Artist:
Ralf Schüler, Ursulina Schüler-Witte
Title:
Mahnmal für Rosa Luxemburg und Karl Liebknecht
Year:
1987
Adress:
Lichtensteinbrücke
www.bildhauerei-in-berlin.de:
Der schräg in Richtung der Passanten weisende, in blockhaften Lettern gestaltete Namenszug ROSA LUXEMBURG wurde plastisch schräg in den Landwehkanal herabgeführt und markiert den Ort, an dem die ermordete Rosa Luxemburg in den Landwehrkanal geworfen wurde. In die Futtermauer aus Klinker gegenüber dem Denkmal ist eine messingfarbene, rechteckige Bronzetafel mit erhabenen Lettern eingelassen.
Text: Susanne Kähler.
www.stanford.edu:
Released from her Warsaw prison, she taught at the Social Democratic Party school in Berlin (1907-14), where she wrote Die Akkumulation des Kapitals (1913; The Accumulation of Capital). In this analysis, she described imperialism as the result of a dynamic capitalism's expansion into underdeveloped areas of the world. It was during this time also that she began to agitate for mass actions and broke completely with the established Social Democratic party leadership of August Bebel and Kautsky, who disagreed with her incessant drive toward proletarian radicalization.
The Social Democratic Party backed the German government at the outbreak of World War I, but Rosa Luxemburg immediately went into opposition. In an alliance with Karl Liebknecht and other like-minded radicals, she formed the Spartakusbund, or Spartacus League, which was dedicated to ending the war through revolution and the establishment of a proletarian government. The organization's theoretical basis was Luxemburg's pamphlet Die Krise der Sozialdemokratie (1916; The Crisis in the German Social Democracy), written in prison under the pseudonym Junius. In this work she agreed with Lenin in advocating the overthrow of the existing regime and the formation of a new International strong enough to prevent a renewed outbreak of mass slaughter. The actual influence of the Spartacus group during the war, however, remained small.
Released from prison by the German revolution (November 1918), Luxemburg and Liebknecht immediately began agitation to force the new order to the left. They exercised considerable influence on the public and were a contributing factor in a number of armed clashes in Berlin. Like the Bolsheviks, Luxemburg and Liebknecht demanded political power for the workers' and soldiers' soviets but were frustrated by the conservative Socialist establishment and the army. In late December 1918, they became founders of the German Communist Party, but Luxemburg attempted to limit Bolshevik influence in this new organization. In fact, her Die russische Revolution (1922; The Russian Revolution) chastised Lenin's party on its agrarian and national self-determination stands and its dictatorial and terrorist methods. Luxemburg always remained a believer in democracy as opposed to Lenin's democratic centralism. She was never able, however, to exercise a decisive influence on the new party, for she and Liebknecht were assassinated in 1919 by reactionary troops.
www.wikipedia.org:
Rosa Luxemburg (German: [ˈʁoːza ˈlʊksəmbʊʁk] (About this soundlisten); Polish: Róża Luksemburg; also Rozalia Luksenburg; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish Marxist, philosopher, economist, anti-war activist and revolutionary socialist who became a naturalized German citizen at the age of 28. Successively, she was a member of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL), the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).
After the SPD supported German involvement in World War I in 1915, Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht co-founded the anti-war Spartacus League (Spartakusbund) which eventually became the KPD. During the November Revolution, she co-founded the newspaper Die Rote Fahne (The Red Flag), the central organ of the Spartacist movement. Luxemburg considered the Spartacist uprising of January 1919 a blunder, but supported the attempted overthrow of the government and rejected any attempt at a negotiated solution. Friedrich Ebert's majority SPD government crushed the revolt and the Spartakusbund by sending in the Freikorps, government-sponsored paramilitary groups consisting mostly of World War I veterans. Freikorps troops captured and summarily executed Luxemburg and Liebknecht during the rebellion.
Due to her pointed criticism of both the Leninist and the more moderate social democratic schools of socialism, Luxemburg has had a somewhat ambivalent reception among scholars and theorists of the political left. Nonetheless, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were extensively idolized as communist martyrs by the East German communist regime. The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution asserts that idolization of Luxemburg and Liebknecht is an important tradition of the German far-left.
Der schräg in Richtung der Passanten weisende, in blockhaften Lettern gestaltete Namenszug ROSA LUXEMBURG wurde plastisch schräg in den Landwehkanal herabgeführt und markiert den Ort, an dem die ermordete Rosa Luxemburg in den Landwehrkanal geworfen wurde. In die Futtermauer aus Klinker gegenüber dem Denkmal ist eine messingfarbene, rechteckige Bronzetafel mit erhabenen Lettern eingelassen.
Text: Susanne Kähler.
www.stanford.edu:
Released from her Warsaw prison, she taught at the Social Democratic Party school in Berlin (1907-14), where she wrote Die Akkumulation des Kapitals (1913; The Accumulation of Capital). In this analysis, she described imperialism as the result of a dynamic capitalism's expansion into underdeveloped areas of the world. It was during this time also that she began to agitate for mass actions and broke completely with the established Social Democratic party leadership of August Bebel and Kautsky, who disagreed with her incessant drive toward proletarian radicalization.
The Social Democratic Party backed the German government at the outbreak of World War I, but Rosa Luxemburg immediately went into opposition. In an alliance with Karl Liebknecht and other like-minded radicals, she formed the Spartakusbund, or Spartacus League, which was dedicated to ending the war through revolution and the establishment of a proletarian government. The organization's theoretical basis was Luxemburg's pamphlet Die Krise der Sozialdemokratie (1916; The Crisis in the German Social Democracy), written in prison under the pseudonym Junius. In this work she agreed with Lenin in advocating the overthrow of the existing regime and the formation of a new International strong enough to prevent a renewed outbreak of mass slaughter. The actual influence of the Spartacus group during the war, however, remained small.
Released from prison by the German revolution (November 1918), Luxemburg and Liebknecht immediately began agitation to force the new order to the left. They exercised considerable influence on the public and were a contributing factor in a number of armed clashes in Berlin. Like the Bolsheviks, Luxemburg and Liebknecht demanded political power for the workers' and soldiers' soviets but were frustrated by the conservative Socialist establishment and the army. In late December 1918, they became founders of the German Communist Party, but Luxemburg attempted to limit Bolshevik influence in this new organization. In fact, her Die russische Revolution (1922; The Russian Revolution) chastised Lenin's party on its agrarian and national self-determination stands and its dictatorial and terrorist methods. Luxemburg always remained a believer in democracy as opposed to Lenin's democratic centralism. She was never able, however, to exercise a decisive influence on the new party, for she and Liebknecht were assassinated in 1919 by reactionary troops.
www.wikipedia.org:
Rosa Luxemburg (German: [ˈʁoːza ˈlʊksəmbʊʁk] (About this soundlisten); Polish: Róża Luksemburg; also Rozalia Luksenburg; 5 March 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a Polish Marxist, philosopher, economist, anti-war activist and revolutionary socialist who became a naturalized German citizen at the age of 28. Successively, she was a member of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL), the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).
After the SPD supported German involvement in World War I in 1915, Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht co-founded the anti-war Spartacus League (Spartakusbund) which eventually became the KPD. During the November Revolution, she co-founded the newspaper Die Rote Fahne (The Red Flag), the central organ of the Spartacist movement. Luxemburg considered the Spartacist uprising of January 1919 a blunder, but supported the attempted overthrow of the government and rejected any attempt at a negotiated solution. Friedrich Ebert's majority SPD government crushed the revolt and the Spartakusbund by sending in the Freikorps, government-sponsored paramilitary groups consisting mostly of World War I veterans. Freikorps troops captured and summarily executed Luxemburg and Liebknecht during the rebellion.
Due to her pointed criticism of both the Leninist and the more moderate social democratic schools of socialism, Luxemburg has had a somewhat ambivalent reception among scholars and theorists of the political left. Nonetheless, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were extensively idolized as communist martyrs by the East German communist regime. The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution asserts that idolization of Luxemburg and Liebknecht is an important tradition of the German far-left.