From Communism to Nazism: The Transformation of Alsatian Communists

Abstract

When Charles Hueber, the charismatic leader of the Alsatian communist autonomists, mayor of Strasbourg (1924-36; 1942-3), and key local official of the Nazi Party, died in August 1943, his political life had come full circle from communism to nazism. In his obituary of Hueber, Paul Schall, an Alsatian nazi and autonomist colleague, struggled to reconcile Hueber's career with nazi ideals. Hueber, he claimed, had always chosen the high socialist path, 'which did not deny the connection between the Volk and its history', over the low path, 'which was purely doctrinaire and built on destruction'. Throughout his 'lifelong struggle [Kampfleben]', Hueber consistently believed 'that the goal of German workers must be Germany'.' Such verbal gymnastics, however revealing about the nazi view of socialism, shed little light on the communist autonomists' convoluted path from communism to national socialism. In general, conversions from communism to fascism have been a source of historical controversy. Were ex-communists, like the 'beefsteak nazis' in Germany, 'brown on the outside, red on the inside'?2 This interpretation posits that conversion to nazism was superficial and opportunistic and implies that fascism had its roots in communism. Opposing this view is the idea that fascism was largely a right-wing phenomenon. According to this interpretation, communists who converted to fascism jettisoned their Marxist ideology and became well-done nazis, brown all the way through.3 The case of the communist autonomists, the only group in Alsace that did not come to fascism from the right, substantiates the latter argument.4 The term 'communist autonomist' refers to those Marxist Alsatians whose affinity with Germany caused them to place the issue of Alsatian autonomy above the traditional Marxist concern for class conflict.5 Although not a contemporary term, 'communist auto-

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