Editing Rosa Luxemburg (section)

=== 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}}