Editing Rosa Luxemburg (section)

==== 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>