26th Congress of the DKP held in Frankfurt
- The Left Chapter
- Jul 2
- 3 min read
From 20 to 22 June 2025, the German Communist Party’s (DKP) 26th Party Congress took place in Frankfurt. Around 170 delegates from the party's local and district organisations participated. The congress received more than 50 letters of greeting from sister parties abroad as well guest speeches from the Socialist German Workers' Youth (SDAJ), from the ranks of ‘Trade Unionists Against Armament and War’ and from representatives of the anti-war movement.
In his speech, DKP chairman Patrik Köbele spoke about the current political conjuncture, focusing especially on the imperialist war against Russia, Palestine and, most recently, Iran. He addressed the development of German imperialism and its shift to a war economy at the expense of the working class, combined with a massive dismantling of democratic rights. As such, the DKP concludes that its main tasks are to strengthen the anti-war movement, to work towards a clear orientation against NATO, and to bring together the labour and peace movements.
These are no easy tasks given the extensive integration of the labour and trade union movement into the politics of German imperialism. "The integration of the working class is currently a central pillar of the state’s war policy and at the same time its Achilles' heel. We rightly consider the reversal of this integration to be our main task in the fight against war, while at the same time knowing that any progress in this struggle will increase the most aggressive sections of monopoly capital's orientation towards smashing the workers' movement, including through the transition to a fascist form of exercising power," said Köbele. The presentation can be found in German here:
In order to advance these aims, all of the party's local and district organisations had used the months in the run-up to the congress to discuss and amend a major motion proposed by the central committee, which laid out a concrete course of action for the next four years. This course of action was unanimously adopted by the party conference on the third day with a few abstentions and is now an important working basis for the years ahead.
On the second day of the congress, delegates exchanged experiences on party work in the trade unions, anti-war alliances, and municipal politics. In a variety of contributions, delegates reported on both successes and challenges in advancing the call for peace within unions and attempting to prevent the division of the anti-war movement. Of particular interest were the reports on the founding of two new DKP workplace organisations at the post service in Kassel and the railway service in Berlin.
International solidarity also played a major role at the congress. In attendance were the ambassadors of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Lao People's Democratic Republic, as well as the head of the Bonn branch of the Embassy of the Republic of Cuba. The delegates enthusiastically received the welcoming speeches by the Vietnamese ambassador, Vu Quang Minh, the representative of the Cuban embassy, Mónica Rodríguez Sánchez, and the spokesperson for the Palestinian community in Germany, George Rashmawi. Resolutions on concrete solidarity with Palestine and Cuba were passed unanimously.
On the morning of 22 June (the anniversary of fascist Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union), delegates gathered for a demonstration against NATO's war policy, the deployment of US nuclear missiles in Germany, the genocide in Palestine, and the wars against Iran and Russia.
All documents from the party conference will soon be published on the website https://dkp.de/partei/parteitage/.
The chairman of the DKP, Patrik Köbele, and the deputy chairwoman, Wera Richter, were re-elected with around 90% of the votes. Björn Blach was also elected as an additional deputy chairman of the DKP with a similar share of the votes. In addition, the party conference elected a further 25 comrades to the central committee, including the chairwoman of the Socialist German Workers' Youth (SDAJ).
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