Photo Gallery Remembering "Red Rosa" Luxemburg
On January 11, 2009, tens of thousands of people turned out to pay their respects to Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, the founders of the German Communist Party (KPD), who were brutally murdered over 90 years ago. Luxemburg is still popular today among lefties, feminists and liberals.
The annual pilgrimage to the cemetery in Friedrichsfelde continues 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Luxemburg and Liebknecht were regarded as martyrs in the former East Germany, but their admirers are far from being limited to old communists.
Luxemburg, a Polish-born academic, broke with the Social Democrats after they supported World War I. She spent much time in prison during the war and, after the overthrow of the monarchy in 1918, she set up the KPD with Liebknecht to fight for a true revolution.
Berlin's Rosa-Luxemburg Platz is dotted with her quotes. Having fascinated thousands for years, she was made the subject of an award-winning film in the 1980s and a recent musical put on in Berlin to sold-out crowds.
The monument to Liebknecht and Luxemburg in the Friedrichsfelde Cemetry.
In January, the Socialist Youth of Germany placed a wreath "In Memory of Rosa and Karl."
All manner of left-wing groups turned out for a march that was part of the events in January marking the anniversary of Luxemburg's death.
The small German Communist Party also claims a Luxemburgian pedigree.
Many just come to pay their respect to the two fallen activists who were brutally murdered on Jan. 15, 1919 after right-wing paramilitaries crushed their ill-fated putsch.
Representatives of the Left Party, the successor party to the ruling SED party in the former East Germany, came out in force at the January event. (Left to Right) Petra Pau, Lothar Bisky and Gregor Gysi all made an appearance.
So, too, did Egon Krenz, who had a brief stint as leader of East Germany in the period leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
