7/8” black and red depicting leader of Germany’s Communist Party beginning in 1925. He twice ran for president of Germany. In 1933 he was arrested by the Gestapo. In 1936, the Thaelmann Battalion of the International Brigades, during the Spanish Civil War, was named in his honor. That is when this button dates from and it reads “Fight Fascism/Red Front/Ernst Thaelman” (spelling on button is missing an “n” from his last name). After spending 11 years in solitary confinement, he was executed at the Buchenwald death camp in 1944 on Hitler’s orders. Some tiny surface wear showing only in reflected light. Exc. and displays Mint. The second example we’ve seen and neither had a backpaper. See Spanish Civil War cartoon #120.