Spartacist League
Encyclopedia
The Spartacus League was a left-wing Marxist
revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. The League was named after Spartacus
, leader of the largest slave rebellion of the Roman Republic
. It was founded by Karl Liebknecht
, Rosa Luxemburg
, Clara Zetkin
, and others.
The League subsequently renamed itself the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
(KPD), joining the Comintern
in 1919. Its period of greatest activity was during the German Revolution
of 1918, when it sought to incite a revolution by circulating the newspaper Spartacus Letters.
—were prominent members of the left-wing faction of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
(SPD). They moved to found an independent organization after the SPD supported the German government's declaration of war on the Russian Empire in 1914, beginning World War I. Besides their opposition to what they saw as an imperialist
war, Luxemburg and Liebknecht maintained the need for revolutionary
methods, in contrast to the leadership of the SPD, who participated in the parliamentary process. The two were imprisoned from 1916 until 1918 for their roles in helping to organize a public demonstration in Berlin against German involvement in the war.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917
, the Spartacus League began agitating for a similar course, a government based on local workers' councils, in Germany. After the Kaiser was overthrown by the German Revolution
of November 1918, a period of instability began, which lasted until 1923. In November, from a balcony of the Kaiser's Berliner Stadtschloss
, Liebknecht declared Germany a "Free Socialist Republic". On the same night, Philipp Scheidemann
of the SPD declared a republic from the Reichstag
.
In December 1918, the Spartakusbund was officially renamed the Communist Party of Germany
(KPD). In January 1919, the KPD, along with the Independent Socialists
, launched the Spartacist uprising
. This included staging massive street demonstrations intended to destabilize the Weimar government, led by the centrists of the SPD under Chancellor Friedrich Ebert
. The government accused the opposition of planning a general strike
and communist revolution
in Berlin. The uprising was quickly crushed by the government, with the aid of the Freikorps
. Luxemburg and Liebknecht were taken prisoner, and killed in custody.
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. The League was named after Spartacus
Spartacus
Spartacus was a famous leader of the slaves in the Third Servile War, a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic. Little is known about Spartacus beyond the events of the war, and surviving historical accounts are sometimes contradictory and may not always be reliable...
, leader of the largest slave rebellion of the Roman Republic
Roman Republic
The Roman Republic was the period of the ancient Roman civilization where the government operated as a republic. It began with the overthrow of the Roman monarchy, traditionally dated around 508 BC, and its replacement by a government headed by two consuls, elected annually by the citizens and...
. It was founded by Karl Liebknecht
Karl Liebknecht
was a German socialist and a co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. He is best known for his opposition to World War I in the Reichstag and his role in the Spartacist uprising of 1919...
, Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg
Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
, Clara Zetkin
Clara Zetkin
Clara Zetkin was a German Marxist theorist, activist, and fighter for women's rights. In 1910, she organized the first International Women's Day....
, and others.
The League subsequently renamed itself the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(KPD), joining the Comintern
Comintern
The Communist International, abbreviated as Comintern, also known as the Third International, was an international communist organization initiated in Moscow during March 1919...
in 1919. Its period of greatest activity was during the German Revolution
German Revolution
The German Revolution was the politically-driven civil conflict in Germany at the end of World War I, which resulted in the replacement of Germany's imperial government with a republic...
of 1918, when it sought to incite a revolution by circulating the newspaper Spartacus Letters.
History
Luxemburg and Liebknecht—the son of SPD founder Wilhelm LiebknechtWilhelm Liebknecht
Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht was a German social democrat and a principal founder of the SPD. His political career was a pioneering project combining Marxist revolutionary theory with practical, legal political activity...
—were prominent members of the left-wing faction of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...
(SPD). They moved to found an independent organization after the SPD supported the German government's declaration of war on the Russian Empire in 1914, beginning World War I. Besides their opposition to what they saw as an imperialist
Imperialism
Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...
war, Luxemburg and Liebknecht maintained the need for revolutionary
Revolutionary
A revolutionary is a person who either actively participates in, or advocates revolution. Also, when used as an adjective, the term revolutionary refers to something that has a major, sudden impact on society or on some aspect of human endeavor.-Definition:...
methods, in contrast to the leadership of the SPD, who participated in the parliamentary process. The two were imprisoned from 1916 until 1918 for their roles in helping to organize a public demonstration in Berlin against German involvement in the war.
After the Russian Revolution of 1917
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
, the Spartacus League began agitating for a similar course, a government based on local workers' councils, in Germany. After the Kaiser was overthrown by the German Revolution
German Revolution
The German Revolution was the politically-driven civil conflict in Germany at the end of World War I, which resulted in the replacement of Germany's imperial government with a republic...
of November 1918, a period of instability began, which lasted until 1923. In November, from a balcony of the Kaiser's Berliner Stadtschloss
Berliner Stadtschloss
The Stadtschloss , was a royal palace in the centre of Berlin, capital of Germany. The palace bore features of the Baroque style, and its shape, finalized by the mid 18th century, is attributed to Andreas Schlüter, whose first design is likely to date from 1702, though the palace incorporated...
, Liebknecht declared Germany a "Free Socialist Republic". On the same night, Philipp Scheidemann
Philipp Scheidemann
Philipp Scheidemann was a German Social Democratic politician, who proclaimed the Republic on 9 November 1918, and who became the second Chancellor of the Weimar Republic....
of the SPD declared a republic from the Reichstag
Reichstag (building)
The Reichstag building is a historical edifice in Berlin, Germany, constructed to house the Reichstag, parliament of the German Empire. It was opened in 1894 and housed the Reichstag until 1933, when it was severely damaged in a fire. During the Nazi era, the few meetings of members of the...
.
In December 1918, the Spartakusbund was officially renamed the Communist Party of Germany
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
(KPD). In January 1919, the KPD, along with the Independent Socialists
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany was a short-lived political party in Germany during the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of left wing members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany...
, launched the Spartacist uprising
Spartacist uprising
The Spartacist Uprising , also known as the January uprising , was a general strike in Germany from January 5 to January 15, 1919. Its suppression marked the end of the German Revolution...
. This included staging massive street demonstrations intended to destabilize the Weimar government, led by the centrists of the SPD under Chancellor Friedrich Ebert
Friedrich Ebert
Friedrich Ebert was a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany .When Ebert was elected as the leader of the SPD after the death of August Bebel, the party members of the SPD were deeply divided because of the party's support for World War I. Ebert supported the Burgfrieden and...
. The government accused the opposition of planning a general strike
General strike
A general strike is a strike action by a critical mass of the labour force in a city, region, or country. While a general strike can be for political goals, economic goals, or both, it tends to gain its momentum from the ideological or class sympathies of the participants...
and communist revolution
Communist revolution
A communist revolution is a proletarian revolution inspired by the ideas of Marxism that aims to replace capitalism with communism, typically with socialism as an intermediate stage...
in Berlin. The uprising was quickly crushed by the government, with the aid of the Freikorps
Freikorps
Freikorps are German volunteer military or paramilitary units. The term was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of the 18th century onwards. Between World War I and World War II the term was also used for the paramilitary organizations that arose during...
. Luxemburg and Liebknecht were taken prisoner, and killed in custody.
The Spartacist Manifesto of 1918
An excerpt from the Spartacist Manifesto (published in 1918):- The question today is not democracyDemocracyDemocracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
or dictatorshipDictatorshipA dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. It has three possible meanings:...
. The question that history has put on the agenda reads: bourgeois democracy or socialist democracySocialist DemocracySocialist Democracy can refer to any of several political parties. Groups using this name tend to have a connection to the reunified Fourth International, reflecting its distinctive position on socialist democracy :*Socialist Democracy...
. For the dictatorship of the proletariatDictatorship of the proletariatIn Marxist socio-political thought, the dictatorship of the proletariat refers to a socialist state in which the proletariat, or the working class, have control of political power. The term, coined by Joseph Weydemeyer, was adopted by the founders of Marxism, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, in the...
does not mean bombs, putschesCoup d'étatA coup d'état state, literally: strike/blow of state)—also known as a coup, putsch, and overthrow—is the sudden, extrajudicial deposition of a government, usually by a small group of the existing state establishment—typically the military—to replace the deposed government with another body; either...
, riots and anarchy, as the agents of capitalist profits deliberately and falsely claim. Rather, it means using all instruments of political power to achieve socialism, to expropriate the capitalistCapitalismCapitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
class, through and in accordance with the will of the revolutionary majority of the proletariatProletariatThe proletariat is a term used to identify a lower social class, usually the working class; a member of such a class is proletarian...
.
Prominent members
- Leo JogichesLeo JogichesLeo Jogiches , also known by his party name of Leon Tyszka was a Marxist revolutionary active in Lithuania, Poland, and Germany....
- Paul LeviPaul LeviPaul Levi was a German Jewish Communist political leader. He was the head of the Communist Party of Germany following the assassination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht in 1919.-Early years:...
- Karl LiebknechtKarl Liebknechtwas a German socialist and a co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. He is best known for his opposition to World War I in the Reichstag and his role in the Spartacist uprising of 1919...
- Rosa LuxemburgRosa LuxemburgRosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...
- Julian MarchlewskiJulian MarchlewskiJulian Baltazar Marchlewski was a Polish communist. He was also known under the aliases Karski and Kujawiak....
- Ernst MeyerErnst Meyer (German politician)Ernst Meyer was a German Communist political activist and politician. He is best remembered as a founding member and top leader of the Communist Party of Germany and as the leader of that party's fraction in the Prussian Landtag...
- Franz MehringFranz MehringFranz Erdmann Mehring , was a German publicist, politician and historian.-Early years:Franz Mehring was born 27 February 1846 in Schlawe, Pomerania, the son of a bourgeois family.-Political career:...
- Wilhelm PieckWilhelm PieckFriedrich Wilhelm Reinhold Pieck was a German politician and a Communist. In 1949, he became the first President of the German Democratic Republic, an office abolished upon his death. He was succeeded by Walter Ulbricht, who served as Chairman of the Council of States.-Biography:Pieck was born to...
- August ThalheimerAugust ThalheimerAugust Thalheimer was a German Marxist activist and theoretician.-Early years:August Thalheimer was born 18 March 1884 in Affaltrach, now called Obersulm, Württemberg, Germany.-Political career:...
- Bertha Thalheimer
- Clara ZetkinClara ZetkinClara Zetkin was a German Marxist theorist, activist, and fighter for women's rights. In 1910, she organized the first International Women's Day....
External links
- On the Spartacus Programme by Rosa Luxemburg