janvier 1, 2019

Rosa Luxemburg, or: The Price of Freedom

Jörn Schütrumpf

A short volume about one of the European left’s most unique personalities


Rosa Luxemburg was one of the most unique personalities to ever inhabit the European left. This politician who would have preferred to study zoology fought for a society in which everyone could take equality, freedom, and solidarity for granted. Her opponents in the enemy camp would have her assassinated in January 1919. Even after her death, opponents in her own camp condemned her views on democracy and freedom – which Rosa Luxemburg understood as the freedom of the dissenters – and misused her good name.

Jörn Schütrumpf is a historian of the German labour movement and currently the director of reseach into the life and work of Rosa Luxemburg at the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung. This book originally appeared in German in 2006 and was re-published in 2018 in a third, revised edition. The English translation by Natascha Mueller-Hirth was published in 2008. Physical copies are available for purchase from the Karl Dietz Verlag.


Table of Contents

Rosa Luxemburg: Between Love and Anger

  • Memories for the Future
  • Jewish, Polish, German – Revolutionary
  • From Marxism to Marx
  • Between Social Democrats and Bolsheviks
  • In the « Wrong » Revolution
  • Spat At, Adored, But Also Indispensable?

Rosa Luxemburg

  • In the Shelter
  • I can more easily imagine pogroms against Jews in Germany … » A Letter from Prison to Sophie Liebknecht
  • The Russian Revolution

About Rosa Luxemburg

  • Rosi Wolfstein: The Teacher
  • Paul Levi: Always the Same Person
  • Walter Jens: A Short Life

Appendix

  • Selected Dates
  • Biographical Data