Willi Dickhut

Willi Dickhut was the son of a haulage contractor and completed an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner. He was involved early in the labor movement. Dickhut participated in the 1920 general strike against the Kapp Putsch, in 1921 he joined the German Metalworkers' Federation Deutscher Metallarbeiter-Verband (DMV)) in 1926 the Communist Party of Germany (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD). After cleavage of Solingen branch of the DMV Dickhut was a member of the communist trade union Unity Association of Metal Workers (Einheitsverband der Metallarbeiter). 1928/1929 he spent eight months in the Soviet Union as a skilled worker in a factory for hair clippers. On his return he was more active for the Communist Party and was elected in March 1933 the city council of Solingen.

In 1933 he was arrested and taken to protective custody (Schutzhaft), until 1935 by the new nationalsocialist-regime. Dickhut was temporarily interned alongside prison stays in the concentration camps Börgermoor and Esterwegen. During this "protective custody" he was subjected to severe ill-treatment by the Gestapo. After his release he resumed his illegal work for the enfeebled and illegal Communist Party in Solingen. In 1938 he was convicted by the Special Court Hamm to one year and nine months in prison. This judgment was not enforced due to its "protective custody" and a nine-month detention. In August 1944 Dickhut was arrested again and faced then with a death sentence. During a heavy bombing of Solingen in November 1944, he managed to escape from prison.

After the end of World War II Dickhut was a functionary of the Communist Party again, having been, Deputy Executive Head of the party executive. In 1966 he was expelled from the party, as he criticized the conditions in the Soviet Union. His work for the restoration of capitalism in the USSR was first published in 1971. In it Dickhut developed a fundamental critique of the changes in the Soviet Union after the seizure of power by Khrushchev, which he saw as a betrayal of socialism and the cause of the failure of the Soviet Union.

After the expulsion from the Communist Party, he became involved in the foundation of the Communist Party of Germany/Marxists–Leninists (KPD / ML) and promoted by the division in 1970 in a leading position the union of the resulting KPD / ML (Revolutionary Way) with the Communist Workers 'Federation (ML) for Communist Workers' Union of Germany (Kommunistischer Arbeiterbund Deutschlands (KABD)) 1972 who prepared the 1982 founding of the MLPD accomplished. Dickhut was, since he founded it in 1969 responsible for the theoretical organ of the party, the Revolutionärer Weg (revolutionary way).

Dickhut is considered inside the MLPD as one of the "classics of Marxism–Leninism." Two autobiographical publications Dickhuts apply the party as important sources of a blunt and correct view on the 20th century.

• So war’s damals, Verlag Neuer Weg, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-88021-042-X (Erster Band der Biographie)
• Der staatsmonopolistische Kapitalismus in der BRD (2 Bände), Verlag Neuer Weg, Stuttgart 1979, ISBN 3-88021-041-1
• Lenin, der geniale Führer des Proletariats, Verlag Neuer Weg, Stuttgart 1984 (Nachdruck eines Artikels aus der Roten Fahne 2/1982)
• Krieg und Frieden und die sozialistische Revolution, Verlag Neuer Weg, Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3-88021-059-4
• Briefwechsel über die Fragen der Theorie und Praxis des Parteiaufbaus, Verlag Neuer Weg, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-88021-141-8
• Krisen und Klassenkampf, Verlag Neuer Weg, Stuttgart 1985, ISBN 3-88021-136-1
• Proletarischer Widerstand gegen Faschismus und Krieg (2 Bände), Verlag Neuer Weg, Düsseldorf 1987, ISBN 3-88021-059-4
• Materialistische Dialektik und bürgerliche Naturwissenschaft, Verlag Neuer Weg, Verlag Neuer Weg, Düsseldorf 1987, ISBN 3-88021-161-2
• Die Restauration des Kapitalismus in der Sowjetunion, Verlag Neuer Weg, Düsseldorf 1988, ISBN 3-88021-166-3
• Die Dialektische Einheit von Theorie und Praxis, Verlag Neuer Weg, Essen 1988, ISBN 3-88021-163-9
• Gewerkschaften und Klassenkampf, Verlag Neuer Weg, Essen 1988, ISBN 3-88021-169-8
• Was geschah danach, Verlag Neuer Weg, Essen 1990, ISBN 3-88021-205-8 (Zweiter Band der Biographie)
• Sozialismus am Ende?, Verlag Neuer Weg, Essen 1992, ISBN 3-88021-220-1
• Dokumentation „Ich habe mein Leben lang gekämpft“ – zum Lebenswerk von Willi Dickhut, Verlag Neuer Weg, Essen 2002, ISBN 3-88021-328-3