Karl Liebknecht

[Marcus]

Here are two photos of the memorial at the place where Karl Liebknecht was murdered by men from Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division.

The text on it reads:
"Am Abend des 15. Januar 1919 wurden Dr. Karl Liebknecht und Dr. Rosa Luxemburg
von Soldaten und Offizieren der Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen-Division mißhandelt und ermordet.
Rosa Luxemburg, tödlich verwundet oder tot, wurde von ihren Mördern neben der Lichtensteinbrücke in den Landwehrkanal geworfen.
Der andere Teil dieses Mahnmals, wenige hundert Meter südlich, kennzeichnet diesen Bereich.
Karl Liebknecht wurde hier, am Ort dieses Mahnmals, erschossen.
Im Kampf gegen Unterdrückung, Militarismus und Krieg starb der überzeugte Sozialist Karl Liebknecht
als Opfer eines heimtückischen politischen Mordes.
Die Mißachtung des Lebens und die Brutalität gegen den Menschen
lassen die Fähigkeit der Menschen zur Unmenschlichkeit erkennen.
Sie kann und darf kein Mittel irgendeiner Konfliktlösung sein und bleiben.

Berlin, 1987"

/Marcus

[walterkaschner]

Thanks Marcus for the most interesting photo of the Liebknecht Memorial. Is the site in what was formerly East Berlin? I would hazard a guess that it is, not only from its subject and text, but also from the rather ugly and somewhat tasteless form of the memorial (probably its designer had never heard of Sigmund Freud).

For those who don't read German, herewith my rough translation of the inscription:

On the evening of January 15, 1919, Dr. Karl Liebknecht and Dr. Rosa Luxemburg were abused and murdered by soldiers and officers of the Garde-Kavarerie-Schütze Division. Rosa Luxemburg, either mortally wounded or dead, was thrown into the Landwehr Canal near the Lichtenstein Bridge.

The other portion of this memorial, less than one hundred meters to the South, marks this spot.

Karl Liebknecht was shot here, at the spot of this memorial.

The ardent Socialist Karl Liebknecht died in a battle against oppression, militarism and war.

The contempt for life and the brutality against human beings reveals the capacity of mankind for inhumanity. It can not be and must not remain a means of resolving any sort of conflict.

Regards, Kaschner

[Marcus]

It is in the Tiergarten park so it is in the old West-Berlin.

There is a memorial to Rosa Luxemburg nearby as mentioned in the text, unfortunately I did not find it at the time, I came across this one by pure chance.

/Marcus

[knieptang]

For Marcus:


Source: http://www.d4.dion.ne.jp

Link/Pictures: http://www.rosalux.de/cms/index.php?id=5101

Best Regards - Michael

[knieptang]

Marcus, a very good german movie about Luxemburg/Liebknecht, procuced in the year 1985:

Link: http://www.prisma-online.de/tv/film.htm ... _luxemburg

Actress Barbara Sukowa as Rosa Luxemburg performed more than well, a very remarkable movie.



Best Regards - Michael

[Marcus]

knieptang,

Thanks, but I know what the monument looks like, I just did not see it in real life.

/Marcus

[knieptang]

Another Memorial for Karl Liebknecht, located at Löbau:


Source: http://home.arcor.de/mein_loebau/loebau ... maeler.htm

Marcus, I like this "simple" Memorial for Luxemburg very much, it fits her life and personality, just to explain the picture.

Regards Michael

[Peter H]

A little known fact about Liebknecht was that he had served in the Prussian Garde as a young man.


Otto Runge,the soldier seated to the right of the barmaid(with the big moustache),was jailed for two years for the murders.The brute force(and fall guy) that followed officer's orders and did the most damage:


http://forum.axishistory.com/files/eden_hotel.jpg

The Soviets still had time in 1945 to follow up Runge,who died shortly after:

http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/r ... xembrg.htm

[knieptang]

Peter, in the german movie, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were shot dead in the back of a car, with one bullet in the head. after that downed in the canal...

Any further information is very welcome?

Excuse this stupid question please, I have no further information about this "execution", I would like to read more...?

Thank You!

Regards Michael

[Peter H]

Michael,

That link I provided gives some details on Runge's part:

http://www.revolutionarydemocracy.org/r ... xembrg.htm

While Runge did not finish off the job,his skill with the rifle butt started things off.

The Leutnant Kanaris mentioned was also the later Admiral Wilhelm Canaris?


Waldemar Pabst (1880-1970) had an interesting role also.

Details from Durand in the Imperial Quiz section on Pabst:

..As a staff officer with the Garde-Kavallerie-Schützen Division, he was responsible for the arrest, interrogation, and execution of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. He advised Major Alfred Fletcher when the latter set to work re-organizing the Baltische Landeswehr. In July 1919, he led a failed coup against the central government in Berlin, which resulted in his dismissal from the military. He helped organise and became secretary of the Nationale Vereinigung, a vehemently anti-Republic group founded by Wolfgang Kapp and Erich Ludendorff. From this position...was very active in planning for the Kapp Putsch. After the failure of the putsch, he fled to Austria and gained citizenship there under an assumed name. While living in Austria he continued to be involved with right-wing groups. Eventually he joined the Nazi party. During World War II he went on business to Switzerland and stayed there on the advice of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. After the war, he was prominent as an arms dealer.

walterkaschner also provided this link on Pabst:"although written from an extreme leftist point of view, strikes me as factually acurate":

http://www.marxistische-bibliothek.de/kachulle1.html

Regards,
Peter

[RCW Mark]

I do love the use of the word "execution" by Marxists and the way they dramatise the killings of Luxemburg and Liebknecht.

Let us not forget that if Rosa and Karl had gotten their way, such killings would have been all too commonplace. They knew what had happened in Russia and were attempting to import the same sort of system to Germany. Of course being hauled before a revolutionary troika and shot on the way out 30 minutes later is "legal" -- the Reds would never have stooped to common murder.

There were lots of innocent victims in the struggle between Freikorps and Communists. We should worry about them, not revolutionaries who got a taste of their own medicine.

Mark

[knieptang]

RCW Mark

Tell this murder, whatever you want, both Executions , against Luxemburg and Liebknecht, were a simple political-murder, nothing else.

If you dont understand THIS, you will never understand any german history.

Michael

[RCW Mark]

Let us not get caught by the trap that in order to despise the Nazis one has to support the Spartakists. Yes, the killings were murders alright and the men who did it should have been punished (properly).

But the targets were not innocent -- they were as bad as the people doing the killing, in their own way. One can be left-wing without having to support the likes of Luxemburg and Liebknecht, who were no better than Lenin or Trotsky. (Do you think their revolution, deliberately modelled on the Russian one, would have been free of blood?) So one set of violent thugs killed another set of thugs -- hardly something to bleat about, whether a crime or not.

Making martyrs of anti-democratic violent revolutionaries is, in my opinion, demeaning to all the peaceful democratic socialists killed and imprisoned by both the Nazi and Communist regimes.

Mark

[Mad Zeppelin]

The murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht had one immediate effect: It killed the brain (Luxemburg) and the mouth (Liebknecht) of the German communists. Luxemburg was very critical and distanced to what Lenin had done - and was doing - in Russia. With her, a separate German way to achieve communist utopia might have been possible (whatever that would have meant in reality), without her the German communists came under the influence of the Leninists-Stalinists.
Thus, for the January 1919 day-to-day politics, the murder was helpful as it stunned the Spartacists and effectively beheaded their movement. In the long run it was detrimental as it made German communists pawns of Stalin.

[RCW Mark]

With her, a separate German way to achieve communist utopia might have been possible

Respectfully, I disagree. This was the dream of leftists for decades in many countries, but experience shows that Marxism leads to dictatorship and terror, whatever the wishes of the original leaders. Some German equivalent of Stalin would most likely have come along, or at best a Tito.

Mark