These reports were given by leading figures of the Spartacist League, however

members of the Internationale Kommunisten Deutschlands also took part in the

discussions

Under the leadership of Liebknecht and Luxemburg, the KPD was committed to a
revolution in Germany, and during 1919 and 1920 attempts to seize control of the
government continued. Germany's Social Democratic government, which had come to
power after the fall of the Monarchy, was vehemently opposed to the KPD's idea of
socialism. With the new regime terrified of a Bolshevik Revolution in Germany,
Defense Minister Gustav Noske formed a series of anti-communist paramilitary
groups, dubbed "Freikorps", out of demobilized World War I veterans. During the
failed Spartacist uprising in Berlin of January 1919, Liebknecht and Luxemburg, who
had not initiated the uprising but joined once it had begun, were captured by the
Freikorps and murdered. The Party split a few months later into two factions, the
KPD and the Communist Workers Party of Germany (KAPD).

Following the assassination of Leo Jogiches, Paul Levi became the KPD leader. Other
prominent members included Clara Zetkin, Paul Fr�lich, Hugo Eberlein, Franz
Mehring, August Thalheimer, and Ernst Meyer. Levi led the party away from the
policy of immediate revolution, in an effort to win over SPD and USPD voters and
trade union officials. These efforts were rewarded when a substantial section of
the USPD joined the KPD, making it a mass party for the first time.

Through the 1920s the KPD was racked by internal conflict between more and less
radical factions, partly reflecting the power struggles between Zinoviev and Stalin
in Moscow. Germany was seen as being of central importance to the struggle for
socialism, and the failure of the German revolution was a major setback. Eventually
Levi was expelled in 1921 by the Comintern for "indiscipline." Further leadership
changes took place in the 1920s. Supporters of the Left or Right Opposition to the
Stalin-controlled Comintern leadership were expelled; of these, Heinrich Brandler,
August Thalheimer and Paul Fr�lich set up a splinter Communist Party Opposition.