Róża Luksemburg przeciwko wojnie. W stulecie śmierci

• Authors: Gelles Katarzyna

Title variants

EN

Rosa Luxemburg against the war. On the centenary of her death

• Languages of publication: PL EN

Abstracts

EN

The aim of the paper is to present the profile of Rosa Luxemburg as an example of complex and diverse Polish-German relations at the turn of the 20th century. She began her career in the Polish labour movement in the Russian Partition and later continued developing her career in the Social Democratic Party of Germany. She engaged in all forms of political activity gaining international recognition. The research problem is to review the figure of Rosa Luxemburg on the centenary of her tragic death, as a woman who evades simple categorization but came to be known as an intellectual and a leader in a world then dominated by men. The focus is on Rosa Luxemburg’s involvement in actions against the impending world war. Contrary to the militaristic mood prevailing in the German political circles and German society, she courageously and tenaciously carried a pacifistic message - which remains relevant to the present day – that unleashing a war for the benefit of a minority brings only destruction and victims. For her peaceful beliefs and uncompromising attitude she paid with years of imprisonment as she spent almost the entire time of war in prisons: in Berlin, Wronki near Poznań and Wrocław. The authorities insisted on keeping her away from soldiers and labourers who were becoming increasingly susceptible to her words and influences. She was released from prison only on the 9th of November 1918, the day of the outbreak of the German revolution. It is important to highlight her insightful criticism of the then attitude of the SDP, which decided to support the partition plans of the imperial government which ultimately resulted in a split of the labour movement in Germany. The author states the thesis that the inconsistency and irrecoverable loss of unity of the left-wing party as well as its incoherent actions paved the way to power for the Nazis. The research method used in the study was analysis of Rosa Luxemburg’s rich epistolary and journalistic output with reference to mostly German literature on the subject.

Keywords

EN

Rosa Luxemburg; Social Democratic Party of Germany; First World War; labor movement; Antimilitarism

• Publisher: Instytut Zachodni. Instytut Naukowo-Badawczy im. Zygmunta Wojciechowskiego w Poznaniu
• Journal: Przegląd Zachodni
• Year: 2019
• Issue: 4 (373)
• Pages: 227-246

Contributors

author

Gelles Katarzyna

• Instytut Studiów Międzynarodowych, Uniwersytet Wrocławski