Karl Volk (1 April 1896 – March 1961) was a Communist politician, journalist and German Resistance fighter against Nazism.
Volk was born in Schowkwa, Galicia (today Ukraine) to a middle-class Jewish family and grew up in Moravian Prostějov, where he attended gymnasium.
After a brief period on the Comintern staff in Moscow, he moved back to Germany in 1924, where he headed the KPD daily newspapers, Sächsische Arbeiterzeitung in Leipzig and Der Kämpfer in Chemnitz until 1925.
[1] Initially Volk was in the left wing of the party, aligned with Ruth Fischer, Arkadi Maslow and Ernst Thälmann, but in 1928, he modified his views, becoming a leading member of the Conciliator faction.
The ultra-left party line of the KPD leadership under Thälmann labeled the moderates social fascists, according to the position taken by the Comintern.