Literature
Marxist theory, revolutionary socialism, anti-war activism, and writings on imperialism and socialist democracy.
Rosa Luxemburg was a Polish and naturalised-German Marxist theorist and revolutionary who moved to Germany in 1898. She became a leading voice in the revolutionary wing of the Social Democratic Party of Germany and later co-founded the anti-war Spartacus League and the Communist Party of Germany. Imprisoned for much of World War I, she wrote extensively on imperialism, revolution and democratic participation. She was murdered in Berlin in January 1919 after the Spartacist uprising. Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz is named after her.
Born in Russian-ruled Poland in 1871 to a secular Jewish family, Luxemburg became active in revolutionary politics while young. She co-founded the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, which rejected Polish nationalism in favour of international class struggle.
In her 1900 pamphlet Social Reform or Revolution?, Luxemburg challenged Eduard Bernstein's reformist theories. She argued that political reforms were a means of advancing the revolutionary struggle rather than an end in themselves.
Luxemburg spent most of World War I in prison after opposing militarism, imperialism and the conflict. While imprisoned, she wrote the influential Junius Pamphlet, which condemned the war as a betrayal of the working class and popularised the phrase "socialism or barbarism."
Berlin's Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz is named after Luxemburg, commemorating her connection to the city's revolutionary history.
Every place in this city with a documented tie to this person.
Burial place
She was buried here in 1919 following her murder during the suppression of the January uprising.
Created here
She participated in the founding congress of the Communist Party of Germany held in the building at the end of 1918.
Commemorated here
A public square in Berlin-Mitte, previously known as Bülowplatz. Its change of name gives a compact glimpse of how Berlin repeatedly rewrites its urban identity.
These addresses are scattered across the city. Our routes and quests put them in an order that works.
