Paul Thalmann / Clara Thalmann Papers

Period  1920-1986
Total size   0.9 m.
Consultation Not restricted

Biography

Paul (Pavel) Thalmann: pseudonym Franz Heller; born in Basel, Switzerland 1901, died in Nice, France 1980; journalist; influenced by the Swiss libertarian Fritz Brupbacher; secretary of the Swiss communist youth movement 1921-1925; delegate to the congress of the Communist Youth International in Moscow in 1922, where he was influenced by the circle around Trotsky; attended a party school in Moscow from 1925 to 1928; became editor of the Basler Vorwärts in 1928, where he met Clara Ensner;

Clara Thalmann-Ensner: born in Basel 1908, died in Nice 1987; Thalmann and Ensner: were both expelled from the Kommunistische Partei der Schweiz in 1929; Thalmann became editor of the Arbeiter-Zeitung in Schaffhausen in 1932; active in the Kommunistische Partei Opposition and Trotskyist groups in Basel and Zurich; went to Spain in 1936; both joined the anarchosyndicalist Durruti Column; imprisoned by the communists in Barcelona and Valencia in 1937; during the Second World War they lived in Paris helping German refugees; after 1945 involved in agitation against the Soviet Union and for the liberation of Algeria; started the Serena guesthouse in Nice in 1953; in touch with new generations of student activists during the sixties and seventies; published their memoirs in the 1970s; in the documentary `Die lange Hoffnung' of 1983 Clara Thalmann and Augustin Souchy revisit sites of the Spanish Civil War.

Content

Papers mainly from 1960 onwards. Notes and other personal documents 1920-1986; correspondence with Federico Bach 1968-1969, H. Benzion 1960-1977, Louis Bonnel 1981-1984, Jean-Jacques Cellier 1982-1986, Ante Ciliga 1979-1983, Arthur Cravan 1979-1985, Jean Daniel 1970-1981, Winand Ehls 1984-1986, Katia Landau 1968-1986, Gaston Rolland 1976-1984, Alfred Rosmer 1964 and n.d., Albert Utiger 1980-1986, Herbert and Greta Wehner 1984-1985 and others; manuscripts of, and files on their memoirs `Wo die Freiheit stirbt', `Revolution für die Freiheit' and `Combats pour la liberté' and on documentaries about their involvement in the Spanish Civil War 1964-1986.

Processing information

List made by Bouwe Hijma in 1993