Editing Rosa Luxemburg (section)

== Life ==
=== Poland ===
==== Origins ====
[[File:Staszica 37 (Zamość).JPG|thumb|Luxemburg's birthplace in [[Zamość]], Poland]]
Róża Luksemburg, actual birth name Rozalia Luksenburg, was born on 5 March 1871 at 45 Ogrodowa Street (now 7a Kościuszko Street)<ref name="rory">{{cite web|url=https://www.praktykateoretyczna.pl/artykuly/rory-castle-you-alone-will-make-our-familys-name-famous-rosa-luxemburg-her-family-and-the-origins-of-her-polish-jewish-identity/|title=Rosa Luxemburg, Her Family and the Origins of her Polish-Jewish Identity|website=praktykateoretyczna.pl|access-date=2021-12-03|date=2013-06-16|first=Rory|last=Castle|publisher=Praktyka Teoretyczna}}</ref> in Zamość.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/glossary/people/l/u.htm#luxemburg|title=Glossary of People: L|website=Marxists.org|access-date=22 February 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.matrikel.uzh.ch/suche/search?cmd=D&theSame=13056&name=Luxemburg+Rosa|title=Matrikeledition|website=Matrikel.uzh.ch|access-date=22 February 2018|archive-date=6 February 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200206123408/http://www.matrikel.uzh.ch/suche/search?cmd=D&theSame=13056&name=Luxemburg+Rosa|url-status=dead}}</ref> The Luxemburg family were [[History of Jews in Poland|Polish Jews]] living in the [[Congress Poland|Russian sector of Poland]]. She was the fifth and youngest child of [[Edward Luxemburg|Edward Eliasz Luxemburg]] and Lina Löwenstein. Her father Edward, like his father [[Abraham Luxemburg|Abraham]], supported the Jewish Reform movement. Luxemburg later stated that her father imparted an interest in [[liberalism|liberal]] ideas to her while her mother was religious and well-read with books kept at home.<ref name="Merrick">{{cite web|title=Rosa Luxemburg: A Socialist With a Human Face|last=Merrick|first=Beverly G.|work=Center for Digital Discourse and Culture at Virginia Tech University|url=http://www.cddc.vt.edu/feminism/Luxemburg.html|date=1998|access-date=18 May 2015|archive-date=2 April 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190402161631/https://www.cddc.vt.edu/feminism/Luxemburg.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> As noted, the family moved to Warsaw in 1873.<ref name="nettl">J. P. Nettl, ''Rosa Luxemburg'', Oxford University Press, 1969, pp. 54–55.</ref> Polish and [[German language|German]] were spoken at home; Luxemburg also learned [[Russian language|Russian]].<ref name="Merrick"/> Although over time she became fluent in Russian and [[French language|French]], Polish remained Róża's first language with German also spoken fluently.<ref name="tych5" /><ref name="winkler" /><ref name="sprawaPL" /> Rosa was considered intelligent early on, writing letters to her family and impressing her relatives with recitals of poetry, including the Polish classic ''[[Pan Tadeusz]]''.<ref name="rory" />

Rory Castle writes: <blockquote>From her grandfather and father [Rosa] inherited the belief that she was a Pole first and a Jew second, with her emotional connection to the Polish language and culture and her passionate opposition to Tsarism being of central importance. Although her parents were religious, they did not consider themselves to be Jewish by nationality, rather 'Poles of the Mosaic persuasion'.<ref name="rory" /></blockquote> Castle also points out that more recent research into the Luxemburg family and her early years shows that <blockquote>Rosa Luxemburg gained a lot more from her family than has previously been understood by her biographers ... [not only] in terms of her education, financial support and assistance during her frequent incarcerations, but also in terms of her identity and politics. Her family was a closely knitted support network, even when its members were spread out across Europe. This solid foundation, which supported and encouraged her at every step, gave Luxemburg the intellectual and personal confidence to go out and attempt to change the world.<ref name="rory" /></blockquote> From her private correspondence it is especially clear that she remained very close with her family throughout the years, despite being separated by borders and spread out across countries.<ref name="rory" />

==== Education and activism ====
[[File:Rosa Luxemburg, zwölfjährig.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Rosa Luxemburg at age 12, {{circa|1883}}]]

In 1884, she enrolled at an all-girls' [[gymnasium (school)|gymnasium]] (secondary school) in Warsaw, which she attended until 1887.<ref name=RLlautHDK>{{cite web|title=Luxemburg, Rosa|publisher=Karl Dietz Verlag, Berlin & Bundesstiftung zur Aufarbeitung der SED-Diktatur, Berlin|work=Handbuch der Deutschen Kommunisten|url=https://www.bundesstiftung-aufarbeitung.de/wer-war-wer-in-der-ddr-%2363%3B-1424.html?ID=4740|author1=Weber, Hermann|author2-link=Andreas Herbst|author2=Herbst, Andreas|access-date=16 January 2019|author1-link=Hermann Weber}}</ref> The Second Women's Gymnasium was a school that only rarely accepted Polish applicants and acceptance of Jewish children was even more exceptional. At this school, the children were only permitted to speak Russian.,<ref name="Luxemburg2017">{{cite book|editor-first1=Luise |editor-last1=Kautsky |title=Rosa Luxemburg: Briefe aus dem Gefängnis: Denken und Erfahrungen der internationalen Revolutionärin|work=Information is taken not from the letters themselves but from a lengthy biographical essay which appears at the end of the volume|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q3JFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT55|year=2017|publisher=Musaicum Books|isbn=978-80-7583-324-2|page=55}}</ref> but Róża attended secret circles in which the works of Polish poets and writers were studied; officially this was forbidden due to the policy of [[Russification of Poles during the Partitions|Russification against Poles]] being pursued in the Russian Empire at the time.<ref name="tych1">{{cite book|last=Tych|first=Feliks|date=2018|editor-last=Wielgosz|editor-first=Przemysław|title=O rewolucji: 1905, 1917|publisher=Instytut Wydawniczy "Książka i Prasa"|page=13|chapter=Przedmowa|isbn=978-8365304599}}</ref> Nonetheless, from 1886, Luxemburg belonged to the illegal Polish left-wing [[Proletariat (party)|Proletariat Party]] which had been founded in 1882, anticipating the left-wing Russian parties by twenty years. She began political activities by organising a [[general strike]], which ended with four of the Proletariat Party leaders being put to death and the party being disbanded, though the remaining members, including Luxemburg, kept meeting in secret. In 1887, she passed her [[matura]] ([[secondary school]] examinations).

[[File:Rosa Luxemburg's dissertation.jpg|thumb|Inaugural dissertation for the award of a doctorate in political science from the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Zurich. In the collection of the [[Jewish Museum of Switzerland|Jewish Museum Switzerland]].]] Wanted by the tsarist police because of her activity in Proletariat, Rosa hid in the countryside, working as private tutor at a {{lang|pl|[[Manor houses of Polish nobility|dworek]]}}.<ref>{{cite book|last=Tych|first=Feliks|date=2018|editor-last=Wielgosz|editor-first=Przemysław|title=O rewolucji: 1905, 1917|publisher=Instytut Wydawniczy "Książka i Prasa"|pages=13–14|chapter=Przedmowa|isbn=978-8365304599}}</ref> In order to escape detention, she fled to [[Switzerland]] through the "green border" in 1889.<ref name="tych2">{{cite book|last=Tych|first=Feliks|date=2018|editor-last=Wielgosz|editor-first=Przemysław|title=O rewolucji: 1905, 1917|publisher=Instytut Wydawniczy "Książka i Prasa"|page=14|chapter=Przedmowa|isbn=978-8365304599}}</ref> She attended the [[University of Zurich]] (as did the socialists [[Anatoly Lunacharsky]] and [[Leo Jogiches]]), where she studied philosophy, history, politics, economics, zoology<ref name="auto">{{Cite web |last=Blixer |first=Rene |date=2019-01-10 |title=Rosa's secret collection |url=https://www.exberliner.com/berlin/rosas-secret-collection/ |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=Exberliner |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{Cite web |title=Rosa Luxemburg: A Thousand More Things |url=https://rosalux.nyc/events/rosa-luxemburg-a-thousand-more-things/ |access-date=2025-02-11 |website=rosalux.nyc |language=en}}</ref> and mathematics.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Zych |first1=Marcin |last2=Dolatowski |first2=Jakub |last3=Kirpluk |first3=Izabella |last4=Werblan-Jakubiec |first4=Hanna |date=2023-06-03 |title=A "plant love story": The lost (and found) private herbarium of the radical socialist revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg |url=https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q120172000 |journal=Plants People Planet |volume=5 |issue=6 |pages=852–858 |doi=10.1002/PPP3.10396|s2cid=259066901 |doi-access=free }}</ref> She specialised in {{lang|de|Staatswissenschaft}} (political science), economic and [[stock exchange]] crises, and the [[Middle Ages]]. The University of Zurich awarded her a [[Doctor of Law]] degree and her [[thesis|doctoral dissertation]] "The Industrial Development of [[Poland]]" ({{lang|de|Die Industrielle Entwicklung Polens}}) was officially presented in the spring of 1897 and was published by Duncker and Humblot in Leipzig in 1898. An oddity in Zurich, she was one of the first women in the world, and of course the first Polish woman, to be awarded a doctorate in political economy<ref name="tych2" /><ref name="winkler">{{cite web |url=https://ciekawostkihistoryczne.pl/2019/06/24/roza-luksemburg-pierwsza-polka-z-doktoratem-z-ekonomii/ |title=Róża Luksemburg. Pierwsza Polka z doktoratem z ekonomii |last=Winkler |first=Anna |date=2019-06-24 |website=CiekawostkiHistoryczne.pl |access-date=2021-07-21 |language=pl }}</ref>

In 1893, with Leo Jogiches and [[Julian Marchlewski]] (alias Julius Karski), Luxemburg founded the newspaper {{lang|pl|Sprawa Robotnicza}} (''The Workers' Cause'') which opposed the [[Nationalism|nationalist]] policies of the [[Polish Socialist Party]]. Luxemburg believed that an independent Poland could arise and exist only through socialist revolutions in Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia. She maintained that the struggle should be against [[capitalism]], not just for Polish independence. Her position of denying a national right of [[self-determination]] provoked a philosophic disagreement with [[Vladimir Lenin]]. She and Leo Jogiches co-founded the [[Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania]] (SDKPiL) party, after merging in Congress Poland's and Lithuania's social democratic organisations. Despite living in Germany for most of her adult life, Luxemburg was the principal theoretician of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP, later the SDKPiL) and led the party in a partnership with Jogiches, its principal organiser.<ref name="tych2" /> She remained sentimental towards Polish culture, her favourite poet was [[Adam Mickiewicz]], and she vehemently opposed the [[Germanisation of Poles during the Partitions|Germanisation of Poles]] in the [[Prussian Partition]]; in 1900 she published a brochure against this in [[Poznań]].<ref name="tych5">{{cite book|last=Tych|first=Feliks|date=2018|editor-last=Wielgosz|editor-first=Przemysław|title=O rewolucji: 1905, 1917|publisher=Instytut Wydawniczy "Książka i Prasa"|page=18|chapter=Przedmowa|isbn=978-8365304599}}</ref> Earlier, in 1893, she also wrote against the Russification of Poles by the Russian Empire's absolutist government.<ref name="sprawaPL">{{cite journal|last1=Luksemburg|first1=Róża|date=July 1893|title=O wynaradawianiu (Z powodu dziesięciolecia rządów jen.-gub. Hurki)|journal=Sprawa Robotnicza}}</ref>

==== 1905 revolution ====
{{see also|Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland (1905–1907)|1905 Russian Revolution}}
After the [[Revolution in the Kingdom of Poland (1905–1907)|1905 revolution]] broke out, against the advice of her Polish and German comrades, Luxemburg left for Warsaw. If she were to be recognised, tsarist authorities would imprison her, but the October/November political strike, part of the [[1905 Russian Revolution|upheaval in Russia]] with particularly active elements in Congress Poland, convinced Róża that she was needed in Warsaw instead of Berlin.<ref name="tych3">{{cite book|last=Tych|first=Feliks|date=2018|editor-last=Wielgosz|editor-first=Przemysław|title=O rewolucji: 1905, 1917|publisher=Instytut Wydawniczy "Książka i Prasa"|page=15|chapter=Przedmowa|isbn=978-8365304599}}</ref> She arrived in Warsaw on 30 December, thanks to her German friend Anna Matschke's passport, and joined Jogiches, who had returned to Warsaw a month earlier, also on a false passport. They lived together in a [[Pension (lodging)|pension]] at the corner of Jasna and Świętokrzyska streets from where they wrote for the SDKPiL's illegally published paper {{lang|pl|Czerwony Sztandar}} (The Red Banner).<ref>{{cite book|last=Tych|first=Feliks|date=2018|editor-last=Wielgosz|editor-first=Przemysław|title=O rewolucji: 1905, 1917|publisher=Instytut Wydawniczy "Książka i Prasa"|page=16|chapter=Przedmowa|isbn=978-8365304599}}</ref> Luxemburg was one of the first writers to notice the 1905 revolution's potential for democratisation within the Russian Empire. In the years 1905-1906 alone, she wrote in Polish and German over 100 articles, brochures, appeals, texts, and speeches about the revolution.<ref name="tych3" /> Although only the closest friends and comrades of Jogiches and Luxemburg knew of their return to the country, the [[Okhrana]], thanks to a [[mole (espionage)|mole]] recruited by the tsarist authorities within the senior SDKPiL leadership, came to arrest them on 4 March 1906.<ref name="tych4">{{cite book|last=Tych|first=Feliks|date=2018|editor-last=Wielgosz|editor-first=Przemysław|title=O rewolucji: 1905, 1917|publisher=Instytut Wydawniczy "Książka i Prasa"|page=17|chapter=Przedmowa|isbn=978-8365304599}}</ref>

They held her prisoner first at the [[ratusz]] jail, then at [[Pawiak prison]] and later at the Tenth Pavilion of the [[Warsaw Citadel]]. Luxemburg continued to write for the SDKPiL in secret while in custody, with her works smuggled out of the compound.<ref name="tych4" /> After two officers of the Okhrana were bribed by her relatives, a temporary release on bail was secured for her on 28 June 1906 for health reasons until the court trial.<ref name="winkler" /> In early August from [[Saint Petersburg]], she left for [[Repino, Saint Petersburg|Kuokkala]], which was then part of the [[Grand Duchy of Finland]], an autonomous part of the Russian Empire. From there, in the middle of September, she managed to secretly flee to Germany.<ref name="tych4" />

=== Germany ===
[[File:RLuxemburgCpWz.jpg|thumb|Luxemburg {{circa|1895–1900}}]]

Luxemburg wanted to move to Germany to be at the centre of the party struggle, but she had no way of obtaining permission to remain there indefinitely. Thus, in April 1897 she married the son of an old friend, Gustav Lübeck, in order to gain German citizenship. They never lived together, and they formally divorced five years later.<ref>Waters, p. 12.</ref> She returned briefly to [[Paris]], then moved permanently to Berlin to support [[Eduard Bernstein]]'s constitutional reform movement. Luxemburg disliked the middle-class culture of Berlin, which she considered stifling to revolution. She further disliked [[Prussia]]n men and resented what she saw as the grip of urban capitalism on [[social democracy]].<ref>Nettl, p. 383; Waters, p. 13.</ref> In the [[History of the Social Democratic Party of Germany|Social Democratic Party of Germany]]'s women's section, she met [[Clara Zetkin]], whom she made a lifelong friend. Between 1907 and his conscription in 1915, she was involved in a love affair with Clara's younger son, [[Kostja Zetkin]], to which approximately 600 surviving letters (now mostly published) bear testimony.<ref name=hingfetscher>{{cite news|title=Selbst im Gefängnis Trost für andere|newspaper=Die Zeit |url=http://www.zeit.de/1984/41/selbst-im-gefaengnis-trost-fuer-andere/komplettansicht|date=5 October 1984| volume=41/1984| publisher=[[Die Zeit]] (online)|access-date=12 September 2017}}</ref><ref name=RLBriefelautStichting>{{cite web|title=Heute war mir Dein süßer Brief ein solcher Trost|url=https://www.rosalux.de/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/Themen/Rosa_Luxemburg/rosa24-35.pdf#31|page=31|publisher=Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Gesellschaftsanalyse und politische Bildung e. V., Berlin|access-date=12 September 2017}}</ref><ref>''Rosa Luxemburg: Gesammelte Briefe''. Vol. 2, 5 and 6.</ref> Luxemburg was a member of the uncompromising left wing of the SPD. Their clear position was that the objectives of liberation for the industrial [[working class]] and all [[Minority group|minorities]] could be achieved by revolution only.

As [[Irene Gammel]] writes in a review of the English translation of the book in ''[[The Globe and Mail]]'': "The three decades covered by the 230 letters in this collection provide the context for her major contributions as a political [[Activism|activist]], [[Socialism|socialist]] theorist and writer." Her reputation was challenged and, for some, tarnished by [[Joseph Stalin]]'s cynicism in ''Questions Concerning the History of Bolshevism''. In his rewriting of Russian events, he placed the blame for the theory of [[permanent revolution]] on Luxemburg's shoulders, with faint praise for her attacks on [[Karl Kautsky]] which she commenced in 1910.<ref>Waters, p. 20.</ref>

According to Gammel, <blockquote>In her controversial tome of 1913, ''The Accumulation of Capital'', as well as through her work as a co-founder of the radical [[Spartacus League]], Luxemburg helped to shape Germany's young democracy by advancing an international, rather than a nationalist, outlook. This farsightedness partly explains her remarkable popularity as a socialist icon and its continued resonance in movies, novels and memorials dedicated to her life and oeuvre.</blockquote> Gammel also notes that for Luxemburg "the revolution was a way of life" but that the letters also challenge the stereotype of "Red Rosa" as a ruthless fighter.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books-and-media/the-letters-of-rosa-luxemburg-translated-by-george-shriver/article574948/ |title=The Letters of Rosa Luxemburg, translated by George Shriver |date=25 March 2011 |access-date=5 March 2024 |first=Irene |last=Gammel |work=Globe and Mail }}</ref> However, ''The Accumulation of Capital'' sparked angry accusations from the [[Communist Party of Germany]]. In 1923, [[Ruth Fischer]] and [[Arkadi Maslow]] denounced the work as "errors", a derivative work of economic miscalculation known as "spontaneity".<ref>Waters, p. 19.</ref>

Luxemburg continued to identify as Polish and disliked living in Germany, which she saw as a political necessity, making various negative comments about [[German culture]] during the German Empire in her private correspondence written in Polish. At the same time, she loved the works of [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]] and showed an appreciation for [[German literature]]. However, she also preferred Switzerland to Berlin and greatly missed the Polish language and [[Polish culture|culture]].<ref name="rauba">{{cite web|url=http://www.1917.net.pl/node/6533|title=Ryszard Rauba: Wątek niemiecki w zapomnianej korespondencji Róży Luksemburg|last=Rauba|first=Ryszard|date=2011-09-28|website=1917.net|publisher=Instytut Politologii, Uniwersytet Zielonogórski|access-date=2021-07-25}}</ref><ref name="damian">{{cite web|url=https://histmag.org/Prawdziwe-oblicze-Rozy-Luksemburg-20512|title=Prawdziwe oblicze Róży Luksemburg?|last=Winczewski|first=Damian|date=2020-04-18|website=histmag.org|access-date=2021-07-25}}</ref>

==== Before World War I ====
When Luxemburg moved to Germany in May 1898, she had settled in Berlin. She was active there in the left wing of the SPD in which she sharply defined the border between the views of her faction and the [[Revisionism (Marxism)|revisionism theory]] of Eduard Bernstein. She attacked him in her brochure ''[[Social Reform or Revolution?]]'', released in September 1898. Luxemburg's rhetorical skill made her a leading spokesperson in denouncing the SPD's [[Reformism|reformist]] parliamentary course. She argued that the critical difference between [[Capital (economics)|capital]] and [[Labour economics|labour]] could only be countered if the [[proletariat]] assumed [[Power (social and political)|power]] and effected [[revolution]]ary changes in [[methods of production]]. She wanted the revisionists ousted from the SPD. That did not occur, but Kautsky's leadership retained a Marxist influence on its programme.<ref>Weitz, Eric D. (1994). "'Rosa Luxemburg Belongs to Us!'". German Communism and the Luxemburg Legacy. ''Central European History'' (27: 1), pp. 27–64.</ref>

From 1900, Luxemburg published analyses of contemporary European socio-economic problems in newspapers. Foreseeing war, she vigorously attacked what she saw as German [[militarism]] and [[imperialism]].<ref name="ReferenceA">Kate Evans, ''Red Rosa: A Graphic Biography of Rosa Luxemburg'', New York, Verso, 2015</ref> Luxemburg wanted a general strike to rouse the workers to solidarity and prevent the coming war. However, the SPD leaders refused and she broke with Kautsky in 1910. Between 1904 and 1906, she was imprisoned for her political activities on three occasions in [[Barnimstrasse women's prison]].<ref>Weitz, Eric D. (1997). ''Creating German Communism, 1890–1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State''. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.</ref> In 1907, she went to the [[Russian Social Democratic Labour Party|Russian Social Democrats]]' Fifth Party Day in [[London]], where she met Lenin. At the socialist [[Second International]] Congress in [[Stuttgart]], her [[Resolution (law)|resolution]] demanding that all European workers' parties should unite in attempting to stop the war was accepted.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

Luxemburg taught Marxism and economics at the SPD's Berlin training centre. Her former student [[Friedrich Ebert]] became the SPD leader and later the [[Weimar Republic]]'s first President. In 1912, Luxemburg was the SPD representative at the European Socialists' congresses.<ref name="ReferenceB">Paul Frölich, ''Rosa Luxemburg'', London: Haymarket Books, 2010</ref> With French socialist [[Jean Jaurès]], Luxemburg argued that European workers' parties should organise a general strike when war broke out. In 1913, she told a large meeting: "If they think we are going to lift the weapons of murder against our French and other brethren, then we shall shout: 'We will not do it!{{'"}} However, when nationalist crises in the [[Balkans]] erupted into violence and then the war in 1914, there was no general strike and the SPD majority supported the war as did the [[French Section of the Workers' International|French Socialists]]. The [[Reichstag (German Empire)|Reichstag]] unanimously agreed to finance the war. The SPD voted in favour of that and agreed to a truce ({{lang|de|[[Burgfriedenspolitik|Burgfrieden]]}}) with the Imperial government and promised that SPD-controlled [[labour union]]s would refrain from [[strike action]] for the duration of the war. This led Luxemburg to contemplate suicide as the revisionism she had fought since 1899 had triumphed.<ref name="ReferenceB"/>

In response, Luxemburg organised anti-war demonstrations in [[Frankfurt]], calling for [[Conscientious objector|conscientious objection]] to [[Conscription|military conscription]] and the refusal of soldiers to follow orders. On that account, she was imprisoned for a year for "inciting to disobedience against the authorities' law and order."

==== During the war ====
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-14077-006, Rosa Luxemburg.jpg|thumb|Luxemburg in 1915]]

In August 1914, Luxemburg, along with [[Karl Liebknecht]], [[Clara Zetkin]], and [[Franz Mehring]], founded the group {{lang|de|Die Internationale}} ("The International"), which became the Spartacus League in January 1916. They wrote and distributed what had been made illegal anti-war pamphlets [[pseudonym]]ously signed [[Spartacus]], after the slave-liberating [[Thrace|Thracian]] [[gladiator]] who led a slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Luxemburg's pseudonym was Junius, after [[Lucius Junius Brutus]], the founder of the [[Roman Republic]]. The Spartacus League vehemently rejected the SPD's support in the Reichstag for funding [[World War I|the war]] and urged Germany's [[labor union]]s to declare an anti-war general strike. As a result, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were imprisoned in June 1916 for two and a half years. During imprisonment, Luxemburg was twice relocated, first to Posen (now Poznań), then to Breslau (now [[Wrocław]]).

Luxemburg continued to write and friends secretly smuggled out and illegally published her articles. Among them was ''[[The Russian Revolution (pamphlet)|Die Russische Revolution]]'', criticising the [[Bolsheviks]] and accusing them of seeking to impose a [[totalitarian]] [[single party state]] upon the Soviet Union. In that context, she wrote her famous pronouncement on [[freedom of expression]], "Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters," ({{lang|de|"Freiheit ist immer Freiheit der Andersdenkenden"}}) in criticising Lenin and the Russian Revolution.<ref name=freedom>{{cite web | url=https://www.rosalux.de/en/foundation/historical-centre-for-democratic-socialism-1/rosa-luxemburg/frequently-asked-questions-about-rosa-luxemburg | title=Frequently Asked Questions about Rosa Luxemburg - Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung }}</ref> She added: "The public life of countries with limited freedom is so poverty-stricken, so miserable, so rigid, so unfruitful, precisely because, through the exclusion of democracy, it cuts off the living sources of all spiritual riches and progress."<ref>[https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1918/russian-revolution/ch06.htm "The Russian Revolution, Chapter 6: The Problem of Dictatorship"]. Marxists.org. Retrieved 5 February 2017.</ref> Another article written in April 1915 when in prison and published and distributed illegally in June 1916 originally under the pseudonym ''Junius'' was {{lang|de|Die Krise der Sozialdemokratie}} (''The Crisis of Social Democracy''), also known as the {{lang|de|Junius-Broschüre}} or ''[[Junius Pamphlet|The Junius Pamphlet]]''.<ref>[http://mlwerke.de/lu/luf.htm "Die Krise der Sozialdemokratie (Junius-Broschüre)"].</ref>

In 1917, the Spartacus League was affiliated with the [[Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany|Independent Social Democratic Party]] (USPD), founded by [[Hugo Haase]] and made up of anti-war former SPD members.

According to Russian historian [[Edvard Radzinsky]], "The Bolshevik envoy in Berlin began secretly purchasing arms for the German revolutionaries. A little while ago the Germans had been assisting revolution in Russia. Now Lenin was reciprocating. The Bolshevik embassy became the headquarters of the German revolution."<ref>Edvard Radzinsky (1996), ''[[Stalin (Radzinsky book)|Stalin: The First In-Depth Biography Based on Explosive Documents from Russia's Secret Archive]]'', Anchor Books. p. 158.</ref>

In November 1918, the USPD and the SPD initially shared power in the [[Council of the People's Deputies]], the revolutionary government set up following the 9 November [[abdication]] of Emperor [[Wilhelm II, German Emperor|Wilhelm II]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Altmann |first=Gerhard |date=11 April 2000 |title=Der Rat der Volksbeauftragten |trans-title=Council of the People's Deputies |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/revolution-191819/rat-der-volksbeauftragten.html |access-date=1 May 2024 |website=Deutsches Historisches Museum |language=de}}</ref> This took place during the early days of the [[German Revolution of 1918–1919|German Revolution]] that began with the [[Kiel mutiny]], which sparked the establishment of [[German workers' and soldiers' councils 1918–1919|workers' and soldiers' councils]] across most of Germany to put an end to World War I and to the [[German Emperor|monarchy]]. The SPD leaders tried to prevent the establishment of a {{lang|de|Räterepublik}} (council republic) like the [[Soviet (council)|soviets]] of the Russian [[Revolution of 1905|Revolutions of 1905]] and [[October Revolution|1917]] by pushing for early elections to a [[constituent assembly]] to determine Germany's future form of government. Only a small minority of the councils supported a soviet-style system.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Scriba |first=Arnulf |date=15 August 2015 |title=Arbeiter- und Soldatenräte |trans-title=Workers' and Soldiers' Councils |url=https://www.dhm.de/lemo/kapitel/weimarer-republik/revolution-191819/arbeiter-und-soldatenraete.html |access-date=28 February 2024 |website=Deutsches Historisches Museum |language=de}}</ref>

==== German Revolution of 1918–1919 ====
{{see also|German Revolution of 1918–1919}}
[[File:Alfred Grohs zur Revolution 1918 1919 in Berlin Große Frankfurter Straße Ecke Lebuser Straße Barrikade Kampf während der Novemberrevolution in Berlin 02 Bildseite Schaulustige.jpg|thumb|left|Barricade during the [[Spartacist uprising]]]]

Luxemburg was freed from prison in Breslau on 8 November 1918, three days before the [[armistice of 11 November 1918]]. One day later, Karl Liebknecht, who had also been freed from prison, proclaimed the Free Socialist Republic ({{lang|de|Freie Sozialistische Republik}}) in Berlin.<ref>{{cite web|title=Long Live the Republic – 9 November 1918|last=von Hellfeld|first=Matthias|work=[[Deutsche Welle]]|url=http://www.dw.de/long-live-the-republic-november-9-1918/a-4746952|date=16 November 2009|access-date=30 November 2014}}</ref> He and Luxemburg reorganised the Spartacus League and founded ''The Red Flag'' ({{lang|de|Die Rote Fahne}}) newspaper, demanding amnesty for all [[political prisoner]]s and the abolition of [[capital punishment]] in the essay ''Against Capital Punishment''.<ref name="Merrick"/> On 14 December 1918, they published the new programme of the Spartacus League.

Following the arrival of Soviet emissary and [[military advisor]] [[Karl Radek]], between 29 and 31 December 1918 a joint congress of the League, independent socialists and the International Communists of Germany (IKD) took place with Radek's involvement. During the conference, Luxemburg continued to denounce the [[Red Terror]] and [[Censorship in Russia|censorship in the Soviet Russia]]. She also accused both Lenin and the Bolsheviks of having [[police state]] aspirations. She further expressed shame that her former colleague and friend, [[Felix Dzerzhinsky]], had agreed to head the [[CHEKA|Cheka]], the then Soviet security agency, and asked Radek to convey her opinions about all these matters to the [[Politburo]] in Moscow.<ref>Robert Service (2012), ''Spies and Commissars: The Early Years of the Russian Revolution'', Public Affairs Books. pp. 171–173.</ref>

This same conference, however, ultimately led to the foundation on 1 January 1919 of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) under the leadership of Liebknecht and Luxemburg. Luxemburg supported the new KPD's participation in the [[Weimar National Assembly]] that founded the Weimar Republic, but she was out-voted and the KPD boycotted the elections.<ref>Luban, Ottokar (2017). ''The Role of the Spartacist Group after 9 November 1918 and the Formation of the KPD'' In Hoffrogge, Ralf; LaPorte, Norman (eds.). ''Weimar Communism as Mass Movement 1918–1933''. London: Lawrence & Wishart. pp. 45–65.</ref>

Leading up to the January 1919 struggle for power with the SPD, the improvised [[Spartacist uprising|Spartacist Uprising]] began in Berlin. Luxemburg spoke at the founding conference of the German Communist Party on 31 December 1918:

<blockquote>The progress of large-scale capitalist development during seventy years has brought us so far that today we can seriously set about destroying capitalism once and for all. No, still more; today we are not only in a position to perform this task, its performance is not only a duty toward the proletariat, but its solution offers the only means of saving human society from destruction.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Luxemburg |first1=Rosa |editor1-last=Hudis |editor1-first=Peter |editor2-last=Anderson |editor2-first=Kevin B. |chapter=Our Program and the Political Situation |title=The Rosa Luxemburg Reader |date=2004 |publisher=Monthly Review |pages=364}}</ref></blockquote>

Like Liebknecht, Luxemburg supported the violent {{lang|de|putsch}} attempt.{{sfn|Jones|2016|p=193}} In a complete reversal of her previous demands for "unrestricted [[freedom of the press]]",<ref name="marxists.org">{{cite book|author-first=Rosa |author-last=Luxemburg |chapter-url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1918/russian-revolution/ch06.htm |title=The Russian Revolution |chapter=The Problem of Dictatorship |orig-date=1918 |publisher=Workers Age Publishers |location=New York |date=1940 |translator-first=Bertram |translator-last=Wolfe}}</ref> ''The Red Flag'' called for the KPD to violently occupy the editorial offices of the anti-Spartacist press and later, all other positions of power.{{sfn|Jones|2016|p=193}} On 8 January, Luxemburg's ''Red Flag'' printed a public statement by her, in which she called for [[Revolutionary terror|revolutionary violence]] and no negotiations with the revolution's "mortal enemies", the SPD-led [[Republicanism|Republican]] Government of Friedrich Ebert and [[Philipp Scheidemann]].{{sfn|Jones|2016|pp=193–194}}