Editing Rosa Luxemburg (section)

== Execution and aftermath ==
In response to the uprising, Luxemburg's former student, German Chancellor and SPD leader Ebert ordered the {{lang|de|[[Freikorps]]}} to suppress the Soviet-backed attempt at revolution, which was successfully crushed by 11 January 1919.{{sfn|Jones|2016|p=210}} Meanwhile, Luxemburg's ''Red Flag'' falsely claimed that the rebellion was spreading across Germany.{{sfn|Jones|2016|p=203}}

Luxemburg and Liebknecht were taken prisoner in Berlin on 15 January 1919 by the [[Guards Cavalry Division (German Empire)#Guard Cavalry Schützen Division|Guards Cavalry Rifle Division]] of the {{lang|de|Freikorps}} ({{lang|de|Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision}}).<ref name="Der Spiegel">{{cite news|title=Revolutionary Find: Berlin Hospital May Have Found Rosa Luxemburg's Corpse|last=Thadeusz|first=Frank|magazine=[[Der Spiegel]]|url=http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/revolutionary-find-berlin-hospital-may-have-found-rosa-luxemburg-s-corpse-a-627626.html|date=29 May 2009|access-date=30 November 2014}}</ref> The unit's [[officer commanding]], Captain [[Waldemar Pabst]], with Lieutenant [[Horst von Pflugk-Harttung]], questioned them under torture and then, following an alleged telephone call to Defense Minister [[Gustav Noske]], issued orders to [[Summary execution|summarily execute]] both prisoners. Luxemburg was first knocked down with a rifle butt by [[Private (rank)|Private]] Otto Runge, then shot once, in the back of the head, either by Lieutenant [[Kurt Vogel (German officer)|Kurt Vogel]] or by Lieutenant [[Hermann Souchon]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article184927102 |title=How Rosa Luxemburg Died |newspaper=[[The Daily Standard (Brisbane)|Daily Standard]] |issue=2575 |location=Queensland, Australia |date=2 April 1921 |access-date=1 December 2022 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> A Lieutenant of the [[Gerhard Roßbach|Rossbach Freikorps]]--Ernst Krull--was also suspected and in some places implicated in the murder.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Gumbel |first=Emil Julius |date=1922 |title=Vier Jahre Politischer Mord |url=https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/39667/pg39667-images.html |access-date=2025-04-16 |website= |pages=13,73,135 |language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=LUXEMBURG MURDER REVIVED IN BERLIN; Ex-Officer Let Off With Three Months for Stealing Red Leader's Watch. STINNES LOSES IN LONDON German Industrialist Ordered to Live Up to Pre-War Contract With British Engineer. |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1922/06/25/112681973.html?pageNumber=33 |access-date=2025-04-16 |work=The New York Times |language=en |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> However by the time Krull was tried around the turn of the year in 1921-1922, the question of whether or not he had been the fatal shooter could hardly be ascertained.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Hoffroge |first=Ralf |title=A Jewish Communist in Weimar Germany: The Life of Werner Scholem |publisher=Brill |year=2017 |pages=228}}</ref> Krull even confessed to the crime, and was identified as the murderer by Otto Runge.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":4" /> Though a book-length survey has been written on the subject,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gietinger |first=Klaus |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/on1035436161 |title=The murder of Rosa Luxemburg |last2=Balhorn |first2=Loren |date=2019 |publisher=Verso |isbn=978-1-78873-446-2 |location=London ; New York |oclc=on1035436161}}</ref> the unreliable testimony of Freikorps and [[Organisation Consul|Organization Consul]] members that serves as evidence in this case forecloses the possibility that any detailed version of her death assigning culpability for the kill can ever rise above the level of informed speculation. 

After her murder, Luxemburg's body was then dumped in Berlin's [[Landwehr Canal]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Rosa Luxemburg Murder Case Reopened|last=Wroe|first=David|newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]]|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6840393/Rosa-Luxemburg-murder-case-reopened.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220111/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/6840393/Rosa-Luxemburg-murder-case-reopened.html |archive-date=11 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|date=18 December 2009|access-date=30 November 2014}}{{cbignore}}</ref> In what the militantly [[anti-Semitism in Germany|antisemitic]] Pabst later claimed was a gesture of grudging respect for his non-Jewish ancestry,<ref>Robert S. Wistrich, ''From Ambivalence to Betrayal: The Left, the Jews, and Israel'', University of Nebraska Press, 2012, p. 371</ref> Liebknecht was executed by [[firing squad]] in the [[Tiergarten (park)|Tiergarten]]. His body, without any identification, was then dumped outside the railings of the [[Berlin Zoo]]. According to historian [[Robert Service (historian)|Robert Service]]:

<blockquote>The symbolism was intentional. The enemies of the Spartacists looked on them as being less than human. Dogs were being given a dog's death. The Spartacists leaders met their ends with courage and dignity. Of their leaders, only Thalheimer and Levi survived, and it was Levi who delivered the funeral oration for Luxemburg on 2 February. Radek went into hiding.<ref>Robert Service (2012), ''Spies and Commissars: The Early Years of the Russian Revolution'', Public Affairs Books. p. 174.</ref></blockquote>Luxemburg's last known words written on the evening of her execution were about her belief in the masses and what she saw as the inevitability of a triumphant revolution:<ref>{{cite book |author-last=Luxemburg |author-first=Rosa |title=Collected Works |volume=4 |page=536 |chapter=Order Reigns in Berlin |chapter-url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1919/01/14.htm}}</ref>{{blockquote|The contradiction between the powerful, decisive, aggressive offensive of the Berlin masses on the one hand and the indecisive, half-hearted vacillation of the Berlin leadership on the other is the mark of this latest episode. The leadership failed. But a new leadership can and must be created by the masses and from the masses. The masses are the crucial factor. They are the rock on which the ultimate victory of the revolution will be built. The masses were up to the challenge, and out of this "defeat" they have forged a link in the chain of historic defeats, which is the pride and strength of international socialism. That is why future victories will spring from this "defeat".

"Order prevails in Berlin!" You foolish lackeys! Your "order" is built on sand. Tomorrow the revolution will "rise up again, clashing its weapons," and to your horror it will proclaim with trumpets blazing: I was, I am, I shall be!}}

The executions of Luxemburg and Liebknecht were the beginning of a new wave of [[paramilitary]] warfare in Berlin and across Germany. Thousands of members of the KPD as well as other revolutionaries and civilians were killed, often as [[collateral damage]]. Finally, the People's Navy Division ({{lang|de|Volksmarinedivision}}) and workers' and soldiers' unions, which had moved to the political [[far left]], were disbanded.<ref name="Waters, pp. 18–19">Waters, pp. 18–19.</ref>

The last part of the German Revolution saw many instances of armed violence and strike action throughout Germany. Significant strikes occurred in Berlin, the [[Bremen Soviet Republic]], [[Saxony]], [[Saxe-Gotha]], Hamburg, the [[Rhineland]]s and the [[Ruhr]] region. Last to strike was the [[Bavarian Soviet Republic]] which was suppressed on 2 May 1919.

More than four months after the murders of Luxemburg and Liebknecht, on 1 June 1919, Luxemburg's corpse was found and identified after an autopsy at the [[Charité]] hospital in Berlin.<ref name="Der Spiegel" />

For his part in Luxemburg's murder, Private Runge was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for attempted [[manslaughter]] and Lieutenant Vogel to two years and four months for failing to report a corpse. However, Vogel escaped after a brief period in custody, with the help of [[Wilhelm Canaris]]. Captain Pabst and Lieutenant Souchon were never prosecuted.<ref>Nettl, J. P. (1969). ''Rosa Luxemburg''. Oxford University Press. pp. 487–490.</ref> The [[Nazi Party|Nazis]] later compensated Private Runge for having been jailed, but he died in Berlin in [[NKVD]] custody after the end of [[World War II]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://revolutionarydemocracy.org/rdv5n1/luxembrg.htm|title=Martyrdom of Liebknecht and Luxemburg|website=Revolutionarydemocracy.org|access-date=22 February 2018}}</ref> The Nazis also later merged the {{lang|de|Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision}} into the [[Sturmabteilung|SA]]. In an interview with German news magazine ''[[Der Spiegel]]'' in 1962 and again in his memoirs, Captain Pabst alleged that Defence Minister Noske and Weimar Republic Chancellor Ebert had both covertly approved of his actions, but his account has not been confirmed, nor has his case been examined by the Parliament or Courts of Germany. In 1993, Gietinger's research on his access to the previously restricted papers of Pabst, held at the Federal Military Archives, found him as central to the planning of the murder of Luxemburg and the shielding of those who had acted under his orders from subsequent criminal prosecution.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gietinger |first=Klaus |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1089197675 |title=The murder of Rosa Luxemburg |date=2019 |others=Loren Balhorn |isbn=978-1-78873-449-3 |location=London |oclc=1089197675}}</ref>

According to Russian historian Edvard Radzinsky, in retaliation for Liebknecht and Luxemburg's murder, Soviet Premier Lenin issued orders to [[Gregory Zinoviev]] for the immediate arrest and summary execution of four [[Grand Duke]]s from the recently deposed [[House of Romanov]], all of whom were uncles of the [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]], the last Tsar. Despite the pleas of [[Maxim Gorky]] on behalf of one of the condemned, the known progressive and noted historian [[Grand Duke Nicholas Mikhailovich of Russia|Grand Duke Nikolai Mikhailovich]], all four men including Mikhailovich were shot on 30 January 1919 at the [[Peter and Paul Fortress]] in [[Petrograd]].<ref>Edvard Radzinsky (1996), ''[[Stalin (Radzinsky book)|Stalin: The First In-Depth Biography Based on Explosive Documents from Russia's Secret Archive]]'', Anchor Books. pp. 158–159.</ref> The other three men executed were the [[Grand Duke George Mikhailovich of Russia (1863–1919)|Grand Duke George Mikhailovich]], the [[Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia|Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich]], and the [[Grand Duke Dmitri Konstantinovich of Russia|Grand Duke Dmitri Constantinovich]].

=== Reactions ===
Shortly after Luxemburg's death, her fame was alluded to by [[Grigory Zinoviev]] at the [[Petrograd Soviet]] on 18 January 1919, supporting her assessment of Bolshevism.<ref name="Waters, pp. 18–19" />

Lenin posthumously praised Luxemburg as an "eagle" of the working class, and stated that her work would serve as an example to other socialist revolutionaries.<ref>{{cite web |author-last=Larsen |author-first=Patrick |date=15 January 2009 |title=Ninety Years after the Murder of Rosa Luxemburg: Lessons of the Life of a Revolutionary |url=http://www.marxist.com/lessons-of-the-life-of-a-revolutionary.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929142612/http://www.marxist.com/lessons-of-the-life-of-a-revolutionary.htm |archive-date=29 September 2021 |access-date=18 May 2015 |work=[[Revolutionary Communist International|International Marxist Tendency]]}}</ref>

Russian revolutionary [[Leon Trotsky]] also publicly mourned Luxemburg's and Liebknecht's deaths.<ref>{{cite web |author-last=Trotsky |author-first=Leon |author-link=Leon Trotsky |date=15 January 1919 |title=Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg |url=http://www.marxist.com/trotsky-on-karl-liebknecht-rosa-luxemburg.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929142604/http://www.marxist.com/trotsky-on-karl-liebknecht-rosa-luxemburg.htm |archive-date=29 September 2021 |access-date=18 May 2015 |work=[[Revolutionary Communist International|International Marxist Tendency]]}}</ref> In later years, Trotsky frequently defended Luxemburg, claiming that Joseph Stalin had vilified her.<ref name="Merrick" /> In the article "Hands Off Rosa Luxemburg!", Trotsky criticised Stalin for this despite what Trotsky perceived as Luxemburg's theoretical errors, writing: "Yes, Stalin has sufficient cause to hate Rosa Luxemburg. But all the more imperious therefore becomes our duty to shield Rosa's memory from Stalin's calumny that has been caught by the hired functionaries of both hemispheres, and to pass on this truly beautiful, heroic, and tragic image to the young generations of the proletariat in all its grandeur and inspirational force."<ref>{{cite web |author-last=Trotsky |author-first=Leon |author-link=Leon Trotsky |date=June 1932 |title=Hands Off Rosa Luxemburg! |url=http://www.marxist.com/hands-off-rosa-luxemburg-1932.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929143549/http://www.marxist.com/hands-off-rosa-luxemburg-1932.htm |archive-date=29 September 2021 |access-date=18 May 2015 |work=[[Revolutionary Communist International|International Marxist Tendency]]}}</ref>

===Annual demonstration===
In the city of Berlin a {{lang|de|Liebknecht-Luxemburg-Demonstration}}, shortened to {{lang|de|LL-Demo}}, is organised annually in the month of January around the date of their death. This demonstration takes place on the second weekend of the month in [[Friedrichshain|Berlin-Friedrichshain]], starting near the [[Frankfurter Tor]] and then to their graves in the central cemetery [[Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde|Friedrichsfelde]], also known as the {{lang|de|Gedenkstätte der Sozialisten}} (Socialist Memorial).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.xhain.info/termine/liebknecht-luxemburg-demo.htm|title=Liebknecht-Luxemburg-Demonstration|first=Rene|last=Meintz|date=13 January 2019|website=Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg-Portal}}</ref> In [[East Germany]], the event was widely considered to be a mere show for [[Socialist Unity Party of Germany]] politicians and celebrities, which was broadcast live on state television.<ref>[https://www.jugendopposition.de/themen/145392/luxemburg-liebknecht-demonstration "Luxemburg-Liebknecht-Demonstration"]. Jugendopposition in der DDR.</ref>

During the [[Peaceful Revolution]], the annual parade in [[East Berlin]] honoring the deaths of Liebknecht and Luxemburg was used by East German [[dissidents]] as part of their campaign, "to raise their unwelcome demands at embarrassing moments for the regime." On 17 January 1988, as Premier [[Erich Honecker]] was reviewing the parade, a group of dissidents broke through the ranks of the [[Free German Youth]] and unfurled banners bearing an infamous dictum from ''Die Russische Revolution'', Rosa Luxemburg's book-length denunciation of both [[authoritarian socialism]] and [[censorship in the Soviet Union]], ''"Freiheit ist immer Freiheit der Andersdenkenden"'' ("Freedom is always the freedom of dissenters").<ref name=freedom/> Viewers of the parade were then subjected to the ironic sight of East German [[Stasi]] agents beating and arresting anyone who brandished the slogan.<ref>David Clay Large (2000), ''Berlin'', Basic Books. p. 520.</ref>

In January 2019, the German left-wing parties commemorated the 100th anniversary of the summary execution of Luxemburg and Liebknecht.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thelocal.de/20190113/gloomy-german-left-remembers-murdered-rosa-luxemburg|title=Gloomy German left remembers murdered Rosa Luxemburg|date=13 January 2019|newspaper=The Local Germany}}</ref><ref>[https://xenagoguevicene.com/2019/01/13/berlin-15000-rally-to-remember-the-100th-anniversary-of-the-assassination-of-communists-rosa-luxemburg-and-karl-leibnicht-13-jan-2019/ "Berlin: 15,000 Rally to Remember the 100th Anniversary of the Assassination Of Communists Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht"]. 13 January 2019. Retrieved 13 January 2019.</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.thelocal.de/20190115/what-can-we-learn-from-rosa-luxemburg-100-years-after-her-murder|title=What can we learn from Rosa Luxemburg, 100 years after her murder?|date=15 January 2019|website=www.thelocal.de}}</ref>