Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index Ernst Thälmann (April 16, 1886 - August 18, 1944) was the leader of the Communist Party of Germany during much of the Weimar Republic. Born in Hamburg, Thälmann had been a Social Democrat Party member since 1903. Arrested by the Gestapo on March 3, 1933, Thälmann was placed in solitary confinement until his execution in Buchenwald Concentration Camp eleven years later. This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.