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More than fifty years after the definitive end of the national socialist regime, there still exists not a single comprehensive survey of the fate of German social democracy under Hitler. This ‘white spot’ in German historiography stands in stark contrast to local and regional studies of the general resistance movement. One of the consequences of this lacuna is the belief in the relative continuity of social democratic politics and practice from Weimar through the Nazi years, with the SPD exile leadership in unchallenged control, so that in 1945 German social democracy could literally pick up its pieces and continue where it had left off before. And, indeed, by and large, the SPD of the immediate post-Second World War era did present a picture of harmonious continuity with the pre-Nazi era SPD. Yet what this image overlooks is the fact that for at least three important years, from 1933 to 1936, a crucial break occurred in SPD theory and practice, a break, however, which was barely discernible at the leadership level. A close look at the daily practice of the rank and file under- ground circles and the deliberations of exile groupings of the SPD strongly suggests that, instead of a steady slide towards moderation from the 1920s to the 1950s, from 1933 to 1936 a seemingly inexplicable-and thus far largely overlooked-wave of radicalization affected the surviving structures of the SPD.(Editor's presentation)

Sometime in the late winter or early spring of 1937 Lois vacated her paid employment at the Catalan regional government propaganda department, where she had worked for half a year on the Generalitat’s English-language bulletin. Having filled ‘downtime’ at the Generality with secretarial tasks for the POUM, she now devoted most of her time to this voluntary labour. In April 1937 Charles became a member of the POUM, with Lois remaining a critical observer on the POUM’s periphery. She now identified rather closely with efforts to fashion a new revolutionary party out of dissident factions within the POUM and radical circles within the CNT, crystallized around the Amigos de Durruti.

This first section of letter excerpts covers the period ranging from 21 September to 14 December 1936. This autumn season may well be regarded as the heroic and optimistic period of the Catalan Revolution, although signs of reflux of the revolutionary fervour characteristic of these months were plentiful — and are duly noted in Lois’ letters. Shortly after the arrival of the Orrs in Barcelona, the Catalan government underwent a reorganization, broadening the ruling coalition to include for the first time the dissident communist POUM and the anarchist CNT. Lois’ letters are brimming with enthusiasm as the future appeared promising for the cause of revolutionary change which was uppermost in the young woman’s mind. Adding to the dizzying circumstances of Catalan politics were a series of often chance encounters with other foreign revolutionaries visiting Barcelona for varying lengths of time.

On 17 June 1937, Lois and Charles Orr were rounded up and arrested along with many other Catalan, Spanish and foreign revolutionaries residing in Spain. It was part of a crackdown operation nominally undertaken by Republican authorities, but instigated, inspired and supervised by Stalinist operatives then congregating in Spain. As the hot spot of revolutionary activity anywhere in Europe at the time, Barcelona had become the temporary home of anti- Stalinist revolutionary Marxists from around the world. The Soviet leadership, then engaged in a series of show trials in the USSR, designed to snuff out any potential for the revival of a revolutionary anti-authoritarian tradition at home, intended to extend their field of operation to other parts of the world, in order to crush opposition currents which operated to the left of the Comintern.

By the time of the first extant letter written after the Christmas and New Year period, penned on 4 January 1937, the POUM had been removed from the Catalan government coalition, reflecting the uncertain fate of revolutionary aspirations in the winter of 1936–1937. Lois’ and Charles’ involvement with POUM politics, however, deepened, with Charles taking over the English-language propaganda department of the POUM. In February 1937 Eileen O’Shaughnessy, George Orwell’s wife, began to work as Charles’ secretary, as her writer-husband fought at the front.

When Lois and Charles Orr arrived in Barcelona in the last days of the summer of 1936, the city was showing all the signs of a most unusual development. The exterior of the cityscape was dominated by the banners, posters, parades and demonstrations of the revolutionary Left, especially the anarchists. In a remarkable process, in the space of two months the political and cultural ambience of Barcelona — a city which had always been in flux1 — had been profoundly transformed into a showcase of the libertarian anarchist collectivist spirit. The presence of the National Labor Confederation/Iberian Anarchist Federation (CNT/FAI), the most visible force amongst the anarchist Left, was impossible to miss. CNT/FAI armbands were worn, and CNT/FAI signs and banners were painted or plastered on every available wall on buses, cars, and trains as well, usually courtesy of the painters’ syndicate. Anarchist headquarters on Via Layetana (later changed to Via Durruti) had a mural several stories high, and so did the telephone building. Hundreds of open-air rallies and demonstrations were held in the parks, and the Barcelona bullring was a favored place for big meetings of the two organisations.2 What had happened to bring about this profound interior and exterior transformation of the Catalan port city on the Mediterranean?

Revolutions have always exerted a certain fascination on contemporaries beyond the frontiers of the states in which they occurred. Thus, the stream of ‘tourists’ into Portugal became so steady in the course of the 1974–1976 ‘revolution of the carnations’ that Portuguese border guards turned away many would-be visitors who were suspected to be more interested in the vagaries of far-Left politics than the beaches of the Algarve. Depending on the degree of the insurgents’ success, the host nation was not always equally averse to the influx of foreign observers. And not all strangers were, by any means, sympathetic to the processes of radical social change they came to observe. Yet, whether out of a desire for fulfilment, learning experience or, perhaps, simply adventure, revolutions have consistently been focal points of foreigners’ attention.