Founded in the aftermath of the First World War by socialists opposed to the war, the party became gradually ever more committed to Leninism and later Stalinism after the death of its founding figures. During the Weimar Republic period, the KPD usually polled between 10 and 15 percent of the vote and was represented in the Reichstag and in state parliaments. Under the leadership of Ernst Thälmann from 1925 the party became staunchly Stalinist and loyal to the leadership of the Soviet Union, and from 1928 it was largely controlled and funded by the Comintern in Moscow.