février 1, 2018

“…I really hope to die at my post”*

Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung

Rosa Luxemburg in the German Revolution


*The full quotation reads: “Sometimes, however, it seems to me that I am not really a human being at all but like a bird or a beast in human form. I feel so much more at home even in a scrap of garden like the one here, and still more in the meadows when the grass is humming with bees than – at one of our party congresses. I can say that to you, for you will not promptly suspect me of treason to socialism! You know that I really hope to die at my post, in a street fight or in prison. But my innermost personality belongs more to my tomtits than to the ‘comrades’.”

From Wronke to Sophie Liebknecht, 2 May 1917. Quoted from Rosa Luxemburg: The Rosa Luxemburg Reader, edited by Peter Hudis and Kevin B. Anderson, Monthly Review Press, 2004, New York, p. 390-392.


This timeline follows two narrative threads:

a)     Rosa Luxemburg’s private and public life, her meetings and her appearances, using primary sources and clues from secondary literature.

b)     The place of Rosa Luxemburg’s influence in the general course of the Revolution, centred in Berlin – without claiming to represent the events of the Revolution comprehensively or present a deeper interpretation.

The individual entries are accompanied, wherever possible, by links to Rosa Luxemburg’s letters, speeches and writings in the original and translation. Criticism and comments are welcome and may be sent to: uwe.sonnenberg@rosalux.org.