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 KARL UEBKNECHT 
 
 " 'And for all that, mind you, there is one 
 figure that has risen above the war and will 
 blaze with the beauty and strength of his 
 courage ' 
 
 "I listened, leaning on a stick towards 
 him, drinking in the voice that came in the 
 . twilight silence from the lips that so rarely 
 spoke. He cried with a clear voice 
 ' I/iebknecht ! ' You ask me the bravest 
 man in all Europe?' says the soldier, 'I 
 will tell yon Karl Liebknecht ! ' ' ' From 
 Le Feu {Under Fire), by Henri Barbuue. 
 
 Compiled by Max. Bedacht 
 
 Published by Socialist Party of San Francisco 
 
 1255 Market Street 
 
 42288S
 
 To Karl Liebknecht and 
 Rosa Luxemburg 
 
 By MAXIMILIAN COHEN 
 
 They slew you in their beastly rage, 
 Because you dared the struggle wage 
 With tyrants and with traitors too 
 The traitors feared and so they sleiv. 
 Deluded knaves! Your lifeless tongues 
 More potent now in martyr songs 
 Will trumpet forth the truth until , 
 The very earth will rock an d thrill; 
 And thrones and states will crash and fall 
 And labor triumphs over all. 
 * * * 
 
 So comrades, sleep your work is done; 
 Sleep on! The battle iill be won. 
 
 From the Revolutionary Age, Feb. 1,1919 
 
 46
 
 3n 
 
 "Militarism is the curse of the peoples! The 
 hunger-whip, the menacing sound of which 
 is driving the wage-workers into the profit- 
 grinding mills of capitalism, is a symbol of 
 liberty compared with the slavery into which 
 the bloody-iron rule of militarism is forcing 
 them." 
 
 KARL, LIEBKNECHT. 
 
 Karl Liebknecht is no more! 
 
 The fearless fighter, the dauntless 
 leader, the true revolutionist, is gone 
 from us gone forever murdered, bru- 
 tally murdered. 
 
 The profound grief for his loss brings 
 tears to the eyes of millions of poor 
 wage slaves the world over, and deadens 
 the joy felt in every corner of the earth 
 at the destruction of the imperial mili- 
 taristic government of Germany. 
 
 Karl Liebknecht was born on the 13th 
 day of August, 1871. His father, Wil- 
 helm Liebknecht, the "soldier of the 
 revolution," was the friend of Marx and 
 the theoretical pilot of the young Social- 
 Democratic party of Germany. His 
 mother, Natalie, was the unselfish help- 
 mate of his father in all the vicissitudes 
 of the latter's political career, in and out 
 of jail. She was ever untiring in her
 
 care and devotion to the young Karl, 
 who, at his birth, was given the formid- 
 able name of Karl Paul August Fred- 
 erick. 
 
 The very air young Liebknecht 
 breathed was saturated with the ideas 
 of Socialism. The belief that radical- 
 ism could be suppressed by law had en- 
 tered the head of Germany's leading 
 statesman, Bismarck, and found its ex- 
 pression in the anti-Socialist laws from 
 October, 1878, to October, 1890. Dur- 
 ing almost all of that time Socialist life 
 in Germany centered in the homes of 
 Wilhelm Liebknecht and August Bebel. 
 The boy, Karl, was at home in both of 
 their houses. Though victims them- 
 selves, Bebel and the elder Liebknecht 
 were active day and night to relieve the 
 suffering of countless victims of the in- 
 famy of the capitalist class in Germany. 
 
 The atmosphere created by these ex- 
 ertions was not very favorable to the 
 development of a patriotic spirit in the 
 heart of Karl. The result was that Karl 
 and his brothers escaped the teachings 
 of jingoism, and were thus able to base 
 their Socialist principles upon the rock 
 foundation of genuine fidelity to the 
 working class alone. 
 
 Karl always realized this advantage. 
 Ke knew that the patriotic ardor in- 
 jected into the minds of the youth, was 
 liable to show its effects in times of 
 crisis when the misleaders of the na-
 
 tion, by deliberately throwing the nation 
 into a fit of patriotic frenzy, could blind 
 the people to their real class interests. 
 
 "Get the youth, and yours will be the 
 world !" That was the propaganda for- 
 mula of Karl Liebknecht's whole career. 
 The quintessence of his book, "Militar- 
 ism and Anti-Militarism," is: get the 
 youth and you control the army. He 
 called upon the parents to counteract 
 the poison of official education by ra- 
 tional Socialist education in the home. 
 He demanded that the party organize 
 the young people and complete this 
 parental education. He was the recog- 
 nized leader of the Young People's So- 
 cialist International. 
 
 Karl studied law. He graduated as 
 a Doctor of Jurisprudence. He did not, 
 however, take his profession as a mere 
 means of livelihood. For him it was a 
 way of helping the down-trodden, a 
 method of obtaining justice for the 
 poor. 
 
 Elected to the Prussian Diet as a 
 member from Berlin, he mercilessly 
 criticized the administration of justice. 
 He took the Minister of Justice to task 
 for the wrongs committed. He was 
 hated fiercely by the bourgeois mem- 
 bers. They left the assembly whenever 
 Karl spoke. He was their conscience 
 from which they tried in vain to escape. 
 Karl never spoke to please. To speak 
 
 5
 
 the truth, and nothing but the truth 
 as he saw it that was his mission. 
 Every one of his speeches was the axe 
 cutting at the roots of the tree of capi- 
 talism. With a courage undaunted by 
 the most formidable opposition, he de- 
 manded restitution for wrongs commit- 
 ted and threw defiance into the face of 
 the enemy. Regardless of danger, he 
 considered this to be his duty. "My 
 honor is mine," he called out to the 
 prosecutor in his trial for writing the 
 book "Militarism and. Anti-Militarism" ; 
 "My honor is mine and you cannot rob 
 me of it. Whatever you think of it, 
 Herr Oberreichanswalt, not for the 
 world would I change places with you in 
 this hall!" Eighteen months imprison- 
 ment in the fortress of Glatz was the 
 answer of the court. 
 
 In 1911 the district of Potsdam-Ost- 
 Havelland elected Liebknecht to the 
 Reichstag. Tirelessly he labored there 
 in the interests of the workers, criticis- 
 ing, accusing, revealing the manipula- 
 tions of the War Trust. 
 
 After the historical 4th of August, 
 1914, he declared war against the gov- 
 ernment and its "Socialist" supporters. 
 On and after December 2, 1914, he voted 
 against the war credits. He hurled the 
 most embarrassing questions at the 
 government, the answer to which the 
 government and the Majority Socialists
 
 yet owe the people of Germany. Lieb- 
 knecht soon gave up his hope of accom- 
 plishing anything by appealing to the 
 membership of the Reichstag. He hence- 
 forth appealed to the masses, to the 
 people themselves. He spoke and also 
 published pamphlets. Many of the lat- 
 ter were written in the form of letters, 
 some by Liebknecht, others by Rosa 
 Luxemburg, and still others by Franz 
 Mehring. These were signed with the 
 name of the ancient leader of a Roman 
 slave revolt, Spartacus ; hence the name 
 given the Liebknecht group, "Sparta- 
 cus." The danger of this activity was 
 quickly recognized by the government. 
 Luxemburg, the woman, and Mehring, 
 the aged historian, were jailed without 
 a charge; while Liebknecht was sen- 
 tenced to four years and one month in 
 the penitentiary, and was stripped of 
 his parliamentary mandate. 
 
 His release from prison in October, 
 1918, was the first unmistakable sign 
 of the breakdown of the imperial mili- 
 taristic regime, the first proof of the 
 effectiveness of Bolshevik propaganda 
 in Germany. 
 
 "The hour of the people is at hand," 
 that was Liebknecht's greeting to the 
 workers of Berlin upon his release from 
 prison. 
 
 Yes, the hour of the people was at 
 hand, and Liebknecht was the man of
 
 the people the man of the hour. A 
 dictatorship of the working-class for the 
 transition period was his demand. 
 
 He was murdered in January of this 
 year, 1919. 
 
 But his spirit still lives. His voice 
 still rings in the ears of hundreds of 
 thousands of German workers. His 
 words are impressed upon the memory 
 of millions all over the globe. His ac- 
 tivity for the cause of the workers will 
 not be forgotten. His death but 
 strengthens the determination of all So- 
 cialists to redouble their efforts in 
 bringing about, within their lifetime, 
 Freedom, Industrial Democracy, and 
 Justice for all and forever. 
 
 Liebknecht's Position in the German 
 Socialist Movement 
 
 To understand Liebknecht's position 
 in the Socialist movement it is neces- 
 sary to know some fundamental facts 
 about the political situation in Germany 
 before the war. 
 
 Germany was then a constitutional 
 monarchy. The descendants of the feu- 
 dal nobility were entrenched in all the 
 important official positions of the em- 
 pire. They constituted the bureaucratic 
 machinery of the country, and at the 
 same time the counterbalance of the 
 economic power of the Industrial and 
 Banking lords. The aim of this bureau- 
 
 8
 
 cracy was a rule of absolutism by the 
 great landlords through a monarch with 
 unlimited power. This would have 
 meant a Capitalist government con- 
 trolled by agrarian Capitalists. Indus- 
 trial and Banking Capitalists, on the 
 other hand, wanted more "liberty"; 
 liberty for their class. Their direct rep- 
 resentatives in the legislative bodies 
 stood consequently for such an exten- 
 sion of the constitutional guarantees as 
 would make them the absolute rulers. 
 The intellectual representatives of the 
 Capitalist class of the empire formu- 
 lated these demands into reforms which 
 they considered essential. 
 
 The direct representatives of the In- 
 dustrial and Banking Capitalists were, 
 however, more interested in immediate 
 profits than in ultimate political 
 changes. Their action was not directed 
 so much by their political program as 
 by their immediate economic interests. 
 Instead of insisting upon political de- 
 mands they obtained their objects by 
 compromises compromises that gen- 
 erally benefited them and the agrarians. 
 These compromises resulted in no eco- 
 nomic losses to either of these two 
 parties, as the bill was always footed 
 by the working-class. Thus the many 
 intellectuals who honestly stood for 
 political reform continually found them- 
 selves deserted by the very class for
 
 which they were demanding these re- 
 forms. 
 
 They were forced then to turn for 
 support to the Left. There they found 
 the Socialists, who had nothing to gain 
 by compromising. The Socialists were 
 the only political unit that really op- 
 posed the government. So the honest 
 Republicans joined the Soeial-Demo- 
 eratic Party. By using Socialist termi- 
 nology in their criticisms they per- 
 suaded the masses that they were really 
 Socialists. They even believed it them- 
 selves. Socialist theories afforded them 
 excellent weapons for their criticisms 
 while they gave very little thought 
 to the practical realization of these 
 theories. 
 
 The ultimate aim of Socialism was re- 
 garded as unimportant and all activity 
 concentrated upon the immediate move- 
 ment. But the less important the 
 ultimate aim was considered to be, the 
 less it influenced the tactics of the move- 
 ment. Opportunism and political trad- 
 ing prevailed within the Party. The 
 most important consequence of this 
 state of affairs was that the Revolu- 
 tionary spirit of the masses, instead of 
 being awakened, was completely para- 
 lyzed. The masses trusted to the peace- 
 ful development of Capitalism into So- 
 cialism by the elementary force of the 
 righteousness of the latter. 
 
 10
 
 Such was the Social-Democratic Party 
 of Germany. Right wing, radical bour- 
 geois; Center, Socialists influenced by 
 the intellectual development of the prop- 
 aganda and teachings of the Party dur- 
 ing the previous thirty years; Left 
 wing, the International Socialist group, 
 to which Liebknecht and Rosa Luxem- 
 burg belonged. 
 
 There were but very few really revo- 
 lutionary International Socialists in the 
 movement. The Right wing of the Party 
 could always see the points of common 
 interest between them and the Liberal 
 Parties and easily forget the points of 
 difference. But in considering the Lieb- 
 knecht wing, they could only see the 
 points of difference and forget about 
 the points of common interest. A polit- 
 ical bloc from Bebel, the leader of the 
 Socialists, to Basserman, the leader of 
 the Liberal Party, was considered pos- 
 sible ; was even advocated in fact. But a 
 solid bloc within the Social-Democratic 
 Party itself from Kolb, the Extreme 
 Right Wing, to Liebknecht, the Extreme 
 Left Wing, would always have been 
 spurned by the Right Wing. In reality, 
 Dr. Landsberg, Dr. David, Dr. Heine, 
 Dr. Sudekum, Mr. Kolb and the others 
 in their group were never, in fact, So- 
 cialists. Liebknecht, on the other hand, 
 was never anything else but a Socialist. 
 The Center, like a pendulum, swung 
 
 11
 
 from one extreme to the other; in 
 points of theory to the Left toward 
 Liebknecht, in points of tactics to the 
 Right toward Dr. David and Kolb. 
 Strange as it may seem it was this very 
 inconsistency of the Center that kept 
 the incoherent mass of the Social-Demo- 
 cratic Party in a state of apparent 
 unity. 
 
 Karl Liebknecht was always an un- 
 compromising Socialist. His Socialism 
 was chemically pure. The cause of the 
 working-class was his cause no other 
 sympathies ever influenced his actions. 
 He gave his life for it, the greatest 
 sacrifice a man can make for his con- 
 victions. 
 
 As long as the red blood circulates 
 through the hearts of Socialists the 
 world over, Karl Liebknecht will not be 
 forgotten. 
 
 ROSA LUXEMBURG 
 
 The author wishes to explain that it 
 has been impossible to secure sufficient 
 reliable information about Rosa Luxem- 
 burg to include herein a sketch of her 
 Socialist activities, beyond the common 
 knowledge of the leading part she has 
 taken with Karl Liebknecht and the 
 other International Socialists of Ger- 
 many in their revolutionary activities 
 during recent years. 
 
 12 
 
 UNIVERSITY of CALIFORNIA 
 
 AT
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 
 THE UNIV^ ^TXY LIBRARY 
 
 of CALIFORNIA