Rosa Luxemburg

Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) was a key figure in 20th century leftist movements, playing active roles in Socialist and Communist politics in Poland, Switzerland, and Germany. One of her most well-known – and most pertinent – contributions was her foundation of The Spartacus League, which would ultimately develop into the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Throughout her life, Luxemburg’s leftism was deeply intertwined with the classical, and she consistently drew upon Greco-Roman antiquity to strengthen and validate her leftist politics, most notably through the figure of Spartacus.

Luxemburg was born to a Jewish family in Zamość, a Russian-occupied town in Poland. Her family deeply valued education, politics, and culture, prioritizing education for their children. Rosa was precocious, teaching herself to read and write at age 5 while sequestered for suspected tuberculosis.[1] She and her family later moved to Warsaw where she attended an elite high school for the daughters of Russian Civil Servants – Luxemburg was accepted as part of the school’s Jewish quota.[2]  There, Luxemburg learned several languages, including Latin and Greek. She was intelligent and achieved top marks at school, but was punished for her socialist inclinations.[3] She ultimately fled to Switzerland, where she undertook a doctorate in political science – “admired and marvelled at as the only woman among the sons of landowners, factory owners, and state administrators”.[4] Rosa’s early education featured ample classical learning, which she brought to her later activism.

Rosa’s extensive activist biography is scattered with references to the classical world, and nowhere is this more clearly seen than in her creation of the Spartacus League. The League was founded in 1914 as the International Group (Gruppe Internationale) in light of the outbreak of World War I and the collapse of the Second International. The Group was largely centered around anti-war efforts. They determined that WWI was motivated by profit and thus represented a decisive shift away from socialism. They were dedicated to “ending the war through revolution and the establishment of a proletarian government”.[5] Other notable figures in the group at this point were Karl Liebknecht, Clara Zetkin, and Franz Mehring.

The Group was given the name the Spartakusbund in 1916, influenced by Luxemburg’s writings from prison. She had been arrested for anti-war speeches. These writings were known as the “Spartacus Letters” (Spartakusbriefen). She wrote under the pseudonym of Lucius Junius Brutus, an ancient Roman instrumental in overthrowing the Roman monarchy and founding the Roman Republic. One of the most renowned of these letters, and the one which would go on to influence the Spartacus league heavily, was the Junius Pamphlet, critiquing WWI as imperialist and capitalist and calling for revolution. It is from this pamphlet that her famous slogan “socialism or barbarism” stems – a slogan “which Rosa Luxemburg raised to such great effect during WWI and the subsequent German revolution, and which has been adopted by many socialists since then”.[6] The lesser known context for that phrase actually comes from her discussion of Roman society:

“today, we face the choice exactly as Friedrich Engels foresaw it a generation ago: either the triumph of imperialism and the collapse of all civilization as in ancient Rome, depopulation, desolation, degeneration – a great cemetery. Or the victory of socialism, that means the conscious active struggle of the international proletariat against imperialism and its method of war”.[7]

Her choice of title and pseudonym demonstrates her knowledge of ancient history and her ability to appropriate it for a leftist cause.

In spotlighting Spartacus, Luxemburg engaged with a long and important tradition of using Spartacus as a figurehead for leftist classicism, interpreting his slave rebellion in light of modern leftist efforts to bring capitalist oppression to an end via proletarian revolution.[8] The cover of Luxemburg’s manifesto, “On the Spartacus Programme”, explicitly elucidates the connection the group saw between themselves and Spartacus:

“Spartacus crushed? … Steady! We have not fled, we are not beaten, and even should they throw us in chains, we are there, and shall remain! And victory will be ours … And whether we are alive or not when that goal is reached, our programme will be alive; it will reign in the world of a liberated mankind. Yes, in spite of everything!”[9]

This quote comes from a letter by Karl Liebknecht, co-founder and co-revolutionary, and would serve to be at least partially prophetic, as both he and Luxemburg were ultimately murdered in 1919 by Freikorps soldiers under the Ebert government. This was due to their role in the Spartacist Uprising, a conflict between the Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (MSPD) and the German Communist Party (which the Spartacus League became a part of in 1919). Luxemburg created a lasting tie between classical antiquity and the left through her repeated references to Spartacus – the ‘Spartacus Uprising’ now refers both to the ancient Roman and the 20th century German Revolution, tying the two together through shared leftist ideals across history.

 

This profile was written by Kate O’neil (University of St Andrews, Student CL4468, 2024)

 

[1] Ettinger, Elżbieta. Rosa Luxemburg: A Life. London: Pandora, 1995. Pg 10.

[2] “The Life of Rosa Luxemburg – Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.” Rosa Luxemburg-Stiftung. Accessed September 9, 2025. https://www.rosalux.de/en/foundation/historical-centre-for-democratic-socialism-1/rosa-luxemburg/the-life-of-rosa-luxemburg.

[3] Gusowski, Adam. “Rosa Luxemburg.” Porta Polonica, June 2014, www.porta-polonica.de/en/atlas-of-remembrance-places/rosa-luxemburg.

[4] “The Life of Rosa Luxemburg – Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung.” Rosa Luxemburg-Stiftung. Accessed September 9, 2025. https://www.rosalux.de/en/foundation/historical-centre-for-democratic-socialism-1/rosa-luxemburg/the-life-of-rosa-luxemburg.

[5] Starke, Helmut Dietmar. “Rosa Luxemburg”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 14 Feb. 2025,  https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rosa-Luxemburg. Accessed 19 March 2025.

[6] Angus, Ian. “The Origin of Rosa Luxemburg’s Slogan ‘Socialism or Barbarism.’” marxismocritico.com, October 31, 2014. https://marxismocritico.com/2014/10/31/the-origin-of-rosa-luxemburgs-slogan-socialism-or-barbarism/.

[7] Luxemburg, Rosa. “The Junius Pamphlet.” Translated by Dave Hollis. Marxists Internet Archive, 1916. https://www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1915/junius/index.htm. Ch 1.

[8] Beard, Mary. “Pinning down Spartacus: Mary Beard.” The New York Review of Books, July 28, 2020. https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2013/05/09/pinning-down-spartacus/.

[9] Luxemburg, Rosa. “On the Spartacus Programme.” Marxists Internet Archive (December 1918), 2003,  www.marxists.org/archive/luxemburg/1918/12/30.htm#foot-1.