Karl Liebknecht (German socialist politician and theorist) Add a review

Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht (; German: [ˈliːpknɛçt] ; 13 August 1871 – 15 January 1919) was a German socialist politician and revolutionary. A leader of the far-left wing of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Liebknecht was a co-founder of both the Spartacus League and Communist Party of Germany (KPD) along with Rosa Luxemburg.

Liebknecht was born in Leipzig as the son of SPD co-founder Wilhelm Liebknecht, and studied law and political economy. In 1907, he was imprisoned a year for writing an anti-militarism pamphlet, and in 1912 was elected to the Reichstag.

After the start of World War I, he vehemently opposed the SPD's support for the German war effort, co-founding the Spartacus League and beginning to call for revolution. Liebknecht was expelled from the party for his views in 1916, and again imprisoned for leading an anti-war demonstration. In 1917, the Spartacus League joined the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD).

Liebknecht was released shortly before the November Revolution, during which he proclaimed Germany a "Free Socialist Republic" from the Berlin Palace on 9 November 1918. In December, his call to make Germany a soviet republic was rejected by the majority of the Reich Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils, after which he became a founder of the KPD.

In January 1919, Liebknecht helped lead the failed Spartacist uprising against the SPD-ruled Weimar Republic, after which he and Luxemburg were captured and summarily executed by anti-communist Freikorps paramilitaries. Since their deaths, both Liebknecht and Luxemburg have become martyrs for the communist and socialist cause in Germany and throughout Europe. Commemoration of the two continues to play an important role among the German left to this day.