The decision of the SPD leadership to back parliamentary votes to fund the war was controversial among party members from the outset , and as slaughter on the front-line and destitution on the home front intensified , tensions within the party increased . That led to a split . Arthur Lieberasch was among the anti-war left-wingers who broke away to form the so-called Independent Social Democratic Party ( '' " Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands " '' / USPD ) in 1917 , being a founder member of the new party in Saxony . During 1917 Lieberasch was among the leaders of the strikes that broke out in Leipzig - initially mostly in the munitions factories - in response to the food shortages which had intensified during the so-called " turnip winter " of 1917 and in the aftermath an announcement by the authorities ( accompanied by government statements trumpeting the success of submarine warfare ) , on 15 April 1917 , of a cut in the weekly bread ration from 1,350 g to 450g . Strikes broke out in various cities in response to the food crisis : Leipzig was exceptional for the extent to which conservative elements in the Social Democratic mainstream collaborated with the authorities to frustrate the strikers , reflecting the particularly stark divisions in the city between moderates and radicals on the political left . Lieberasch 's role as a strike leader led to his being charged with High Treason . However , the revolutionary outbursts in the German ports and cities directly after the war left the authorities with more urgent priorities , and his case never went to trial . The revolutionary period lasted approximately nine months . Arthur Lieberasch took a leading position on the Workers ' and Soldiers ' Councils in Leipzig . Both the revolutionaries and the volunteer militias ( '' Freikorps '' ) of former soldiers who resisted them saw the Russian Revolution as a possible template for a post-imperial Germany . The Communist Party of Germany had been established in Berlin at a three day congress held between 30 December 1918 and 1 January 1919 . The USPD itself broke apart at a party convention held at Halle on 12 October 1920 . The left-wing majority among those present - which included Lieberasch - voted to join the Moscow sponsored Communist International ( '' " Comintern " '' ) , and a few weeks later , on 4 December 1920 , the left-wing USPD members formally switched their memberships to the Communist Party , which is frequently identified in sources from the early 1920s as the United Communist Party ( '' " Vereinigte Kommunistische Partei Deutschland " '' / VKPD ) . Like many in his position , he now undertook a succession of official functions within the party . It was also as a communist that in 1921 Arthur Lieberasch was elected to membership of the Leipzig city council ( '' " Stadtrat " '' ) , becoming the leader of the communist group on the council in 1927 . Regional elections were held in November 1922 . Arthur Lieberasch was elected to the Parliament of Saxony ( '' " Sächsischer Landtag " '' ) as a Communist Party member . The Communists polled well enough to deny the SPD an overall majority and the regional government that emerged initially in Saxony was a minority SPD one . The Communist group became the second largest in the Landtag in 1926 . Party comrades submitted Lieberasch as their candidate to be First Deputy President of the Chamber , but the centrist and right-wing " bourgeois " parties joined together to block his election . The 1920s were a period of political instability in Saxon regional politics . Lieberasch was re-elected to it in 1926 . As a member of the regional party leadership team ( '' " KPD-Bezirksleitung " '' ) for western Saxony , Arthur Lieberasch was Secretary for Trades Union questions . In 1923 , at the eighth party conference , he had been elected to the party 's " Trades Union Commission " ( '' " Gewerkschaftskommission " '' ) . By this time he was seen as part of the right win within the Communist Party which , during the 1920s , was falling increasingly into the hands of a younger generation of left-wingers
Moscow sponsored
1st Congress of the Comintern
Arthur Lieberasch