, and was invariably to be found in the front ranks of both trade union and political organisations.
In 1893 he became editor of the “Slichsischen Arbeiterzeitung” in Dresden, and soon after this chief editor of the Mannheim “Volskstimme”. In 1901 the workers of Mannheim elected him to the Baden Diet, and in 1903 the workers of Pforzheim to the Reichstag, of which he was a member up to the time of his death.
In the old Social Democratic Party, Emil Eichhorn was one of the extreme Left wing, fa company with Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht, and the others. On 9 November 1918 the Independent Social Democratic Party called upon him to under take the post of President of Police in Berlin. Whilst the whole of the leaders of the German Social Democratic Party and of the Independent Social Democratic Party betrayed and misled the revolutionary proletariat of Berlin at every step, Emil Eichhorn held true to the revolution. Hence the inextinguishable hate and rage of Ebert, Scheidemann, and their like, who caused the monarchist White Guards to be marched against the Berlin Presidency of Police on 12 January 1919, a step leading to frightful fighting in the streets. Emil Eichhorn’s faithfulness to the revolutionary proletariat of Berlin caused him to be persecuted up to the day of his death by class legislation. The proceedings taken against him in 1919 have never been abandoned, and every time the Reichtstag was dissolved, comrade Eichhorn was obliged to seek safety from arrest by flight.
When a treacherous disease kept him confined to his bed for many months some years ago, it was feared that he would not recover, but on this occasion he was able to join our ranks again, and on 7 December the revolutionary proletariat again elected him to the Reichstag.
With the exec1ptions of Clara Zetkin and Josef Herzfeld, comrade Eichhorn was the only one of the really old guard of Social Democrats to find his way to Communism.
The international working class will be true to his memory.
International Press Correspondence, widely known as”Inprecor” was published by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (ECCI) regularly in German and English, occasionally in many other languages, beginning in 1921 and lasting in English until 1938. Inprecor’s role was to supply translated articles to the English-speaking press of the International from the Comintern’s different sections, as well as news and statements from the ECCI. Many ‘Daily Worker’ and ‘Communist’ articles originated in Inprecor, and it also published articles by American comrades for use in other countries. It was published at least weekly, and often thrice weekly. The ECCI also published the magazine ‘Communist International’ edited by Zinoviev and Karl Radek from 1919 until 1926 monthly in German, French, Russian, and English. Unlike, Inprecor, CI contained long-form articles by the leading figures of the International as well as proceedings, statements, and notices of the Comintern. No complete run of Communist International is available in English. Both were largely published outside of Soviet territory, with Communist International printed in London, to facilitate distribution and both were major contributors to the Communist press in the U.S. Communist International and Inprecor are an invaluable English-language source on the history of the Communist International and its sections.
PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/inprecor/1925/v05n62-aug-06-1925-inprecor.pdf
