Rosa Luxemburg was born on 5 March 1871 in Zamość. A Polish-born Marxist theorist and revolutionary, Rosa Luxemburg became a leading figure of the German left. She wrote influential works such as Reform or Revolution and The Accumulation of Capital, and she argued for mass action by workers while criticizing both reformist socialists and what she saw as the authoritarian tendencies of Lenin's party. Opposed to the First World War, she was imprisoned for much of it and helped found the Spartacus League and later the Communist Party of Germany. During the unrest of January 1919 she was arrested in Berlin and murdered by Freikorps soldiers. She remains a symbol of principled socialism and of democratic dissent on the left.
Before and after
- 1871Publication of Through the Looking-Glass
- from 1 January 1871 to 9 November 1918German Empire
- 1871The Internationale
- from 28 January 1871 to 28 July 1914Belle Époque
- 5 March 1871Birth of Rosa Luxemburg
- from 18 March 1871 to 28 May 1871Paris Commune
- 10 May 1871Treaty of Frankfurt
- 10 July 1871Birth of Marcel Proust
- 30 August 1871Birth of Ernest Rutherford
More in Wars, politics & history
- 16 December 1773Boston Tea Party
- from 14 July 1789 to 9 November 1799French Revolution
- from 1821 to 1829Greek War of Independence
- from 12 April 1861 to 9 April 1865American Civil War
- from 24 April 1877 to 3 March 1878Tenth Russo-Turkish War
- 27 August 1896Anglo-Zanzibar War
The era
This moment belongs to the Industrial era (1760 CE to 1914 CE), steam, factories and revolutions. You can also browse everything in the 19th century.