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126-634: From 1916 onward, illegal labor strikes in Germany had begun to increase in occurrence due to eroding wages as well as food and energy shortages. For example in June 1916 over 50,000 laborers in Berlin went on strike to protest the jailing of Karl Liebknecht . In April 1917 the government responded with military force after workers in Berlin and Leipzig rioted over bread rationing. The increasingly dire living standards of German workers made political parties such as

252-601: A one-year volunteer with the Guard Pioneer Battalion, a unit of the Prussian Army , in Berlin in 1893 and 1894. After a long search for a position, he wrote his doctoral thesis "Compensation Enforcement and Compensation Pleas According to Common Law" ( Compensationsvollzug und Compensationsvorbringen nach gemeinem Rechte ), which was awarded a magna cum laude by the Law and Political Science Faculty of

378-605: A "chaotic and scandalous scene" such as never before witnessed in the Reichstag. Liebknecht was shouted down by liberal and conservative deputies raging "as if possessed", insulted as a "scoundrel" and an "English spy" and told to "shut his mouth". One member snatched Liebknecht's written notes from him and threw the sheets into the hall, and another had to be prevented by members of the Social Democratic Working Group from physically attacking him. At

504-603: A 1916 antiwar demonstration. He was released from the second under a general amnesty three weeks before the end of the First World War . During the November Revolution that broke out across Germany in the final days of the war, Liebknecht proclaimed Germany a "Free Socialist Republic" from the Berlin Palace on 9 November 1918. On 11 November, together with Rosa Luxemburg and others he founded

630-535: A bill authorizing war credits for the Imperial government in the erupting international conflagration that would be remembered to history as World War I . This stunning reversal of the Second International's position on capitalist war came as a shock to radical internationalist elements in the party, including Jogiches. Rosa Luxemburg's immediate inclination was to publish and clandestinely circulate

756-431: A business partnership for the publication of radical literature, in which Jogiches' money and publishing expertise would be complemented by Plekhanov's prestige and copyright control of Russian editions of works by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels . A financial split of 50-50 was proposed by Jogiches, which was abruptly rejected by Plekhanov and an ongoing personal frostiness between the pair ensued. Not to be deterred by

882-501: A civil servant who informed them the Action Committee had been declared illegal and that they would be subject to criminal prosecution. While strikers continued to confront the police, the military prepared to shut down the strikers, putting up red posters that notified of a heightened state of siege, setting up courts-martial, and drafting NCOs to support the police. The Action Committee proceeded to publish leaflets calling for

1008-476: A copy of Militarism and Anti-Militarism , was informed about the Liebknecht trial several times by telegraph. He received a detailed report after the verdict was pronounced, but Liebknecht was not sent a copy of the written verdict until 7 November. His self-defense at the trial brought him considerable popularity among Berlin's workers, and a throng of people escorted him to prison. In 1908 Liebknecht became

1134-557: A formal order from him. Pabst said that it was out of the question, to which Noske replied, "Then you yourself must know what is to be done." Pabst charged a group of naval officers under the command of Captain Lieutenant Horst von Pflugk-Harttung with carrying out Liebknecht's murder. (In January 1932 Pflugk-Harttung said in an interview that Noske had explicitly ordered Liebknecht's shooting, but when Noske publicly contradicted him, he claimed that he had been misunderstood by

1260-559: A gall bladder operation. Liebknecht married Sophie Ryss (1884–1964) in October 1912. Following the national election of January 1912 , Liebknecht, who was just 40, entered the Reichstag as one of the youngest SPD deputies. After unsuccessful attempts in 1903 and 1907, he won the "imperial constituency" of Potsdam - Spandau -Osthavelland, which until then had been the safe domain of the German Conservative Party . In

1386-584: A handle for the burgeoning underground organization, however, which began to be known as the Internationale group. The Internationale group held a conference on 1 January 1916, in the apartment of Karl Liebknecht, attended by 12 delegates. This group adopted a program drafted from prison by Rosa Luxemburg and was preparatory to a more authoritative gathering held on 19 March in Berlin. The group did not immediately seek to establish themselves as an independent political party, believing instead that while

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1512-442: A large public presence. On the first day of the trial, Liebknecht said that imperial orders were null and void if their purpose was a breach of the constitution. (In the court's final ruling, it emphasized that the soldiers' unconditional duty of obedience to the emperor was a central provision of the constitution of the empire.) When Liebknecht responded to a question from the presiding judge by saying that various newspapers as well as

1638-526: A leading role in the Kapp Putsch . In 1920, he was killed in an explosion after grenades in his car accidentally detonated. Pabst was neither prosecuted nor charged, and Vogel was helped to escape by Captain Lieutenant (later Admiral) Wilhelm Canaris three days after sentencing. Runge was recognized and beaten by workers in 1925 and 1931 after his release from prison. In June 1945, Runge, now 70,

1764-510: A majority advocated early parliamentary elections and thus self-dissolution of the councils. Liebknecht and Luxemburg were excluded from participation. Since December 1918, Friedrich Ebert (SPD), head of the Council of the People's Deputies that was acting as Germany's interim government, had been trying to take power away from the council movement with, if necessary, the help of the army. He

1890-508: A manifesto signed by anti-war leaders of the SPD calling for spontaneous resistance — an effort which Jogiches criticized as no substitute for actual political organization. Luxemburg's idea was soon abandoned due to lack of support from the broad circle of party leaders tapped for the effort, of whom no more than a small handful responded. Rosa Luxemburg and a small network of her friends and co-thinkers began to organize themselves politically from

2016-736: A massive military presence. Chairman Paul Levi spoke at the graves for the KPD and Luise Zietz and Rudolf Breitscheid for the USPD. In 1926 the November Revolution Monument was dedicated at the gravesite of the militants in the Friedrichsfelde Cemetery. Nazi authorities had it demolished in 1935. The remains of Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg have never been definitively found or identified. In 1951, Liebknecht and Luxemburg were honoured with symbolic graves at

2142-595: A member of the Prussian House of Representatives even though he had not yet been released from prison in Silesia . He was one of the first eight Social Democrats to become a member of the Prussian state parliament , despite the Prussian three-class franchise that gave more weight to higher-income voters. Liebknecht remained a member of the state parliament until 1916. His wife Julia died on 22 August 1911 after

2268-443: A nationwide revolution. They planned a simultaneous general strike in all major cities and parades of armed strikers in front of the barracks of army regiments in order to persuade them to either join or lay down their arms. The Stewards, guided by workers' sentiment in the factories and fearing an armed confrontation with army troops, postponed the date set for the revolution several times, finally to 11 November 1918. Liebknecht though

2394-409: A new Third International was historically necessary, instead of a sectarian split that would isolate the revolutionary left from the working class ensconced in the SPD, instead the "bureaucratic system" of the party needed to be made into a "democratic system." They sought to drive out pro-war political leaders, leaving a mass revolutionary party to await the forthcoming national revolution. Following

2520-508: A statement by Rosa Luxemburg and Franz Mehring (its complete text is thought to have been lost), in which they threatened to leave the party because of its conduct. He "felt that it was a half-measure: in such a case one would already have had to leave." Luxemburg formed the International Group on 5 August 1914, to which Liebknecht along with ten other SPD leftists belonged and that attempted to form an inner-party opposition to

2646-569: A strengthening of the strike and an open air meeting in Treptow Park on the 31st. At the meeting in Treptow Park Ebert called for the workers to continue supporting the war effort, after which he was denounced by the strikers. Dittmann was arrested at the meeting for publicly calling for subversion and sentenced to five years imprisonment. On 1 February the military informed the strikers it would impose martial law. Meanwhile

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2772-684: Is approaching". The following day the leaflet's text appeared as official news in the Deutscher Reichsanzeiger , the German Reich's newspaper of record. Rumors circulated among civilians and military personnel – spread by, among others, Philipp Scheidemann's son-in-law Fritz Henck – that bounties had been placed on the Spartacist leaders. On 14 January an article appeared in a newsletter of two Social Democratic regiments, stating that "the next few days" would show that "as for

2898-519: The Guard Cavalry Rifle Division after they had consulted with Gustav Noske , who was a member of the Council of the People's Deputies , Germany's interim government, and had responsibility for military affairs. Although two of the men directly involved in the murders were prosecuted, no one responsible for ordering their deaths was ever brought to trial. After their deaths, both Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg became martyrs for

3024-503: The Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg in 1897. On 5 April 1899 he passed the examination for candidates to the higher civil service career path with a "good". With his brother Theodor and the socialist and Zionist Oskar Cohn , he opened a law office in Berlin in 1899. In May of the following year he married Julia Paradies, with whom he had two sons, Wilhelm and Robert, and a daughter Vera. He joined

3150-520: The Memorial to the Socialists ( German : Gedenkstätte der Sozialisten ) in the Friedrichsfelde Cemetery. The officers Horst von Pflugk-Harttung, Heinrich Stiege, Ulrich von Ritgen and Rudolf Liepmann are to be regarded as the murderers of Karl Liebknecht. In addition, the officers Heinz von Pflugk-Harttung, Bruno Schulze and the soldier Clemens Friedrich were involved. A civilian trial against

3276-474: The Russian Empire . Little is known of his childhood years, although it is perhaps instructive that Jogiches spoke no Hebrew and had no more than a rudimentary grasp of Yiddish , indicating a closer familiarity with other regional languages and cultures than those of his Jewish heritage. The family mostly spoke Polish at home and Russian elsewhere. As a young man of 18, Jogiches founded one of

3402-618: The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , by excluding the Mensheviks . In the process, Jogiches gained control of funds belonging to the party, which had been held in trust by Karl Kautsky and Klara Zetkin , leading German Marxists, who were advised by Rosa Luxemburg to hand the money to a commission that Jogiches controlled. He tried to use his position to create an organisation that would have brought together Bolsheviks and left-wing Mensheviks, but

3528-692: The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) beginning in 1900, he was one of its deputies in the Reichstag from 1912 to 1916, where he represented the left-revolutionary wing of the party. In 1916 he was expelled from the SPD's parliamentary group for his opposition to the Burgfriedenspolitik , the political truce between all parties in the Reichstag while the war lasted. He twice spent time in prison, first for writing an anti-militarism pamphlet in 1907 and then for his role in

3654-509: The Spartacist League . While the revolutionary left chose not to pursue an immediate split, seeking instead to purge the party of its right-wing leadership, the pro-war majority of the SPD worked throughout 1916 to pursue a purge of their own, marked by the 24 May 1916, expulsion of 33 dissident SPD members of the Reichstag from the party for their formal disavowal of the war effort and the October seizure of Vorwärts (Forward) from

3780-620: The Spartacist League . In December, his call to make Germany a soviet republic was rejected by the majority of the Reich Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils ( Reichsrätekongress ). At the end of 1918, Liebknecht was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Shortly after the suppression of the Spartacist uprising in which he played a leading role, he and Rosa Luxemburg were killed by members of

3906-555: The Spartakusbund. Jogiches would remain in the role of the underground Spartacist group until his own arrest in Berlin on 24 March 1918, at which time the leadership of the Spartacus League passed into the hands of Paul Levi . The Spartakusbund would later become one of the primary forces in the unity congress which established the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) at the end of 1918. The Spartacus League led

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4032-523: The internationalist essence of the socialist movement. Writing as "R. Kruszyńska," Rosa Luxemburg played a key role in contributing content to this paper, soon taking over the editorship. The paper's internationalist political line proved somewhat at odds with the program of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS), however, with the latter emphasizing the aspect of Polish national liberation from Russian control, and consequently no support of

4158-611: The party name Jan Tyszka , was a Polish Marxist revolutionary and politician, active in Poland , Lithuania , and Germany . Jogiches was a founder of the political party known as the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (main forerunner of the Communist Party of Poland ) in 1893 and a key figure in the underground Spartacus League in Germany, the predecessor of the Communist Party of Germany , during

4284-512: The Congress, however, and by a vote of 9 to 7, with 3 abstentions, Luxemburg was denied a seat at the Congress. Luxemburg departed the gathering under protest — with bad feelings between her and Jogiches on the one hand and the PPS on the other festering further. Late in 1893, Jogiches and Luxemburg took yet another step towards permanent independence from the mainline Polish socialist movement with

4410-557: The Easter Youth Conference in Jena , Liebknecht spoke to 60 young people on anti-militarism and the changing of social conditions in Germany. On 1 May 1916 he led an antiwar demonstration in Berlin that had been planned by the Spartacus League. Even though the demonstrators were surrounded by police, he began his oration with the words "Down with the war! Down with the government!" He was arrested and charged with treason. On

4536-702: The French national holiday in Paris. He only became aware of the danger of a European war on 23 July, after the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum to Serbia became known (the July Crisis ). At the end of July, he returned to Germany via Switzerland. On 1 August, the day mobilization was announced and war declared on Russia , the Reichstag was summoned for a 4 August session. At the time there was still no question in Liebknecht's mind that "the rejection of war loans

4662-667: The German movement. Jogiches returned to Poland first, traveling to Warsaw in the spring of 1905 to Warsaw to establish the Central Committee of the SDKPiL there together with Julian Marchlewski , Adolf Warski , Felix Dzerzhinsky , and Yakov Hanecki . Luxemburg remained in Berlin as the representative of the SDKPiL abroad, representing it before the Socialist International and attempting to win support for

4788-489: The House to approve the supplementary budget by rising from their seats. At the next vote on 20 March 1915, Rühle voted with Liebknecht. Both had previously refused a request from about 30 other party members to leave the chamber with them during the vote. In April 1915 Mehring and Luxemburg published the journal Die Internationale . It was immediately confiscated by the authorities and appeared only once. Liebknecht, however,

4914-637: The Reich Chancellery for the Ebert government but was not prepared to leave its positions without pay. As a result of Ebert's successful military intervention against it, the three USPD representatives on the Council of People's Deputies resigned on 29 December, after which the council was made up of five SPD representatives. The Spartacists, who were gaining popularity throughout the Reich, made use of

5040-585: The Reich Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils from taking place and, after that failed, to weaken the resolution the Congress had made for disempowering the military. On 24 December 1918, during the Berlin Christmas battles , he used military force for the first time, directing it against the People's Navy Division . It was close to the revolutionary Kiel sailors and was supposed to protect

5166-671: The Reichstag he immediately emerged as a staunch opponent of an army bill that would grant the emperor tax funds for armaments for the army and navy. He was also able to prove that the Krupp company, a large steel and armaments firm, had illegally obtained economically important information by bribing employees of the War Ministry (the so-called Kornwalzer scandal). In the first half of July 1914 Liebknecht traveled to Belgium and France, where he met with socialist politicians Jean Longuet and Jean Jaurès and spoke at several events. He spent

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5292-475: The Reichstag. Contrary to customary practice, the Reichstag president did not record in the official minutes the statement that Liebknecht had submitted in writing explaining his vote against the second war loan bill on 2 December 1914. Under various pretexts he was subsequently refused the parliamentary floor. It was not until 8 April 1916 that Liebknecht was able to speak from the rostrum on a lesser budget issue. This resulted in what deputy Wilhelm Dittmann called

5418-626: The Russian October Revolution of 1917 was representing a communist led country, then gave a reception in his honor. Liebknecht set about reorganizing the Spartacus League, which then emerged as a political organization in its own right. He urged the Revolutionary Stewards, which had organized the January strike, and both the USPD's rank and file and the Spartacus League to jointly coordinate preparations for

5544-475: The SPD Reichstag membership expelled Liebknecht from its ranks by 60 votes to 25. In solidarity with him, Otto Rühle also resigned from the parliamentary group two days later. In March 1916 another 18 opposition deputies were expelled and subsequently formed the Social Democratic Working Group, which Liebknecht and Rühle did not join. During the war Liebknecht had few opportunities to make himself heard in

5670-404: The SPD representatives in the Action Committee declared that work must restart soon. The Imperial government quickly dissolved a 414 member delegate action committee the strikers had elected, and then conscripted up to 50,000 of the strikers. The Action Committee then conceded defeat, issuing a call to return to work on 3 February. After the strike was called off 50,000 workers were conscripted to

5796-513: The SPD's Burgfriedenspolitik – a political truce under which the SPD voted for the war loans, all parties agreed not to criticize the government or the war, and the trade unions refrained from striking. In the summer and fall of 1914 Liebknecht and Luxemburg traveled throughout Germany to try to persuade – with little success – opponents of the war to reject financial support for the war. He also contacted other European workers' parties to show them that not all German Social Democrats were in favor of

5922-468: The SPD's pacifist wing by the pro-war party officialdom. A national conference of dissident socialists was held in Berlin on 7 January 1917, with 35 of the 157 delegates members of the Spartacistbund. This gathering was ruled an effort to "sabotage" the SPD through factionalism and mass expulsions of leftists followed. The acrimony and expulsions within the SPD culminated with a formal split of

6048-661: The Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 1900 and in 1904, along with his colleague Hugo Haase , he became known abroad as a political lawyer when he defended nine Social Democrats, among them the Pole Franciszek Trąbalski , in the Königsberg Secret Society trial. In other high profile criminal trials, he denounced the class-based justice of the empire and the brutal treatment of recruits in the military. From 1907 to 1910 Liebknecht

6174-693: The Spartacist uprising. The burial initially planned by the KPD at the Cemetery of the March Fallen in Friedrichshain was forbidden by both the government and Berlin's municipal authorities. Instead the burial commission was referred to the cemetery for the poor in Friedrichsfelde , then located on the urban periphery. The funeral procession turned into a mass demonstration in which several tens of thousands of people took part in spite of

6300-582: The Steward leader, convinced the Berlin Turners to unanimously declare a strike. Spartacist leaflets began circulating stating "Monday, January 28 the general strike begins!". On 28 January Berlin's Metalworkers' Union or Deutscher Metallarbeiter-Verband (DMV) which was staffed with local representatives and USPD members, was demanding peace without annexations , food relief, and end to conscription , and pro-democracy reforms. The full list of demands

6426-502: The Swiss socialist press, condemning the war effort and linking the struggle for peace with the class struggle to overthrow autocracy. Imperial authorities were not deaf to the threat of anti-war radicalism gaining a foothold and conscripted left wing parliamentary official Karl Liebknecht on 7 February 1915, only to begin transferring him from one military unit to another in an effort to isolate him and neutralize his influence. Luxemburg

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6552-498: The USPD backed workers councils throughout Germany. By early January 1918, Spartacists were distributing flyers calling for a general strike but had no set date or agreement from the USPD. Richard Müller , leader of the Revolutionary Stewards concurred that labor was ready for an organized strike and proposed calling one at a joint USPD meeting in mid-January. At the meeting of USPD delegates and representatives,

6678-679: The USPD, which opposed the war, increasingly more appealing. The USPD facilitated the creation of "workers' councils", which, while dissimilar to their soviet counterparts in that they were not dedicated to radicalism or revolutionary activity, still promoted striking and other popular agitation. These workers' councils had their origins in the 1916 Auxiliary National Services Law passed by the German government which allowed for workers employed in companies with more than 50 people to create committees to negotiate on wages and conditions. Representatives from these auxiliary committees, as well as representatives from other formal and informal workers groups joined

6804-665: The Wilmersdorf SPD, that Liebknecht had been captured. Breuer said he would call back but reportedly did not. At about 9:30 p.m. members of the Bürgerwehr drove Liebknecht to their command office, the headquarters of the Guards Cavalry Rifle Division in the Eden Hotel. Liebknecht, who up to that point had denied who he was, was identified by the initials on his clothing in the presence of

6930-466: The border to Berlin . Jogiches attended the 1907 London Congress of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party , where he was elected a candidate member of the party's governing Central Committee. Although an intelligent person and dedicated revolutionary socialist thinker, Jogiches was virtually incapable of converting his ideas into written words: "the mere thought of putting his ideas on paper paralyzes him," Luxemburg later recalled. Consequently,

7056-603: The bulk of the exile Russian colony in Switzerland. Jogiches turned his primary attention to Polish affairs for the next several years, doubtlessly influenced in the decision to a great extent by Luxemburg. In July 1893 Jogiches financed a new Paris-based socialist publication in the Polish language , Sprawa Robotnicza (The Workers' Cause), which emphasized close cooperation between Polish and Russian radicals in their joint goal of overthrowing Tsarist autocracy and emphasizing

7182-427: The chairman of the Wilmersdorf civic council. Around 9 p.m. Wilhelm Pieck , who was to become president of the German Democratic Republic (East Germany) from 1949 to 1960, entered the apartment unsuspectingly and was also arrested. Liebknecht was first taken to the Wilmersdorf Cecilia School. From there a member of the Bürgerwehr called the Reich Chancellery and informed its deputy press chief, Robert Breuer of

7308-432: The chief contribution of Jogiches was that of literary stimulant to the skilled publicist Luxemburg as well as behind-the-scenes organizer of the fledgling underground political party that he had helped to establish. As Luxemburg grew in fame as a Marxist theoretician , Jogiches became gradually more embittered about his life, until by his mid-30s, he had come, as one Luxemburg biographer phrased it, to have "fully realized

7434-435: The clash of egos and the dispute over money, Jogiches would nevertheless proceed to establish his publishing house, The Social-Democratic Library (Sotsialdemokraticheskaya Biblioteka) in 1892, issuing pirated editions of works by Marx, Karl Kautsky , and others — further poisoning relations with Plekhanov. The bitter battle with Plekhanov over publishing had the effect of isolating Jogiches (and his companion Luxemburg) from

7560-452: The conservative politician Elard von Oldenburg-Januschau were calling for a violent breach of the constitution, the judge cut him off, saying that he could allege that statements had been made in his courtroom that he had understood to be an incitement to a breach of the constitution. On the third day of the trial, Liebknecht was sentenced to one and a half years imprisonment for acts preliminary to high treason. Emperor Wilhelm II , who had

7686-439: The country. The hope proved illusory, since in Berlin, where Liebknecht went immediately, he was greeted by a cheering crowd at the Anhalter Station . A march set off in the direction of the Reichstag building but was pushed eastward by the Berlin police. In front of the Russian Embassy Liebknecht gave a speech in which he proclaimed: "Down with the Hohenzollerns ! Long live the social republic of Germany!" The embassy, which since

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7812-450: The court-martial went the way it did, [Kurt] Vogel was freed from prison, and so on. As a man of honor, I responded to the behavior of the SPD of the time by keeping my mouth shut for 50 years about our cooperation. ... If it is not possible to skirt the truth and I get so angry I'm ready to explode, I will tell the truth, which I would like to avoid in the interest of the SPD." Liebknecht was buried on 25 January along with 31 other dead from

7938-436: The de facto commander of the division, Captain Waldemar Pabst . After a few minutes of reflection, Pabst decided to have Liebknecht and Luxemburg, who was brought in around 10 p.m., "taken care of". He called the Reich Chancellery to discuss further action with Minister of Defense Gustav Noske . Noske urged him to consult with the commander in chief of the Provisional Reichswehr , General von Lüttwitz , and if possible obtain

8064-422: The demand "Beat their leaders to death! Kill Liebknecht!" Hundreds of thousands of handbills with the same content were also distributed. Eduard Stadtler 's Anti-Bolshevik League was among those involved. In the SPD's newspaper Vorwärts (Forward), Liebknecht was repeatedly portrayed as "mentally ill". The entire Council of People's Deputies signed a leaflet on 8 January announcing that "the hour of reckoning

8190-459: The earliest underground socialist study circles in Vilnius, its 1885 origin predating the foundation of the first mass international socialist organization in the Russian Empire by a dozen years. Using the first of many pseudonyms , Liofka (little Leo), Jogiches attained an almost legendary local status for his tenacious dedication to the anti-Tsarist cause. This commitment led to two arrests and short terms in jail, in both 1888 and 1889. With

8316-707: The eastern outskirts of Leipzig. His father had moved into a suburban villa there with August Bebel after they were expelled from Leipzig under the 'Lesser State of Siege', a provision of the Anti-Socialist Laws directed against socialist, social democratic and communist associations and writings. The laws were in force from 1878 to 1890. In 1890 he graduated from the Alte Nikolaischule in Leipzig and on 16 August 1890 began studying law and administrative ( cameral ) sciences at Leipzig University . He studied there with jurist Bernhard Windscheid , jurist and theologian Rudolph Sohm , economist Lujo Brentano , psychologist Wilhelm Wundt , and art historian Anton Springer . When

8442-406: The elected delegates were meeting and being presented with Müller's program. In turn they elected an eleven member action committee and invited delegates from the USPD and SPD to represent the two main socialist parties. The USPD delegates included Hugo Haase, Georg Ledebour , and Wilhelm Dittmann , while the SPD delegates were Friedrich Ebert , Philipp Scheidemann , and Otto Braun . The meeting

8568-427: The establishment of a new Marxist political party, the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP), a group later known as the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL). This new group stood aloof from PSP, a broad coalition party founded in 1892 and supported by the bulk of the Russian exile community. The Russian Revolution of 1905 erupted abruptly on " Bloody Sunday ," 22 January with

8694-401: The failed Spartacist uprising , after which Luxemburg and Liebknecht were killed by right-wing paramilitary Freikorps troops. Jogiches was killed in Moabit prison in Berlin on 10 March 1919, likely since he was investigating the assassination of Luxemburg and Liebknecht. Throughout his life as an underground revolutionary, Jogiches used a massive array of pseudonyms such as Jan Tyszka,

8820-437: The failure of the attempt to win over the minority for a separate public vote. But what must not be overlooked is the sacred veneration that was still paid to party discipline at that time, and most of all by the radical wing that until then had had to defend itself ever more pointedly against breaches of discipline, or tendencies to break discipline, on the part of revisionist party members." Liebknecht expressly did not endorse

8946-455: The family moved to Berlin in October 1890, he continued his studies at the Friedrich Wilhelm University (now the Humboldt University of Berlin ), where he attended lectures by historian Heinrich von Treitschke and economist Gustav Schmoller . His certificate of academic completion is dated 7 March 1893. On 29 May 1893, he passed his examination for higher civil service posts ( Referendarexamen ). Liebknecht then did his military service as

9072-538: The first day of the trial, which was intended to be an example for the socialist left, a spontaneous solidarity strike organized by the Revolutionary Stewards took place in Berlin with over 50,000 participants. Instead of weakening the opposition, Liebknecht's arrest gave new impetus to opposition to the war. On 23 August 1916 Liebknecht was sentenced to four years and one month in prison, which he served at Luckau , Brandenburg from mid-November 1916 until his release under an amnesty on 23 October 1918. While Liebknecht

9198-521: The front and the leadership of the Spartacists, including Leo Jogiches , was arrested. Additionally, the Spartacists took as a lesson that they needed to focus on winning the loyalty of the German soldiers as well as that of the workers. Karl Liebknecht Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht ( German: [ˈliːpknɛçt] ; 13 August 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a German revolutionary socialist and anti-militarist. A member of

9324-497: The gap between his youthful aspirations and the disillusionments of reality." Interpersonal conflict followed, exacerbated by the different trajectories of personal achievement, with the pair permanently separating in 1907. Their political collaboration continued, despite the personal rift. During 1909, Jogiches formed a tactical alliance with the Bolshevik leader, Vladimir Lenin , and backing him as he tried to gain control of

9450-431: The government called out the military against the insurgents on 11 January, they were quickly overwhelmed. The total death toll is estimated at around 180. The "intelligence services of numerous 'associations representing the interests of the state'" actively sought the leading figures of the KPD. In December 1918 numerous red, large-format posters directed against the Spartacus League were posted in Berlin, culminating in

9576-507: The heads of the movement … the gloves are now coming off". Since their lives were now in danger, Liebknecht and Luxemburg went into hiding, initially in the Berlin suburb of Neukölln , but after two days they moved to new quarters in Berlin's Wilmersdorf neighborhood. The owner of the apartment, the merchant Siegfried Marcusson, was a member of the USPD and belonged to the Wilmersdorf Workers' and Soldiers' Council; his wife

9702-650: The intention to murder Liebknecht, drove the car to the nearby Tiergarten park. There he feigned a breakdown at a spot "where a completely unlit footpath branched off". Liebknecht was led away from the car and after a few meters shot from behind "at close range" by the shore of a lake. Shots were fired by von Pflugk-Harttung, Naval Lieutenant Heinrich Stiege, Naval First Lieutenant Ulrich von Ritgen and by Liepmann, who "instinctively joined in". Also present were Captain Heinz von Pflugk-Harttung, Horst's younger brother; Second Lieutenant Bruno Schulze; and Private Clemens Friedrich,

9828-518: The jailing for their anti-war efforts of Liebknecht in May 1916 and Luxemburg that same July, Jogiches took over as the leader of the organization's underground activity. As leader of the underground organization it was Jogiches that oversaw the publication of the official newsletter Spartacus, launched in September 1916, which gave a new name to the faction — the Spartakusbund, rendered into English as

9954-487: The journalist.) The officers left the hotel with Liebknecht at around 10:45 p.m., dressed in enlisted men's uniforms for disguise. As they were leaving, Liebknecht was spat on, insulted and struck by hotel guests. Just after he was put into a waiting car with the officers, Private Otto Runge, who had been promised money by a Guards Cavalry officer not privy to the full plan, hit him with the butt of his rifle. Lieutenant Rudolf Liepmann, who also had not been informed by Pabst of

10080-399: The loan in the parliamentary group, agreed for similar reasons to read the statement of the parliamentary group majority, which was received with jubilation by the bourgeois parties. Liebknecht often thought about or discussed the events of 4 August, both privately and in public. He saw them as a catastrophic political and personal watershed. In 1916, he noted: "The defection of the majority of

10206-403: The loans that enabled the government to finance the initial war effort. Before the parliamentary group meeting on 3 August, those in favor of the approval had not expected such a success and had been by no means sure of even obtaining a majority in the SPD parliamentary group. Even during the break in the session after Reich Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg's speech, immediately before

10332-484: The main trial only Otto Runge and Kurt Vogel were sentenced to prison terms. The only officers charged, the von Pflugk-Harttung brothers, were acquitted. The verdicts were signed by Gustav Noske, who also arranged for the subsequent appeal proceedings to be discontinued. Runge and Vogel later received compensation for their time in prison from the National Socialists. Heinz von Pflugk-Harttung later played

10458-493: The majority agreed with leaders such as Hugo Haase that a general strike was necessary, while a minority, including Heinrich Ströbel opposed the strike. However, the party would not commit to presenting a call to strike in writing. However, because the Stewards represented the workers and had the influence to call strikes on the factory level, it was up to them if and when strikes would be called. On 27 January Müller, acting as

10584-483: The marches planned for the following day. On 9 November masses of people poured into the center of Berlin from all directions. From Gate 4 of the Berlin Palace, standing at the large window of the second floor, Liebknecht proclaimed the "Free Socialist Republic of Germany". Earlier that day Philipp Scheidemann of the SPD had proclaimed the "German Republic" from the Reichstag building. Liebknecht then became

10710-527: The masses could be driven like a herd of cattle. Anti-militarist agitation, he said, must educate about the dangers of militarism, but it must do so within the framework of the law – a statement that the Reich Court of Justice did not accept when Liebknecht was brought to trial for treason. He characterized the spirit of militarism with a reference to a remark by the Prussian Minister of War at

10836-530: The middle of September 1905. As part of an ongoing battle to radicalize the party's daily newspaper, Vorwärts (Forward), Luxemburg was named to the paper's editorial board in the fall of 1905. She would spend the months of November and December 1905 churning out aggressive commentary about Russian events for her German readers, attempting to draw analogies between the Russian and German situations whenever possible, her contributions appearing almost daily. It

10962-410: The military intervention to plan the founding of a new, left-wing revolutionary party and invited their supporters to its founding congress in Berlin at the end of December 1918. On 1 January 1919, the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) introduced itself to the public. Beginning on 8 January, Liebknecht and other KPD members participated in the Spartacist uprising which began with a general strike and

11088-465: The murderers of Liebknecht and Luxemburg did not take place, and an investigation into what lay behind them was not initiated. Only after the KPD, through its own investigations led by Leo Jogiches , had revealed the whereabouts of some of the perpetrators, did the Guard Cavalry open court-martial proceedings against them. The military court prosecutor Paul Jorns impeded the investigations, and in

11214-427: The murders had prevented Germany from becoming communist.] Noske was exemplary at the time, and the party [SPD] (except for its semi-communist left wing) behaved impeccably in the affair. That I could not carry out the action without Noske's approval (with Ebert in the background) and also that I had to protect my officers is clear. But very few people understood why I was never questioned or brought up on charges, and why

11340-428: The occupation of several Berlin newspaper buildings. Liebknecht joined the strike leadership and, against the advice of Rosa Luxemburg, called for an armed insurrection to overthrow the Ebert government. KPD delegates tried without success to persuade some regiments stationed in and around Berlin to defect, and with only minimal support from the mass of the working classes of Berlin, the uprising failed to gain ground. When

11466-517: The only enlisted man involved in the crime. The perpetrators delivered the dead man as an "unknown body" to the ambulance station opposite the Eden Hotel at 11:15 p.m. and then reported to Pabst. Half an hour later, Luxemburg was taken away in an open car and shot about 40 meters from the entrance to the Eden Hotel, apparently by Naval Lieutenant Hermann Souchon . Her body was thrown into the Landwehr Canal by First Lieutenant Kurt Vogel and

11592-484: The organization and its activities among the German socialist movement. Within the SPD Luxemburg, drawing upon the ongoing Russian experience, pushed the idea of the "mass strike" as a strategic tool for the achievement of power, over the objections of trade unionists and more conservative and electorally-driven party leaders. Jogiches would return to delegate to the annual congress of the SPD, held at Jena in

11718-459: The paper by the PPS leadership was to be forthcoming. As Kruszyńska the 23-year old Luxemburg sought admission as a delegate to the 3rd Congress of the Socialist International , held in Zürich from 6 to 12 August 1893, as the representative of Sprawa Robotnicza. The mandate of the upstart young socialist representing the new independent socialist publication was challenged by the PPS in front of

11844-502: The parliamentary group came as a surprise even to the pessimists; the atomization of the hitherto predominant radical wing no less so. The importance of the credit approval in the shift of the faction's entire policy to the government camp was not obvious: there was still the hope that the decision of 3 August was the result of a temporary panic and would soon be corrected, or at least not repeated and even overridden. These and similar considerations, but also uncertainty and weakness, explained

11970-498: The party. A Congress was held at Gotha during Easter 1917 by the pacifist center and revolutionary left socialists, with the gathering launching a new organization, the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD). About 170,000 members remained with the old pro-war SPD, with the new USPD claiming a membership of 120,000 at its launch — including among its ranks Jogiches and the members of

12096-510: The radical Luxemburg circle was in contact with individuals in more than 300 places by the middle of 1915. A formal conference was held on 5 May 1915, in the apartment of Wilhelm Pieck to discuss a regional system of organization, which was conceived as a secret network of anti-war militants operating within the SPD. The group began to issue its own newspaper, Die Internationale (The International), edited by Luxemburg and Mehring, only to see it immediately banned. The short-lived paper did provide

12222-619: The search, the CIC instead found evidence linking him to Liebknecht's murder. On the orders of the U.S. military occupation authorities, German police officers were forced to arrest von Ritgen and put him on trial. While in prison, he was treated as a "hero of freedom", and was later acquitted by the Kassel Higher Regional Court. Ritgen died in 1969. Leo Jogiches Leon "Leo" Jogiches (Russian: Лев "Лео" Йогихес; 17 July 1867 – 10 March 1919), also commonly known by

12348-432: The shooting deaths of hundreds of peaceful protesters who were attempting to present a petition to Tsar Nicholas II . Within days, protests and strikes calling for establishment of a constitutional order swept the empire, which rocked the state censorship and threatened the stability of the government for months. For the time, Leo Jogiches and his common-law wife, Luxemburg, remained in German exile, their eyes set firmly on

12474-486: The socialist cause in Germany and throughout Europe. Commemoration of the two continues to play an important role among the German left to this day. Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht was born in Leipzig in 1871, the second of the five sons of Wilhelm Liebknecht and his second wife Natalie (née Reh). His father, along with August Bebel , was one of the founders and key leaders of the SPD and its precursor parties. Karl

12600-594: The spokesman for the revolutionary left. In order to push the November Revolution in the direction of a socialist soviet republic, he and Rosa Luxemburg began publishing a daily newspaper, Die Rote Fahne ('The Red Flag'). In the ensuing disputes, however, it soon became apparent that most workers' representatives in Germany were pursuing social democratic rather than socialist goals. At the Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils of 16–20 December 1918,

12726-499: The summer of 1914 and into 1915. These included Leo Jogiches, Julian Marchlewski , Franz Mehring , and Klara Zetkin , her lawyer Paul Levi , and second secretary of the SPD in Berlin Wilhelm Pieck , among others. It would be several months after getting together before the first leaflet of the group would be published. The group sought to make contact with socialists from other European countries through letters to

12852-758: The threat of conscription into the Tsar's army looming — possibly a penal battalion — Jogiches escaped to Zürich , Switzerland. He brought with him during his furtive departure a considerable sum of money, including both personal and donated funds earmarked for the publication and distribution of socialist literature. A few months after his arrival in Zürich, the 23-year old Jogiches met a fellow 20-year old ethnic Jewish political émigré from Tsarist autocracy , Rosa Luxemburg . The pair fell in love and became both close political allies and personal companions. Shortly after his arrival in Switzerland, Jogiches made contact with pioneer Russian Marxist Georgy Plekhanov and proposed

12978-557: The time, General Karl von Einem , according to whom a soldier loyal to the king who shoots badly is preferable to one who shoots well but whose political convictions are questionable. On 17 April 1907 von Einem asked the Reich Prosecutor's Office to initiate criminal proceedings against Liebknecht on account of the pamphlet. The treason trial against Liebknecht took place before the Reich Court of Justice , presided over by Judge Ludwig Treplin, on 9, 10 and 12 October 1907, with

13104-501: The vote, there was turmoil among the SPD deputies because some had demonstratively applauded the Chancellor's remarks. Liebknecht, who in the years before had repeatedly defended the unwritten rules of party discipline (i.e. unanimity) against representatives of the party's right wing, bowed to the decision of the majority and also voted for the government bill in the Reichstag's full session. Hugo Haase, who like Liebknecht had opposed

13230-709: The war on the Western and Eastern fronts as non-combatant soldier who was given leaves of absence for sessions of the Reichstag and Landtag. He nevertheless succeeded in expanding the International Group and organizing the SPD's staunchest opponents of the war throughout the Reich. That gave rise to the Spartacus League on 1 January 1916; it was renamed the Spartacist League after its final break from social democracy in November 1918. On 12 January 1916,

13356-504: The war. Liebknecht's first major conflict with the new party line, one which attracted wide public attention, came when he traveled to Belgium between 4 and 12 September, in the middle of the 3-month long German invasion of the country. There he met with local socialists and was informed – in Liège and Andenne , among other places – about the mass reprisals ordered by the German military against alleged attacks by Belgian civilians. Liebknecht

13482-408: The war. In the run-up to the 2 December 1914 session, he tried and failed to win other opposition deputies over to his position. Otto Rühle , who had previously assured Liebknecht that he would also openly vote no, was not able to withstand the party pressure and stayed away from the full session. Liebknecht was in the end the only deputy not to stand when Reichstag President Johannes Kaempf called on

13608-596: The years of World War I . For many years the personal companion and a close political ally of internationally famous revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg , Jogiches was assassinated in Berlin by right-wing paramilitary forces in March 1919 while investigating Luxemburg's and Liebknecht's murder some weeks before. Leon Jogiches was born on 17 July 1867 to a wealthy Polish-Jewish family in Vilnius , now Lithuania , then part of

13734-501: Was a friend of Rosa Luxemburg. In the early evening of 15 January, five members of the Wilmersdorf Bürgerwehr – a middle class civilian militia – entered the apartment and arrested Liebknecht and Luxemburg. It is not known who tipped off the Bürgerwehr or gave it the order, but it is certain that it was a targeted raid, not a random search. Each person involved in the arrest received a reward of 1,700 marks from

13860-402: Was accused in the press – including by Social Democratic papers – of "treason against the fatherland" and "party treason" and had to justify himself before the party executive on 2 October. After that he was all the more determined to vote against the new loan bill and to make it a demonstrative statement against the "unity phase's high tide" and for it to be the basis for rallying opponents of

13986-585: Was baptized a Lutheran in St. Thomas Church . According to the Liebknecht family tradition, their lineage was directly descended from the theologian and founder of Reformation , Martin Luther . His godparents included Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , who were not present at the baptism but had written declarations of their godparenthood. As a child in the early 1880s, Liebknecht lived in Borsdorf , now located on

14112-476: Was doing this in accordance with the secret Ebert-Groener pact , under which Wilhelm Groener , Quartermaster General of the German Army, had assured Ebert of the army's loyalty, in return for which Ebert had promised among other things to take prompt action against leftist uprisings. Ebert had troops assembled in and around Berlin for this purpose. On 6 December 1918 he attempted to use the military to prevent

14238-629: Was however interrupted by a false panic over rumors of an imminent police raid after which the SPD delegates left. By nightfall the government had enacted a ban on factory meetings and strike councils, despite the number of strikers now reaching half a million. The next day on 29 January the Action Committee nominated representatives to meet with the Under Secretary for the Minister of the Interior of Germany, but were only allowed to meet with

14364-611: Was in prison, Hugo Haase, SPD chairman until March 1916, lobbied in vain for his release. In April 1917 the SPD split apart with the founding of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), which the Spartacus group joined in order to work within it toward revolutionary goals. Along with Eduard Bernstein and the Catholic Reichstag deputy Matthias Erzberger of the Centre Party – who like Liebknecht

14490-520: Was later murdered by right-wing extremists – Liebknecht was one of the very few German parliamentarians to publicly denounce the human rights violations of Germany's Turkish-Ottoman allies such as the Armenian genocide and the brutal crackdown on other non-Turkish minorities, particularly in Syria and Lebanon . This practice was tacitly approved both by the liberal parties and by the majority SPD, which

14616-488: Was not able to participate in the venture. Since 2 December 1914, police and military authorities had been considering how to stop his activities. In early February 1915, the high command of the Prussian Army called him to serve in a construction battalion. He was therefore subject to the military laws that forbade any political activity outside his duties in the Reichstag and the Prussian Landtag. He went through

14742-565: Was not found until 31 May. Pabst's press officer Friedrich Grabowski subsequently circulated a communiqué stating that Liebknecht had been "shot while fleeing" and Luxemburg "killed by a mob". In 1969, Pabst commented on the background to the murders in a private letter: "The fact is: the execution of my orders unfortunately did not take place as it should have. But it did take place, and for that these German idiots should thank Noske and me on their knees, erect monuments to us, and have streets and squares named after us! [Because Pabst thought that

14868-677: Was not until the morning of 28 December 1905, that she would board a train for Warsaw in Russian Poland to herself become a direct participant in the ongoing revolutionary effort to overthrow the Tsarist government of the Russian Empire. In March 1906, Luxemburg and Jogiches were arrested for their revolutionary activity. Jogiches was sentenced by the court to 8 years of hard labor followed by lifetime exile to Siberia . He served months in prison before managing to escape across

14994-537: Was outwitted by Lenin, who wrested control of the money. The outcome was a bitter rift between Lenin and Jogiches, whose position was further weakened by a revolt against his leadership of the SDPKiL, led by Hanecki and Karl Radek , who formed a separate faction that aligned with Lenin. On 4 August 1914, the parliamentary representatives of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) agreed among themselves to maintain party discipline and voted en bloc in support of

15120-474: Was politically allied with the Young Turk party CUP . In some cases support was even publicly justified on the grounds of Germany's strategic interests and the alleged existential threat to Turkey from Armenian and Arab terrorism. Liebknecht was released from prison on 23 October 1918 as part of a general amnesty that the Reich government hoped would act as a relief valve for the pre-revolutionary mood in

15246-602: Was president of the International Union of Socialist Youth , where he frequently spoke out against militarism. In 1907 he published Militarism and Anti-Militarism as part of the SPD Youth. In the work he argued that against an external enemy, external militarism required chauvinistic obstinacy, and against an internal enemy, internal militarism required a lack of understanding or hatred of any progressive movement. Militarism also needed an impassive people so that

15372-483: Was self-evident and unquestionable for the majority of the SPD Reichstag faction". In the party's preparatory meeting on 3 August, there were, according to SPD representative Wolfgang Heine , "vile, noisy scenes" because Liebknecht and 13 other deputies spoke out decisively against war loans. In the 4 August parliamentary session, however, the Social Democratic faction voted unanimously in favor of approving

15498-467: Was similarly targeted not long after, arrested later that same month and held for eight weeks. Anti-war sentiment was short-circuited by arrests of leaders and suppression of anti-war publications, but not silenced entirely, with more than 1,000 women demonstrating for peace in front of the Reichstag on 28 May 1915 — further adding to the government's unease. Active efforts were made to locate active supporters in every locality and every large factory and

15624-607: Was tracked down by the NKVD in Berlin and handed over to the Soviet commandant's office on the instructions of senior prosecutor Max Berger. Runge was charged with murder, but his health later deteriorated. He died in prison in September 1945. In 1946, the Counterintelligence Corps searched von Ritgen's home after his father-in-law reported him for his alleged involvement in the murder of Walther Rathenau . During

15750-565: Was unable to win acceptance in his party for the plans. On 30 October 1918 the central executive committee of the USPD, whose members were thinking more of a revolution by peaceful means, rejected his ideas, as did a meeting between the USPD and the Revolutionary Stewards on 1 November. On 8 November the revolution sparked by the sailors' uprising in Kiel spread across Germany independently of Liebknecht's plans. Berlin's Revolutionary Stewards and USPD representatives called on their supporters to join

15876-410: Was written up by Müller and included: Additionally the left wing of the USPD, or Spartacists, including leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg demanded a global revolution. 400,000 workers went on strike primarily in the munitions and metal plants. Within each factory in Berlin meetings and elections were held with revolutionary delegates being elected by significant majorities. By noon 414 of

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