ON THE evening of 1919, a detachment of free corps from the cavalry-riflemen division commanded by Captain arrested two people in the Berlin district of Wilmersdorf false names.
Their cover did not last very long: the soldiers knew only too well whom they had found. They Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, the legendary leaders of the Spartacus League and founders of the German Communist farty (KPD) only fortnight earlier. Wilhelm another leading member of the KPD, was arrested with them.
Seldom had so much hatred been Rosa truxemburg and Karl al Rosa Luxemburg knecht in 1918-19. For the nobility the 'Junkers' war-profiteers and captains of industry, embodiment of danger' that neatened Germany.
Friedrich Ebert, Gustav Noske, and Philipp Scheidemann, the leaders of the SPD social-democrats, hated Luxemburg and ebknecht because they had oppose their war policy of 1914-18 and because from November 1918 onwards they spokespersons for the revolt of workers and soldiers. REPRESSION The detainees were immediately taken to the Hotel Eden in the centre of the city where Pabst and his troops had set up their headquarters. The arrest of the revolutionary leaders was part of a large wave of repression, launched by the social-democratic government under Ebert, which was worse than anything witnessed even in the time of the Emperor.
At the time of the November Revolution there were three parties WiT311 the labour Germany. ( The 'majority socialists (SPD) had supported the war policy of the imperial government and had brinze Mesentenin these sincent or Prinz Baden since the beginning of October 1918.
Since 1917 the opposition had been constituted as an independent party Independent Socialist Germany (USPD). The opposed the policy of the "majority socialists', 15 January representatives who gave Ledebour.
were Rosa class-conscious Against the will of most Pieck, Torcu to doucate Karl LiebDUAL POWER they were the *Bolshevist "their' supported the were the government.
growing by the administration workers" militias established.
The radicalsca new republic.
movement in to the revolution.
He was inner-party organisations of calling itself the KPD, Party of USPD truce Liebknecht.
('Burgfriedenspolitik') advocated by but could January come to no decision on a consequent revolutionary alternative to the SPD.
Its leadership consisted mainly of of the pre-war troops, 'centre' such as Karl Kautsky, Hugo Haase, Rudolf Hilferding, and Georg But the USPD could count on the support or une main secuons Of tne German proletariat - this was why the third major current, the revolutionary Spartacus League, had joined it as a tendency. leaders, the activities of the German working class had already shaken up the Empire in 1917 and 1918. November 1918 the Kaiser had been In all important cities, councils were set up; and from the first week of November there was a situation of (KPD), dual power. But most workers' and soldiers' councils were under the influence of the 'majority socialists or moderate USPD members - at the first all-German congress of councils nearly two-thirds of the delegates policies of the Many councils, however, particularly in industrial areas, started to go far beyond the framework established majority. The was dissolved and opposition between the WOrKerS and Ebert's government proved most explosive in Berlin. The fighting in January 1919 was to be the first serious clash between the revolutionary proletarian masses and the state apparatus of the The starting point of the movement was the government's removal of the chief of police in Berlin, Eichhorn, at the beginning of January. Eichhorn, a member of the USPD, refused to obey, declaring: I have received my were mandate from the hands of the revolution and I will only give it back supported by the the left and the working masses of Berlin. The USPD, and the revolutionary shop stewards, who had a strong base in the factories, announced a general strike and called for a mass demonstration The illustrations are contemporary woodcutsof Luxemburgand in the capital to take place on 5 The demands of the KPD were: reinstatement of Eichhorn, disarming the counter-revolutionary arming of the proiclanat Rosa Luxemburg explicitly rejected the idea that the movement should aim to overthrow Ebert's government - she thought the majority of the working class would not be ready to participate in such a step.
The demonstrations on 5 January exceeded expectations: hundred thousand workers soldiers, many of them armed, filled the centre of the city. Strategically important buildings, particularly that of Vorwärts, the daily paper of the "majority socialists'. were occupied.
pressure from this movement a revolutionary committee was formed by the three currents that had called for this demonstration. Earlier! decisions were reversed, and in a declaration signed by Karl Liebknecht Georg Ledebour (USD), and Paul Scholze (revolutionary shop stewards), Ebert's government was declared lo be overthrown council power established.
REVENGE Against the insistent advice of Karl Radek, who was in Germany representative of the Bolsheviks, and * of Leo Jogiches, the organiser of the Spartacus BECaLUC the leadership of the KPD could not make up its mind to criticise publicly the steps taken by Liebknecht (which had been against party policy) and to stop the movement as the Bolsheviks had done in July 1917. committee commenced negotiations, On 6 January the revolutionary with the government. The counter-revolution used this space to prepare revenge. 'majority socialists called for resistance *armed bandits of the Spartacus League'. The revolutionary leaders denounced *madmen, criminals and murderers'. Noske began to concentrate his free corps around Berlin.
The free corps had been formed in December 1918 from reactionary officers of the imperial army together elite units the *Reichswehr' at a time when the disintegration of most military units threatened to leave the government without any effective armed forces. Its explicit political aim was to fight against Bolshevism'.
On :8 January directed wEne population violently against anarchy', and the free corps started The revolutionary shop stewards, and a part of the UPD executive answered with a similar call to arms and another The unequal contest lasted into the middle of the month. and had entered the government he is said to have declared: "Someone has to be the hangman.' He proved satisfac torily that he was this person as hundreds of revolutionaries were massacred by the soldiers!
ne bass or are sectors o the working masses, who kept asking for an end to tne brothers', confirmed Radek's analysis. Unsuccessful but untiring, called for a retreat and proposed a campaign for new elections in the councils in place of armed resistance. and The arrest of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht was a big event for Captain Pabst's men; for several days there had been corps circles of killing the two leaders, Although there is no proof that such an order was given by Noske, it can be safely assumed that he knew of these , intentions central discourage them. On the contrary: on 13 January an inflammatory poem' appeared in Vorwärts which included the following famous lines: *Many hundred corpses in a row, Proletarians, Karl, Rosa, Radek and Co., Not one is there, Proletatians' GO-AHEAD The free corps were at least justified in expecting the go-ahead from Noske touse violence against the revolution, since not massacres had been criticised by the government.
Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht was plan probably already established when appearances they were interrogated were Carested old for some hours.
Then Liebknecht was carried away in fa military car while still being beaten by the soldiers. In the Tiergarten DESOLICI Lieutenant the government Hartung shot him fight Half 'oppression and KPD the Canal.
When Noske attempted proletarians and 'war between "The he again.' TRIBUNAL talk within free and Kunge years in prison and did Austria.
1962 that the martial law their previous murder Rosa 10 keep the reactionary German the car stopped, the was pushed out, and Horst von Pflugkan hour later it was Rosa Luxemburg's turn. She had beer beaten so much by a soldier called Otto Runge that she was already half dead when she was pushed in the car. She was murdered under the orders of Lieutenant Vogel in the vehicle and her corpse thrown in the Landwehr The next day the press stated that Liebknecht had been shot during an escape and that Rosa Luxemburg had been killed by an enraged mob. But in a relatively short time the truth started to come out.
This didn't stop the bourgeois press from expressing its open relief. The Tägliche Rundschau wrote that Rosa Luxemburg had been the victim of the bloodbath she herself had started:
day of judgement (.) for Luxemburg and Liebknecht is over Germany has peace (!), it can breathe The government let the murderers amit military mentana 1919 military tribunal acquitted Pflugk-Hartung, and Vogel were sentenced to twc - in reality neither served their full sentence. Captain Pabst was never held responsible and later played a leading role in building the fascist "Heimwehren' in the Tyrol, An official press bulletin of the German Federal Republic stated in murders Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht had been executions in accordance with The murders in January 1919 were to be followed by countless others: communist leaders like Leo Jogiche: and Eugene Léviné, USPD leaders like Kurt Eisner and Hugo Haase, and thousands of unknown communists and proletarians in Berlin, the Ruhr Munich, and Saxony were killed. This was the price the ruling class made the proletariat pay for the normalisation of bourgeois conditions in Germany.
And not only did the alliance of the social-democratic government and officers bathe the revolution in blood, but it also prepared the way for the catastrophe of 1933.
Socialist Challenge 18 January 1979 page 13