Bernhard Reichenbach

Who was Bernhard Reichenbach?

Bernhard Reichenbach was a member of the Executive Committee of the Communist International. He was a member of the Communist Workers' Party of Germany and acted as their delegate to the Third Congress of the Third International.

Bernhard was born in Berlin in 1988, the son of Bruno Reichenbach. Bernhard's younger brother was Hans Reichenbach who would go on to become a leading philosopher of science. Bernhard would go on to serve in the German army during the First World War but as a conscientious objector he served in the medical corps between 1915–17 and served at the Battle of Verdun. Bernhard then joined the German Foreign Office which he served in until 1919. Bernhard would join the Communist Workers' Party of Germany and, shortly after the birth of his son, Hanno, he travelled to the Soviet Union as one of his party's representatives and would go on to hold discussions with Lenin.

With the coming to power of Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party, Bernhard, as a German of Jewish descent and with communist political beliefs, came under threat and fled to Great Britain via the Netherlands. During the Second World War, Bernhard worked for the British Foreign office where he worked on various anti-Nazi publications which were distributed around Germany and would be awarded the Verdienstkreuz 1, Klasse, the German equivalent of an O.B.E., for his work.