thälmann participated in and helped to organise the hamburg uprising of october 1923. the uprising failed, and thälmann went to underground for some time. after the death of lenin in january 1924, thälmann visited moscow and for some time maintained a guard of honour at his bier. from february 1924 he was deputy chairman of the kpd and, from may, a reichstag member. at the 5th congress of the comintern that summer he was elected to the comintern executive committee and a short time later to its steering committee. in february 1925 he became chairman of the kpd's paramilitary organisation, the "roter frontkämpferbund" (rfb), which was banned as extremist by the governing social democrats in 1929 after the events of blutmai.