The most well-known case was Karl von Ossietzky. Already in 1931, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison because he had uncovered to the world the illegal rearming of the Reichswehr (German army). At the initiative of the Nazis, Ossietzky was detained again as an engaged pacifist and democrat in February 1933. In 1938, he died due to the brutal conditions of his detention.

The important lesson from the tragedy of the 1930s is that the attacks on democratic rights and establishment of a police state and dictatorship are directly bound up with the global crisis of capitalism and preparation for war. They can therefore only be defeated by the mobilisation of the working class on the basis of an internationalist and socialist programme.