Appeal in Paris to form a popular front

Source: Philosophische Fakultät der Universität Düsseldorf As a chairman of the popular front and honorary president of the SPD, Heinrich Mann is a central figure among the German exilants in the thirties (picture from 1936)

On 24 May 1936 in Paris émigré German politicians from the left and right wings of the political spectrum call for the formation of a „popular front“ to fight with united strength against the National Socialist regime in Germany. Willy Brandt and Walter Ulbricht are among those who sign the appeal. The „popular front project“ will fail due to insurmountable political differences. In Hitler’s Germany the appeal does not have even the slightest repercussions. Later Willy Brandt will speak of a „popular front without any people“.