Ruth Fischer

FISCHER, RUTH (née Eisler, also known as EIfriede Golke or Friedlaender; 1895–1961), Austrian Communist. Born in Leipzig, Ruth Fischer studied philosophy, politics, and economics at the University of Vienna where her father, Rudolph *Eisler, was a professor of philosophy. She was a sister of Gerhardt *Eisler and Hans *Eisler. She became co-founder of the Communist Party of Austria in November, 1918 and settled in Berlin during the following year. A leading figure in the German Communist Party, she was a member of the presidium of the Communist International and was elected to the Reichstag in 1924. In 1926 she was suspended from the party but continued to sit in the Reichstag until 1933, when she fled to Paris; she also remained a member of the Reichsrat from 1924 to 1928. In 1941 she immigrated to the United States, where she developed a more critical stance regarding Stalinism. After 1955 she returned to Paris, where she died in 1961. Ruth Fischer published several works on international Communism including: Stalin and German Communism (1948), Von Lenin zu Mao; Kommunismus in der Bandung-Aera (1956), and Die Umformung der Sow etgesellschaft, Chronik der Reformen 1953–1958 (1958).

Sources: Encyclopaedia Judaica. © 2007 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.