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(a) During the Alternative Berlin tour with Alex, our group became interested in Rosa Luxembourg. He introduced the idea of this woman who was murdered for her beliefs and thrown unceremoniously into the canal as a warning to other Marxists. Seeing the hotel that she and her colleges were kidnapped from made the story a little more real to us. Alex also pointed out that she is one of the few individuals who has taken action against the state, and been unsuccessful, but still officially remembered. In this case by having a train station named after her. We decided that we wanted to learn more about her story.

The group learned much about Rosa. One interesting thing is that, while she is mostly remembered for her work and life in Germany, Rosa was actually born and raised in Poland, and spent several years living in Switzerland before finally immigrating to Germany. Rosa wound up marrying a German friend of the family in order to get citizenship. We also learned that Rosa was extensively educated, even as a child. Her parents kept many books in their home, ensured she attended school at a gymnasium, and placed a premium on education for young Rosa. Rosa was also able to speak Polish, German, and Russian all before leaving Poland at 17 years old. Once in Switzerland, Rosa continued her education in subjects such as economics, philosophy, and history, until she received a doctoral degree from the University of Zurich in 1897.

We learned that Rosa was a founder and/or active member of 5 different political parties. She also co-founded the newspaper The Red Flag and the anti-war Spartacus League when she saw WWI coming. Rosa was a huge proponent of international support for political reform. She was known for her belief that the only chance there would be for communism to be successful in Europe would be if multiple countries in the same area adopted it at the same time. This policy was adopted by the USSR and its satellite states following the end of WWII. Rosa was also clearly not afraid to risk her life and freedom for political action. She was forced to flee Poland at only 17 due to her anti-government political activities. Rosa was subsequently arrested 3 times for her political actions; twice in Germany, and once in Poland. Then, shortly after her 3rd release from prison she was murdered by political opponents of her newly formed ‘Communist Party of Germany.’

When choosing Rosa Luxembourg as the topic of our blog, she wasn’t someone who I thought I would necessarily admire. Her strong beliefs in socialism contrast my personal beliefs and I thought it would be hard to see this person in a positive light. However, my opinion has changed now that I am more educated on her life achievements. Rosa was a courageous, intelligent woman who never stopped fighting for what she believed in. She wanted peace and believed that socialism was the solution. Not only did Rosa fight for what she believed in, but she stayed true to what she thought would better society. She did this by forming five different political parties. If the views of the members of the political parties started to differ from her beliefs, she would form another party. Rosa was also one of the very few women at her time that was politically active. I truly admire her fearlessness to help lead this socialist movement though she was seen as weak and powerless in comparison to men. Another aspect of Rosa I have come to appreciate is how young she was when she first became politically active. At only age 17, she fled Poland due to fear of being prosecuted for her involvement in a socialist party. I can’t even imagine the bravery a 17-year-old girl has to have to flee to another country and then continue to revolt in Germany. She displayed this bravery all throughout her lifetime by continuing to push for the socialist movement and revolution even after being arrested on three separate occasions. Socialism may not have been the solution to mend the tension between European nations, but Rosa’s integrity audacity to never give up on her dreams is truly remarkable.

(b)        Although there is a negative stigma towards any mention of socialism in the United States today, around the turn of the century there was a growing socialist party. The Communist Party USA was a parallel movement to the ones Rosa Luxembourg was involved with. Similarly, the American Communist movement was also implicated in some violent bombings and attempted assassinations of politicians, which were later attributed to an anarchist group. Due to this misrepresentation the party was suppressed by various government organizations and many of the party’s key members were deported. As you can see, the birth of socialism in the United States is quite similar to the work that Rosa was involved with in Poland.

Rosa Luxembourg was a very stark contrast to current politicians in the United States. She advocated for radical socialist policies, which is almost taboo in American culture. Today, because of tensions during the Cold War, any mention of socialism or, even more so, communism is highly unpopular and incites a strong negative reaction from most Americans. Today the Communist Party USA is much different that of the twentieth century. The party recognizes the faults of the USSR and the Communist Bloc. They also identify the many benefits of communism in the states, such as industrialization and modernization. Not to mention the elimination of Nazism, suppression of imperialism, and equalization of the classes. The modern Communist Party USA ties to take these good qualities, as well as democratic, anti-racist, anti-sexist practices into their platform.

Although the modern Communist Party USA’s platform is muted compared to its modern past, it is still not well received in the United States. The Communist Party USA has only 2,000 members. In Germany there is currently no communist party. The closest alternative is Die Linke (The Left) which has about 58,000 members and holds several seats in parliament. This party’s main ideologies stem from the work of Rosa Luxembourg and the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation is the parties ‘think tank’. The American version of the Die Linke is called the Democratic Socialists of America they have about 10,000 members. By comparing raw number, and even more so percentages, this left-wing form of politics has a much stronger grasp on German than the United States. Die Linke holds .072% of the population, while the Social Democrats in the US have only .0038% of the population.

It’s very surprising that Germany would have such an accepting reaction toward left-wing politics, especially after the problems with the GDR. One would expect the people of East Germany have very strong anti-left-wing tendencies, but they don’t. In comparison, the United States as a whole tends to feel much stronger about this issue. Perhaps this resentment towards socialism stems from different motives in the United States. As a nation we see ourselves as a people who created a country from nothing and we believe strongly in the ‘self-made-man’. These underlying ideologies seem to drive us towards a love for capitalism, sometimes even a blind love. However you spin it, Rosa Luxembourg has a legacy is in modern Germany culture, and it’s difficult to see the influence of any left-wing activists in American culture, today.

References:

DIE LINKE: Mitgliederzahlen

Draper, Theodore, The Roots of American Communism. New York: Viking, 1957.

Heath “A Brief History of Socialism in America,” pp. 61-67; “The Convention” inSocial Democrat, v. 5, no. 23 (June 16, 1898), pg. 1.

Liukkonon, Petri. “Rosa Luxemburg.” First World War.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2016.

Shaw, Randy. 2015. Who Was Rosa Luxemburg. Portside. http://portside.org/2015-11-02/who-was-rosa-luxemburg

Starke, Helmut Dietmar. “Rosa Luxemburg.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 26 May 2016.

Photo Credit:

en.wikipedia.org

euractiv.com

http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrB8pAEjlBXHDEAdTGQnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTBxNG1oMmE2BHNlYwNmcC1hdHRyaWIEc2xrA3J1cmwEaXQD/RV=2/RE=1464925829/RO=11/RU=http%3a%2f%2flibela.org%2fsa-stavom%2f6874-deset-sjajnih-feministickih-filmova-1980-ih-prvi-dio/RK=0/RS=v.yzNk5PnzXiqHlhwJjSI5CfMlE-http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=AwrB8pqQjlBXvmcA.Y6QnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTBxNG1oMmE2BHNlYwNmcC1hdHRyaWIEc2xrA3J1cmwEaXQD/RV=2/RE=1464925968/RO=11/RU=http%3a%2f%2frocbo.lautre.net%2fspip%2fspip.php%3farticle668/RK=0/RS=Vf0Rm11G5ehje6xwrbEwb0PW59Y-

August’s Thoughts… 

Rosa Luxembourg was one of a select few women who achieved a doctorate degree in her age. Her numerous pro Marxist writings and actions were partially responsible for the spread of socialism in the twentieth century. Rosa was active in or helped to form 5 political parties: The Proletariat Party; The Social Democratic Party of Poland and Lithuania; The Social Democratic Party; the Independent Social Democratic Party; and the Communist Party of Germany. She was also a co-founder of the anti-war Spartacus League that apposed Germany’s involvement in WWI.

Rosa had an uncompromising devotion to her ideals and refused to compromise against her beliefs. When a party she was involved in refused to follow her ideas, she simply created a new one. Rosa was also unafraid to stand up for her beliefs, no matter the consequences. Rosa was arrested for her political views and actions three times during her life; twice in Germany and once in Poland. Her views would eventually lead to her murder by paramilitary forces.

I think Rosa should be most remembered for her ability to see the power of international support for political causes. While she didn’t live to see her dream of a socialist revolution in Germany, her belief that the best chance for socialism to spread and succeed involved spreading socialism to as many areas as possible, was widely adopted by the USSR and its Marxist satellite states following WWII. Her story is unique in that, even though she failed to achieve her main goal in life, The GDR was eventually formed as a socialist state in the eastern part of Germany, and her home country of Poland also became a socialist state. There remains, to this day, a street in Berlin named after her, and socialists from all over the world visit the Berlin cemetery she was buried in to celebrate her life and ideas.

Photo Credit:

kunstformerei-schulz.de

de.wikipedia.org

Sam’s Thoughts…

Rosa Luxembourg was a very influential member of the early socialist party in Poland and Germany. She was a very well educated member of society and was very committed to the cause she believed in. I find her commitment to her cause very admirable. Rosa was also incredibly brave. At the very young age of seventeen she fled Poland because she was likely to be executed for her involvement in socialist terrorist organizations.  She was not discouraged by this, she continued her work in the socialist movement, got a stellar education, and led a movement; a revolution.  Rosa had such conviction for her movement that she died for it. During a violent uprising, she was executed by a soldier and shot in the head. She body was thrown into the Landwehr Canal, as a statement to other socialists. Rosa’s legacy did not die when she did. Her death sparked many other uprisings across Germany. She was also revered by Vladimir Lenin.

Although some of the tactics of Rosa and her co-conspirators may have been misguided and violent, it is still incredible. If you read about the other key members of the revolution, Rosa is one of the only women. Her ability to be a leader, as a woman, in the early twentieth century is an accomplishment in itself.  Her courage, determination, and unapologetic demeanor are the main qualities that I admire. Rosa once said, “Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently”. This statement sums up Rosa. She thought differently, and she acted differently.

Photo credit:

http://images.google.de/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fen%2Fthumb%2F8%2F86%2FLuxemburgSpeech.jpg%2F330px-LuxemburgSpeech.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FRosa_Luxemburg&h=221&w=330&tbnid=AveNSWvGndx4pM%3A&docid=NmFSl7u2Pbzj_M&ei=m_lGV9KWH8SysQGUrrvIDw&tbm=isch&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=462&page=1&start=0&ndsp=10&ved=0ahUKEwiS0NTx6_fMAhVEWSwKHRTXDvkQMwghKAIwAg&bih=643&biw=672

Mallory’s Thoughts…

Though I may not agree with her socialist political views, Rosa Luxemburg played a crucial role influencing the political atmosphere in Berlin during the late 1800s and early 1900s by always fighting for what she believed in. At a very young age she participated in political revolting after deeply educating herself on social democratic theories and was forced to flee Poland due to her radical acts. Before fleeing she was able to help found the Polish Socialist Party. After gaining citizenship in Germany, she began working with the Social Democratic Party of Germany, which was the most dominant socialist party in the world during that period. She was able to impact the party almost immediately after joining. Luxemburg divided the party, forming a left-wing side with differing views on the Marxist theory.  Her theories became accepted by the leading theoretician of the socialism at the time, affecting the labor movement of Germany during the time.  She also helped lead the Russian Revolution of 1905, which she introduced the idea of workers going on strike in order to move the revolution forward. While teaching theories of socialism at the Social Democratic Party School in Berlin, she wrote the book The Accumulation of Capital and broke away from the leadership of the SDP due to disagreements. When World War I began, she was able to form the Spartacus League, whose goal was aimed at ending the war by establishing a proletarian government. Luxembourg was faced with imprisonment in 1918 for radical acts, but shortly after being released she became a founder of the German Communist Party. In 1919, she was murdered by members of a conservative group who disagreed with her communist theories. Luxembourg lived a short. yet very influential life. She changed socialism views by publishing opinions that differed from the commonly accepted views and was able to established many dominating political parties during her lifetime.

Photo Credit: 

de.wikipedia.org

Citations:

Liukkonon, Petri. “Rosa Luxemburg.” First World War.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 May 2016.

Shaw, Randy. 2015. Who Was Rosa Luxemburg. Portside. http://portside.org/2015-11-02/who-was-rosa-luxemburg

Starke, Helmut Dietmar. “Rosa Luxemburg.” Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 26 May 2016.

Historical Context

In the late eighteenth century, Poland was divided among the larger powers in eastern-central Europe: the Habsburg Empire, Russian Empire, and Prussia (Germany). The failures of many uprisings against foreign rule, especially Russian rule, sparked the innovation of Polish nationalism. In the 1830s, Congress Poland was created as a separate entity, but it was essentially a puppet state of Russia (Blobaum). It was designed as an appeasement to Polish demonstrators, but did little in the way of creating autonomy. The subjects living in Poland under Prussian and Russian rule were highly persecuted. They were forced to speak Russian and Germanic languages and Polish was banned in public institutions. The processes of Russification and Germanization had detrimental effects for large aspects of Polish life. The Catholic Church was even limited, which is the faith of the majority of Poland.  The repressive rule of these foreign powers was severely detrimental to the education, culture, and nationalism of the Polish people (Lukowski).

Due to this heavy persecution and the changes in the social structure due to the industrial revolution, it is quite clear that socialism would be an attractive idea to many polish citizens. The feeling of powerlessness and peasantry that the Polish people felt is hard to compare. The idea of equality of work, social status, education, and freedom that the socialist party presented would be very appealing to citizens accustomed to the exact opposite.  This history of being oppressed is merely one piece to the puzzle that created socialism in Poland. It also required the correct social and political climate.

Social Context

In the latter half of the nineteenth century, Poland was going through massive social and economic changes. The industrial revolution that affected England, nearly one hundred years prior, was now taking affect in Eastern Europe, including Poland. This was especially evident in the Russian and German regions of Poland. The pressures by the intensive industrialization that was forced on the people of Poland, created significant resentment due to poor working conditions, long hours, and over processing the land.  This resentment was focused on capitalism and contributed to massive exodus of native Poles to North America. The reduction of the workforce created new social tensions in the coming years. The competition for good jobs and places to live in the newly formed cities created further tensions between the upper and peasant classes, as well as between ethnic groups such as Poles, Germans, and Jews. The hardship and resentment felt by the lower classes was the basis for the rise of a communist party in Poland. Socialist advocates such as Józef Piłsudski were very successful promoting socialism in junction with Polish independence and nationalism. By the early twentieth century, Piłsudski’s Polish Socialist Party was the largest socialist party within the Russian Empire. This combination of socialism and nationalism was a major aspect of Piłsudski’s platform that Rosa Luxembourg openly objected. Rosa believed that an independent Poland could only arise through the socialization of the surrounding countries. She felt that nationalism had no place in socialism, due to its ties to capitalism, which she loathed (Lukowski).

Political Context

The Industrial Revolution also affected the political atmosphere during Luxemburg’s life due to the economic progress that lead to huge gaps between the rich and the poor because of differences in positions of power within means of production. Due to Eastern European nations being less developed by the Industrial Revolution, strong feelings of nationalism rose throughout the nations as citizens felt a deeper sense of pride and wanted more prestige over the other nations. As nationalism grew, more and more tension rose throughout the European nations. Political theories such as socialism developed with hopes of ending the tension. Ideas of socialism are based on the theory that capitalism only creates tension between different social classes due to differences in economic situations that causes unrest and revolutions. Socialism supports government control over means of production in order to equally distribute wealth among citizens to satisfy the needs of the entire community (Montague). Rosa Luxemburg believed that Socialism would end all causes of war and barbarism. In 1907, she helped develop the Social Democratic Party. Seeing war coming, she urged socialists to do everything in their power to prevent its outbreak. Next to Karl Liebknecht, she has been quoted as “the most important representative of the left-wing socialist, anti-militarist, and internationalist positions in the Social Democratic Party (SPD) of Germany before 1918 (workerscontrol.net). During this complex political time leading up to the first World War, she supported ideas of Karl Marx who believed that socialism should replace capitalism. The Socialist Party in Germany became the largest political party by 1913 and while giving an anti-war speech; Luxemburg was arrested for this act of protest. The first battle of World War 1 occurred a year later during her imprisonment (Shaw).

References:

Blobaum, Robert. 1984. Feliks Dzierzynsky and the SDKPiL: A study of the origins of Polish Communism. . ISBN 978-0-88033-046-6 p. 30.

Lukowski, Jerzy; Zawadzki, Hubert 2006. A Concise History of Poland (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-a61857-1.

Montague, Richard. 2001. Marx and Lenin’s views contrasted. The Socialist Party of Great Britain. http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb/socialist-standard/2000s/2001/no-1169-december-2001/marx-and-lenins-views-contrasted

Shaw, Randy. 2015. Who Was Rosa Luxemburg. Portside. http://portside.org/2015-11-02/who-was-rosa-luxemburg

Photo Credits

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Rosa Luxembourg was an activist during the early twentieth century who focused on labor, Marxism, anti-militarism and “proletarian internationalism”. “Proletarian internationalism” refers to a political movement that contrasts nationalism. She was a key figure in socialist movement that took place in Germany before and during the First World War. Rosa was born in Russian controlled Congress Poland. She was raised Jewish. Her mother was very religious, while her father implanted liberal ideologies in her head. She spoke Polish, German, and Russian. At the age of 15 she joined the Proletariat Party, which was a pro-proletarian internationalism and anti-Polish independence movement with radical ties. The party was being pursued by the Polish government for various acts of terrorism, so Rosa fled to Switzerland in 1887. While she was in Switzerland she attended the University of Zurich, along with other Polish socialists, and studied philosophy, history, politics, economics, and mathematics. She focused on government science, the Middle Ages, and the economic and stock exchange crises. She received a Doctorate of Law degree in 1897 for her dissertation, “The Industrial Development of Poland”. in 1893, Rosa, as well as two socialist colleagues, formed the newspaper Sprawa Robotnicza, (“The Workers’ Cause”), which opposed nationalist polices in the Polish Socialist Party. Rosa was adamant that socialism would not rise in Poland without the surrounding countries also becoming socialist first. Her ideology clashed with that of Vladimir Lenin. She maintained the philosophy of denying the right of self-determination under socialism. After marring Gustav Lubeck to gain citizenship, Rosa moved to Berlin to fight for Eduard Bernstein’s constitutional reform movement. Rosa’s main goal of moving to Berlin was influencing a  socialist reform movement.  She was against conservatism that existed in Berlin and was a part of the Social Democratic Party of Germany that would not compromise.  She supported freeing the minorities that existed and the working class, but only through revolutionary acts. Before World War I, she published her views on German economic problems and urged the prevention of the war that was about to proceed. Due to her anti-war protests, she was imprisoned in 1916 and then later freed in 1918.  All of Rosa’s activism was eventually resulted in her violent death, which we will talk about next week…

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