The Free Socialist Party/Marxist-Leninists (, abbreviated FSP or FSP/ML) was a small Maoist political party in West Germany. FSP/ML was the second Maoist group founded in West Germany. It was one of the predecessor organizations of the Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists.
Preparations In February 1967 the Founding Committee of the Free Socialist Party issued an appeal to "all West German Social Democrats, Left Socialists and Communists" to join in founding a new left party. The Committee consisted of Günter Ackermann, Werner Heuzeroth and Gerhard Lambrecht.Berger, D. Freie Sozialistische Partei (FSP). MAO-Datenbank, FU Berlin A draft programme for the new party was released in March 1967.
Founding FSP was founded on April 22, 1967, in Frankfurt am Main. It was the second Maoist group to emerge in West Germany. Unlike the secretive Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany, an earlier West German Maoist grouping, FSP was founded publicly. Ackermann, a former sergeant of the East German Volkspolizei, became first secretary of the Central Committee of the party.Bartsch, Günter. Anarchismus in Deutschland 2/3. Hannover: Fackelträger-Verl, 1973. p. 57 At the time of the founding of FSP, the 28-year-old Ackermann was an unemployed refugee from the German Democratic Republic.Der Spiegel. Schreidet zur Tat Heuzeroth (an innkeeper) became second secretary of the same committee. Heuzeroth's wife was also included in the Central Committee.Langguth, Gerd. Protestbewegung am Ende: die Neue Linke als Vorhut der DKP. Mainz: v. Hase & Koehler, 1971. p. 93
Profile Ideologically, the party was pro-China.From the Research Departments of Radio Free Europe: Free world. Radio Free Europe, 1967. p. In total FSP was estimated to have around thirty members. The party published Die Wahrheit ('The Truth'). Die Wahrheit carried news of contacts between the party and pro-China groups in Belgium, Austria and Switzerland.
The party called for the admission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations. It denounced 'Moscow revisionists', and labelled the leadership of the German Democratic Republic an 'oppressive clique'.Staar, Richard Felix, Milorad M. Drachkovitch, and Lewis H. Gann. Yearbook on International Communist Affairs. Stanford, Calif: Hoover Institution Press, 1969. p. 357 (Yearbook on International Communist Affairs series) On the other hand, the illegal newspaper Freies Volk (organ of the Communist Party of Germany) claimed that Ackermann was a Verfassungsschutz agent and paid by the West German government.
FSP/ML condemned the Warsaw Pact intervention in Czechoslovakia, stating that they were particularly disturbed that German soldiers were involved, in this act of aggression. This calls forth our gravest condemnation as German Communists. Here again the Ulbricht clique has shown its true face. We set ourselves apart from such traitors to true Marxism-Leninism, and at the same time from the Reimann Communists, who have given their blessings to this banditry.Communist developments in Western Europe: translations on Western Europe, Eds. 9–12. CCM Information Corporation, 1968. p. 107
Merger with KPD/ML In late 1968 FSP/ML merged with the Roter Morgen and Spartakus groups, and some other sectors, forming the Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists (KPD/ML).Langguth, Gerd. Die Protestbewegung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland: 1968-1976. Köln: Verlag Wissenschaft u. Politik, 1976. pp. 109-110Hofmann, Walter. Im Kampf für den Aufbau der marxistisch-leninistischen Partei in Westdeutschland: Grundfragen des Marxismus-Leninismus und der Opportunismus in Westdeutschland. Frankfurt/Main: Eigendruck im Selbstvertrieb, 1977. p. 219 After the merger into KPD/ML, Die Wahrheit became a local organ of KPD/ML in Siegen-Olpe.
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