Editing Klaus Fuchs (section)

==Early life==
Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs was born in [[Rüsselsheim]], [[Grand Duchy of Hesse]], on 29 December 1911, the third of four children of a [[Lutheran]] pastor, [[Emil Fuchs (theologian)|Emil Fuchs]], and his wife Else Wagner.{{sfn|Williams|1987|pp=10–13}}<ref name="odnb" /> His father served in the army during [[World War I]] but later became a [[pacifist]] and a [[socialist]], joining the [[Social Democratic Party of Germany]] (SPD) in 1912. He eventually became a [[Quaker]].{{sfn|Williams|1987|pp=10–13}}{{sfn|Moss|1987|pp=2–5}} Fuchs had an older brother Gerhard, an older sister Elisabeth, and a younger sister, Kristel. The family moved to [[Eisenach]], where Fuchs attended the ''[[Gymnasium (Germany)|Martin-Luther Gymnasium]]'', and took his ''[[Abitur]]''. At school, Fuchs and his siblings were taunted over his father's unpopular socialist political views, which they came to share. They became known as the "red foxes", Fuchs being the German word for fox.{{sfn|Moss|1987|pp=4–8}}

Fuchs was left-handed, but was forced to write with his right hand.{{sfn|Moss|1987|p=5}}

Fuchs entered the [[University of Leipzig]] in 1930,{{sfn|Williams|1987|p=14}} where his father was a professor of [[theology]]. He became involved in student politics, joining the student branch of the SPD, a party that his father had joined in 1921, and the ''[[Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold]]'', the party's paramilitary organisation.{{sfn|Moss|1987|pp=4–7}} His father took up a new position as professor of religion at the Pedagogical Academy in [[Kiel]], and in the autumn Fuchs transferred to the [[University of Kiel]], which his brother Gerhard and sister Elisabeth also attended. Fuchs continued his studies in mathematics and physics at the university.{{sfn|Laucht|2012|pp=83–85}} In October 1931, his mother committed suicide by drinking [[hydrochloric acid]]. The family later discovered that his maternal grandmother had also taken her own life.{{sfn|Moss|1987|pp=4–8}}<ref name="odnb">{{cite ODNB|first=Mary |last=Flowers |title=Fuchs, (Emil Julius) Klaus (1911–1988) |id=40698 }}</ref>

In the [[1932 German presidential election|March 1932 German presidential election]], the SPD supported [[Paul von Hindenburg]] for [[President of Germany (1919–1945)|President]], fearing that a split vote would hand the job to the [[Nazi Party]] (NSDAP) candidate, [[Adolf Hitler]]. However, when the [[Communist Party of Germany]] (KPD) ran its own candidate, [[Ernst Thälmann]], Fuchs offered to speak for him, and was expelled from the SPD. That year Fuchs and all three of his siblings joined the KPD.{{sfn|Moss|1987|pp=4–8}} Fuchs and his brother Gerhard were active speakers at public meetings, and occasionally attempted to disrupt NSDAP gatherings.{{sfn|Laucht|2012|pp=83–85}} At one such gathering, Fuchs was beaten up and thrown into a river.{{sfn|Moss|1987|pp=10–12}}

When Hitler became [[Chancellor of Germany]] in January 1933, Fuchs decided to leave Kiel, where the NSDAP was particularly strong and he was a well-known KPD member. He enrolled at the [[Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics]] in Berlin. On 28 February, while on a train to Berlin for a secret KPD meeting, he read a newspaper article on the [[Reichstag fire]]. Fuchs correctly assumed that opposition parties would be blamed for the fire, and surreptitiously removed his [[hammer and sickle]] [[lapel pin]].{{sfn|Laucht|2012|pp=83–85}}{{sfn|Moss|1987|pp=10–12}} Fellow party members urged him to continue his studies in another country. He went into hiding for five months in the apartment of a fellow party member. In August 1933, he attended an anti-fascist conference in Paris chaired by [[Henri Barbusse]], where he met an English couple, Ronald and Jessie Gunn, who invited him to stay with them in [[Clapton, Somerset]]. He was expelled from the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in October 1933.{{sfn|Laucht|2012|pp=83–85}}{{sfn|Moss|1987|pp=10–12}}