About Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg: a Short Political Biography
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation (Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung; RLS) bears the name of one of the greatest revolutionaries of 20th century. Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, revolutionary and social socialist philosopher.
Rosa Luxemburg (1871–1919) was an adherent of European democratic socialism. With all her strength she tried to prevent the outburst of World War I (1914–1918). Along with Karl Liebknecht, she was the most important advocate of internationalist and anti-militarist tendency in pre-war Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). When SPD decided to support the war policy of German government, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were expelled from the party. She supported Russian Revolution in 1917, and yet, being a revolutionary democrat, she kept some distance and strongly criticized Bolsheviks’ dictatorial policy.
Rosa Luxemburg belonged to a discriminated and often oppressed minority. She was a Jewish and in spite of being atheist she couldn’t escape the fate of so many victims of anti-Semitism. She lived in times burdened with deeply rooted prejudices toward everything she tried to achieve. She obtained her Ph.D. when only a tiny portion of female population had access to higher education. She was one of the few women actively involved in political life. The prejudices toward women – especially toward women with a prominent public role – have been widespread in society and the leftist parties were not an exception. Although she had German citizenship, her political adversaries always treated her as a foreigner: as a Polish and as a Jewish.
Rosa Luxemburg’s activism was related with the development of international labour movement but also with the struggle between the various tendencies within that movement, which eventually led to its disintegration. After being expelled from SPD she co-founded Spartacist League (1916), a Marxist revolutionary group that evolved into Communist Party of Germany (KPD, 1919).
She took an active part in the failed revolution in Germany 1918–1919. The uprising had been crushed by the remnants of monarchist army and right wing proto-fascist military formations, known as Freikorps. During January 1919, Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht and thousands more were imprisoned, tortured and brutally murdered.
Rosa Luxemburg resolutely fought against the war and dictatorship, always insisting on the relation between political freedom and social equality. Many contemporary political movements draw their strength from her political thought and activism.