Germany: 92nd anniversary of assassination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht sees increased turnout

Tens of thousands of left-wing activists and socialists from all over Germany came to Berlin last Sunday to commemorate the 92nd anniversary of the assassination of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, the most famous representatives of German Marxism in the early 20th century and founders of the German Communist Party (KPD) in 1918.

This tradition goes back to the late 1920s. After their assassination, together with many other socialists, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were buried at the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery in Berlin.

On a rainy Sunday morning, a never ending stream of men and women, old and young, walked to the “Memorial to the Socialists“ and laid flowers there. As is the tradition now, the leaders of DIE LINKE (Left Party) appeared at nine o'clock in the morning. Just before midday, the traditional demonstration that had started at Karl Marx avenue arrived at the cemetery. Comrades of Der Funke were present at the cemetery with a bookstall where we sold journals, books and other material from different IMT sections.

This year the event attracted more people than in previous years. This is certainly also due to the fact that a new red scare campaign was launched by the mainstream media at the beginning of the year and people on the left instinctively felt that they had to come out in strength.

This time, the main target is DIE LINKE chairwoman Gesine Lötzsch who in a recent publication titled “Paths to Communism” claimed the political heritage of Rosa Luxemburg and stated that democratic socialism was still the future. This has flared up a widespread anti-communist media campaign which is aimed at confusing members and sympathizers of DIE LINKE and fostering a split of the party between the “Communists” and “Social Democrats”.

This is not the first and will not be the last campaign of this sort, as the bourgeois know that capitalism will increasingly be questioned if they continue to dismantle the welfare state and the casualisation of labour keeps increasing. As the Afghanistan war is getting more and more unpopular in Germany, the anti-militarist and socialist ideas of Liebknecht and Luxemburg will find an echo.