Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg's Quest for a Proletarian Dictatorship: The Spartacist Uprising and Its Consequences

Germany was in a dire state after its defeat in World War I, suffering from food shortages and the influenza epidemic that swept Europe. The Kaiser abdicated as emperor and, on November 8th, 1918, a socialist republic was reluctantly proclaimed in Berlin by the moderate Social Democrat leader Friedrich Ebert. At the same time, there was a naval mutiny at Kiel and the Baltic and North Sea ports were falling under the control of councils modelled after those in Russia.

This situation was welcomed by Marxist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, who believed that the revolution in Russia would spread to Germany and across Europe. Liebknecht, who hoped to become the German Lenin, was a left-wing lawyer who had opposed German involvement in the war. Along with Rosa Luxemburg and others, he founded the Spartacist League, named after the gladiator Spartacus, who led a slave rebellion against the Roman government in the first century BC. The group's pamphlets were quickly declared illegal and Liebknecht was sent to the eastern front, where he refused to fight and spent his time burying dead soldiers. He was eventually allowed back to Berlin and sentenced to prison for treason after a Spartacist demonstration in the city in 1916.

Liebknecht and Luxembourg on the photos in the background

 

Rosa Luxemburg, the daughter of a Polish Jewish family, was active in Polish left-wing politics from a young age. She spent most of her adult life in Germany, where she was imprisoned several times for opposing the war and campaigning for a general strike. In Spartacist publications, she used the pseudonym Junius, after Lucius Junius Brutus, the founder of the Roman Republic around 500 BC. Like Liebknecht, she was sentenced to prison for treason in 1916. She did not approve of the Bolsheviks like Liebknecht did, but called for a dictatorship of the proletariat. After both were released from prison in 1918, they started the Red Flag newspaper and, at the end of the year, founded the Communist Party of Germany with Liebknecht and Luxemburg as its leaders.

This was followed by an uprising in Berlin against Ebert's regime, which was encouraged by Soviet Russia. Initially, Luxemburg opposed the uprising, but joined in after it began, and it was supported by the Red Flag. The Berlin police chief, who was a radical sympathizer and had just been dismissed, supplied weapons to protesters who erected barricades and seized the offices of an anti-Spartacist socialist newspaper. Calls for a general strike brought thousands of demonstrators into the city, but the Revolution Committee leading the uprising could not decide what to do next. Some wanted to continue the armed insurgency, while others started discussions with Ebert. Attempts to get army regiments in Berlin to join the revolt failed.

By January 11th, Liebknecht and Luxemburg had lost control of events and Liebknecht could only say, “Ultimately one should accept history as it develops.” The left-wing revolution was put down by force on Ebert's orders by the army and the Freikorps volunteer militias, which had been formed from returning soldiers and trained by the army. Equipped with artillery, machine guns, and grenades, they retook the police headquarters, the war ministry, and other buildings captured by the revolutionaries and shot hundreds of demonstrators, including many who surrendered. The government disbanded the workers' and soldiers' councils. The outcome showed that there was no widespread support for communism, and elections on January 19 were a triumph for the Social Democrats. Liebknecht and Luxemburg were arrested and charged with high treason. Liebknecht was shot while being transferred to prison, while Luxemburg was beaten to death by soldiers. Ebert's government declared a state of emergency and arrested thousands of Spartacists, communists, and other left-wing activists. A month later, the Spartacist Uprising was officially declared over.

The failure of the Spartacist Uprising had significant consequences for Germany and the rest of Europe. It showed that there was no widespread support for communism and led to the triumph of the Social Democrats in the elections. It also contributed to the rise of right-wing militias and the establishment of a conservative government in Germany, which helped pave the way for the rise of the Nazi Party in the 1930s. The deaths of Liebknecht and Luxemburg, two prominent figures in the German communist movement, also had a lasting impact on the development of communism in Germany and Europe. The Spartacist Uprising is a reminder of the dangers of extremism and the importance of democracy and the rule of law. It is a cautionary tale of what can happen when people are driven to desperation by economic and political instability, and when ideologues seek to seize power through violence and intimidation. We must learn from the lessons of the Spartacist Uprising and work to build a more just and equitable society for all.