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Born in Zamosc, Poland
Rozalia (Rosa) Luxemburg was born in March 1871 in Zamosch, Poland, which was under Russian-control at the time. Rosa was the fifth of five children of Eliasz Luxemburg and Line Lowenstein. Her father was a timber merchant in the family timber business and was well educated. The Luxemburgs were Polish-Jews. -
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The Life of Rosa Luxemburg
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Moved to Warsaw, Poland
Rosa's family moved to Warsaw, Poland partly because of increasing anti-Jewish unrest in Zamosc. -
Started at Gymnasium in Warsaw
At age 9 Rosa started attending Gymnasium, which was the Polish word for an exclusive school that concentrated on academics, like a college prep academy in the U.S. -
Joined The Proletariat Party
At age 15 she joined the Proletariat (Socialist) Party and was already becoming an activist for the working class. She helped organize a general strike in Warsaw, which led to four of her group’s leaders being put to death. Her group stayed active, but had to meet in secret. -
Fled to Switzerland
At 18 she was already too well known for her revolutionary ways, and to avoid being arrested she had to leave for Zurich in Switzerland. While in Switzerland she attended the University of Zurich, and studied philosophy, history, politics, economics and mathematics. -
Founded socialist newspaper The Worker's Cause
While in college she founded a Socialist newspaper called “The Worker’s Cause” which wrote articles about Socialist Revolution and freedom for the working man. -
Moved to Germany and joined Labour Party
She received her Doctor of Law degree in 1898 from the University of Zurich, and soon after that she married Gustav Lubeck, a German, and moved to Berlin where she became a German citizen and joined the German Social Democratic Labour Party (SDP). Some people thought that the only reason she married Lubeck was so she could become a German citizen and continue her work in Germany. -
Started teaching and speaking at rallys
Started teaching Marxism and Economics at the SPD Berlin Training Center. She wanted to teach, because she wanted everyone to understand the unfair treatment of the working class by the upper class and how their hard labor only benefited the upper class. She also spoke at rallys to spread her message. -
World War 1 began
World War I began. Rosa was totally against the war, and organized anti-war demonstrations telling the people to refuse to obey orders and refuse to go fight when they were recruited. She helped start the anti-war Die Internationale group. -
Die Internationale becomes Spartacus League
Die Internationale becomes the Spartacus League. Luxemburg wrote illegal anti-war pamphlets that encouraged everyone to form a general strike against the war. The pamphlets were signed Spartacus, because she admired the gladiator Spartacus who led a slave rebellion and defied Rome.After a Spartacus Leage demonstration, Rosa is arrested and thrown in prison, where she keeps writing. -
Rosa Arrested
Rosa was arrested for her anti-war work and put in prison for over two years. Prison couldn’t hold her down, though, and she continued to write articles against the war and those in power, which her friends smuggled out and published for her. -
Released from Prison
Luxemburg was released from prison. She helped reorganize the Spartacus League, which became the German Communist Party, and started a radical newspaper, The Red Flag, which published articles anti-war articles, and articles demanding amnesty for political prisoners and the stopping of all capital punishment. -
Sparticist Uprising begins
A revolution led by German Workers spread through Berlin and there was fighting in the streets. Rosa didn’t agree with the revolution because she thought the timing was all wrong and it couldn’t succeed, but she encouraged the rebels to occupy the offices of The Red Flag. The revolution became known as the Spartacist Uprising. Thousands of workers were killed. -
Rosa was shot to death.
Because of her past anti-war and anti-government activities, and her part in the Sparticist Uprising, Rosa Luxemburg was arrested by government soldiers, interrogated and shot in the head. Her body was thrown into a canal and wasn’t recovered for several months. -
Funeral was held in Berlin
Her funeral was held in Berlin and thousands of mourners came to say goodbye to the woman who all her life worked to show the working class people how they could help themselves and get out from under the crooked power of the government who used the working people like slaves. She probably knew that someday she would be killed because of it, but she still wasn’t afraid to keep speaking out about the unfairness.
