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Karl Liebknecht, the son of Wilhelm Liebknecht, was born in Leipzig on 13th August, 1871. His father was one of Germany's leading socialists who helped form the Social Democratic Party in 1891.
Liebknecht studied law and political economy at Leipzig and Berlin where he was converted to the ideas of Karl Marx.
After serving with the Imperial Pioneer Guards in Potsdam (1893-94), Liebknecht worked as a lawyer in Westphalia before moving to Berlin in 1898.
Liebknecht became involved in smuggling socialist propaganda into Russia. He also defended others in court who had been arrested and tried for this offence. Liebknecht also wrote extensively against militarism and this resulted in him being imprisoned for eighteen months in Glatz, Silesia.
In 1912 Liebknecht was elected to the Reichstag. On the left-wing of the Social Democratic Party, Liebknecht was one of the main opponents of the party's conservative leadership.
Liebknecht was opposed to Germany's participation in the First World War and at the end of 1914 joined with Rosa Luxemburg, Leo Jogiches, Paul Levi, Ernest Meyer, Franz Mehring and Clara Zetkin to establish an underground political organization called Spartakusbund (Spartacus League). The Spartacus League publicized its views in its illegal newspaper, Spartacus Letters.
In January, 1915, Liebknecht, like the Bolsheviks in Russia, began arguing that socialists should turn this nationalist conflict into a revolutionary war. He was arrested and then conscripted into the German Army. Refusing to fight, Liebknecht served on the Eastern Front burying the dead. His health deteriorated and in October, 1915, he was allowed to return to Germany.
On 1st May, 1916, the Spartacus League decided to come out into the open and organized a demonstration against the First World War in Berlin. Several of its leaders, including Liebknecht were arrested and imprisoned. They were not released until October, 1918, when Max von Baden granted an amnesty to all political prisoners.
In January, 1919, Liebknecht joined with Rosa Luxemburg, Leo Jogiches and Clara Zetkin in the Spartakist Rising that took place in Berlin. Friedrich Ebert, the leader of the Social Democrat Party and Germany's new chancellor, called in the German Army and the Freikorps to bring an end to the rebellion. By 13th January the rebellion had been crushed and most of its leaders, including Liebknecht were arrested. Karl Liebknecht was executed without trial on 15th January, 1919.
Kathe Kollwitz, Memorial for Karl Liebknecht (1919)
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