itself from the organisation. The minority responded by joining the SAPD. On 10 August 1932, the KPO weekly Arbeiterpolitik was banned for 13 weeks for violating President Paul von Hindenburg's emergency decree "against political excesses" by the conservative German government headed by Chancellor Franz von Papen. The ban was to take effect immediately, continuing until 15 November. The ban, along with similar measures taken against other organs of the left-wing press, helped make coordinated action against German ultranationalism more difficult. Following the rise to power of Adolf Hitler and his ultranationalist National Socialist German Workers Party on 30 January 1933 and the wave of anti-radical repression which ensued, Brandler and most of the KPO leadership fled to France. Brandler lived in Paris until the beginning of World War II, where he continued to be involved in communist politics. Underground period The KPO was only able to work legally for one more year before the Nazis came to power in January 1933. However, it was to go underground immediately in order to avoid persecution as far as possible. They were able to hold a conference in Denmark in April 1934 and maintain a national structure. In 1935, the Nazis stepped up the repression of all communist groups and trials of KPO members were reported in Weimar, Jena and elsewhere. The organisation ceased to operate at a national level and was now confined to exile circles and the Saarland. In the Saarland, they were able to function legally for a little longer due to its status as a French occupation zone. When a plebiscite was held on the matter of the region being returned to Germany, the KPO called on its supporters to vote for a Räterepublik (soviet) Saarland and to oppose unity with Nazi Germany. This was in contrast to the position of the KPD which supported the Saarland remaining under the control of France. In exile with the leadership in Paris, the KPO continued to publish Gegen den Strom. Politically, it continued the previous line of the KPO and was supportive of the Comintern and of the Stalinist regime in the Soviet Union, its criticisms being reserved for the KPD. This began to change with the beginning of the Spanish Civil War and the deepening of the Great Purges in Russia. A number of KPO militants in exile were to travel to Spain and fought in the International Brigades that