Karl Kautsky

Communism in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation

Translated: J.L. & E.G. Mulliken.
Published: Fisher and Unwin in London in 1897.
This is part of a larger work by Kautsky called Vorläufer des neueren Sozialismus (Forerunners of Modern Socialism), which has never been fully translated to English.
Transcribed: Ted Crawford for marxists.org, June, 2002. [1]

1. Heretical Communism – Its General Character
I. The Papacy the Centre of the Attacks of Heretical Communism
II. The Antagonism between Rich and Poor in the Middle Ages
III. The Influence of Christian Tradition
IV. Communism in Articles of Consumption
V. Aversion to Marriage
VI. The Mystic and the Ascetic
VII. Internationalism and the Revolutionary Spirit

2. The Taborites
I. The Great Schism
II. Social Conditions in Bohemia before the Hussite Wars
III. The Beginning of the Hussite Movement
IV. The Internal Parties of the Hussite Movement
V. The Communists in Tabor
VI. The Downfall of Tabor

3. The Bohemian Brethren

4. The German Reformation and Thomas Münzer
I. The German Reformation
II. The Rich Product of the Saxon Mines
III. The Enthusiasts of Zwickau
IV. Münzer’s Biographers
V. Münzer’s Early Years
VI. Münzer in Allstätt
VII. The Origin of the Great Peasant War
VIII. Münzer’s Preparations for the Insurrection
IX. The Peasant War

5. The Anabaptists
I. The Anabaptists before the Peasant War
II. The Doctrines of the Anabaptists
III. The Fortune and Fate of the Anabaptists in Switzerland
IV. The Anabaptists in South Germany
V. The Anabaptists in Moravia
VI. The Disturbances in Münster
VII. The Anabaptists in Strassburg and the Netherlands
VIII. How Münster was won
IX. The New Jerusalem
(a) Our Sources of Information
(b) The Reign of Terror
(c) Communism
(d) Polygamy
X. The Fall of Münster

Transcriber’s Note

1. A few typos have been corrected but otherwise the text is the 1897 one which was reprinted in 1966 in New York by Augustus Kelley. Notes in the original were at the bottom of each page and numbered for their position on that page and thus no higher than 4. The notes have been renumbered and the number (up to 78) now refers to the chapter in which they appear.

The German references have now been checked against the text in Vorläufer des neueren Sozialismus and the use of umlauts has been brought into line with German usage, except in a number of cases where the spelliing of titles is archaic.

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Last updated on 23.12.2003