In front of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation building stands a statue of the renowned revolutionary socialist Rosa Luxemburg. Rozalia Luksenburg (1871-1919) was born into an assimilated Jewish family in Poland. In high school, she became a member of left-wing socialist organizations and led several workers’ strikes in Warsaw. When the tsarist police came after her, Luxemburg fled to Switzerland, where she studied at the University of Zurich and became the first woman to receive a Ph.D. in Economy in 1897. That same year, Luxemburg moved to Berlin and continued promoting socialist agendas, writing articles and pamphlets, and advocating for workers’ rights. Luxemburg was a founding member of various political organizations, including the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL), the Social Democratic Party of Germany, and the anti-war Spartakusbund (Spartacus League), which later became part of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Luxemburg also founded the newspapers of several of these organizations, where she published articles encouraging people to join the fight against the bourgeoisie. She was arrested several times for her actions. On 15 January 1919, following the Spartacus Revolt – a power struggle between the Social Democratic Party of Germany and the Communist Party of Germany, Luxemburg and her fellow revolutionary Karl Liebknecht were abducted by a German Cavalry unit, tortured, and murdered. Her body was thrown into the Landwehr Canal, found four months later, and brought to burial. In 1990, the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation was established, affiliated with the democratic socialist Left Party. The foundation’s two main tracks are general political education activities and academic/scientific work. In 1999, they commissioned the sculptor Rolf Biebl to sculpt the Rosa Luxemburg statue that would stand at the entrance to the building. At first, it stood in front of the foundation’s office building at Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, and it moved when the foundation moved to its new location at Straße der Pariser Kommun. The statue was rededicated on 28 April 2021 – Worker’s Memorial Day, which honors the workers who died, were injured or became ill while and because of their labor. Unlike most statues, the life-size bronze statue of Luxemburg does not stand on a pedestal, but on the ground, at eye level with the people. She is depicted live and in movement, ready for the upcoming socialist revolution. Other places in Berlin commemorating her are Rosa Luxemburg Strasse and Rosa Luxemburg Platz in the Mitte district, the Rosa Luxemburg memorial at the Lichtenstein Bridge, where her corpse was thrown into the Landwehr Canal, the monument ‘From Fat Berta to Red Rosa’ at Bundesallee, and the November Revolution Monument at the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery that the Nazis demolished in 1935. Read more...

The statue of the socialist revolutionist Rosa Luxemburg stands in Rosa Luxemburg Platz, a public park that was named in her honor. Rozalia Luksenburg (1871-1919) was born into an assimilated Jewish family in Poland, which was then part of the Russian Empire. While in high school, she became involved with socialist circles and became a leading figure in various workers’ strikes. Her political activities drew the attention of the tsarist authorities, and at 18, Luxemburg fled to Switzerland. There, she attended the University of Zurich, from which she later received a Ph.D., becoming the first woman to be granted a doctoral degree in Economy. Though leaving Poland at a young age, Luxemburg continued to support her motherland’s independence. She was a founding member of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania (SDKPiL) party, which later became the Polish Communist Party, and she established the socialist paper Sprawa Robotnicza (The Workers’ Cause). In 1897, Luxemburg moved to Berlin and married a son of family friends to become a German citizen. She became a dominant figure in the socialist movement and promoted Marxist ideas primarily by pen, publishing hundreds of articles on the subject. Upon the outbreak of the Russian revolution in 1905, Luxemburg went to Poland to join the fight against the Russian regime and spread her ideas through articles, brochures, and speeches, arguing that a revolution could happen only through mass workers’ strikes. Again, she became wanted by the authorities, who arrested her for three months. After her release, Luxemburg returned to Germany and taught Marxism and economics at the Social Democratic Party of Germany’s Berlin training center. In 1914, as a reaction to WW1, Luxemburg and fellow revolutionist Karl Liebknecht founded the socialist and anti-war Spartakusbund (Spartacus League), and its newspaper, The Red Flag, in which she continued to call for a general strike. As a result, the two activists were imprisoned for two and a half years. Straight out of prison, she and Liebknecht established the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Under their leadership, the Spartacus League took part in the second revolutionary wave in Berlin – an armed uprising between the German government and the communist and socialist movements. Two weeks later, on 15 January 1919, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were abducted and murdered by German officials. Her body was thrown into the river, found, and brought to burial only four months later. Anke Besser-Güth created the Rosa Luxemburg statue in 1974. Initially, it stood at the former location of the district school of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (also known as the East German Communist Party) at Südpark. However, executives of the GDR regime of East Germany opposed the location and the interpretation of the statue, and they relocated it to its current site, which today is at Rosa Luxemburg Platz. The Bronze statue depicts Luxemburg sitting down with a book in her hand. The book symbolizes freedom of thinking and the courage to think differently. More places to visit while in Erfurt are the Old Synagogue, the oldest synagogue preserved in Europe, the Gothic St. Severi Church, The Museum of Thuringian Folklore, and the Andreasstrasse Memorial and Educational Center. Read more...

Rozalia Luksenburg (1871-1919) was born in Poland during the Russian Empire’s rule. While in high school, she became associated with socialist organizations and was involved in several workers’ strikes. Her action put her on the tsarist authorities’ radar, and Luxemburg fled Switzerland, where she studied politics, economics, history, philosophy, and mathematics at the University of Zurich. In 1897, at 26, she became the first woman in the world to receive a Ph.D. in Economy. Luxemburg moved to Berlin and married a son of family friends to receive German citizenship. There, she became a prominent figure in the socialist movement and began to publish articles and brochures promoting Marxist theories and advocating a socialist revolution. In 1905, after the Russian revolution broke out, Luxemburg returned to Poland to join the fight against the Tsar. Within two years, she published more than 100 articles, pamphlets, and speeches in socialist papers, arguing that the revolution could only be successful through mass strikes. Once again, the tsarist authorities went after her and arrested her for three months. Upon her release, Luxemburg returned to Germany and worked for workers’ rights. In 1914, she and fellow revolutionist Karl Liebknecht founded the socialist and anti-war Spartakusbund (Spartacus League), spreading these ideas via the movement’s newspaper, The Red Flag. In 1916, she was arrested and incarcerated for two and a half years, though she never stopped writing, and her articles were smuggled out of prison and published. Luxemburg and Liebknecht were released only three days before the outbreak of the German Revolution of November 1918, in which the Spartacus League was actively involved. On 1 January 1919, the Spartacus League conjoined with other movements to establish the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Two weeks later, on 15 January 1919, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were abducted by a German Cavalry unit that tortured, murdered, and then threw their bodies into the Landwehr Canal. Today, on that spot on the Lichtenstein Bridge over the canal stands the Rosa Luxemburg Memorial. The architects Ralf Schüler and Ursulina Schüler-Witte designed and installed it in 1987. It comprises two parts – the name ROSA LUXEMBURG made of bronze block letters that point diagonally out of the canal, and a plaque on the opposite wall, detailing Luxemburg’s story. Other sites in Berlin commemorating Luxemburg are the Rosa Luxemburg Strasse and Rosa Luxemburg Platz in the Mitte district, the Rosa Luxemburg Statue in Straße der Pariser Kommune, the monument to the November Revolution Monument at the Friedrichsfelde Central Cemetery that the Nazis destroyed, and the ‘From Fat Berta to Red Rosa’ monument at Bundesallee. Read more...

Hilla von Rebay (1890-1967) was born to an aristocratic German family in Strasbourg, then Germany. She pursued her passion for art and studied in art schools in Cologne and Paris, mastering traditional training in landscape, portraiture, genre, and history painting. After graduating, her interests turned to modern non-representational art, and she became an abstract artist, exhibiting her work in Europe. In 1927, she relocated to New York City, establishing herself as an artist and art collector. She became the friend and advisor of Solomon R. Guggenheim, encouraging and guiding him in purchasing non-objective art. When the collection grew, Guggenheim started to present it in 1939 in a small showroom bearing the name the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation’s Museum of Non-Objective Painting, with Rebay serving as its director and curator. In 1943, she reached out and worked with the architect Frank Lloyd Wright on the design of the current building of the Guggenheim Museum, which is one of NYC’s icons and a symbol of modern art on its own. Following Guggenheim’s death in 1949, the family fired Rebay from all her roles. When the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum opened in 1959, she wasn’t invited and never visited. She passed away in 1967. She requested to be buried in her family grave in Teningen, Germany, and donated a large part of her art collection to the Guggenheim, presented as the Hilla Rebay Collection. In 1919, her parents bought a house in Teningen; when they passed away in the early 1930s, Rebay donated it to the community, asking that it be used for good. In 1999, a group of middle schoolers in Teningen learned about Rebay’s legacy. They organized an exhibition about her that was displayed in the town hall. In 2003, the display was moved to Rebay’s house. Founded in 2012, the Hilla von Rebay Association oversaw the house renovations and has managed the museum and the collection. On display are plaques with information about the life and work of Hilla Rebay, photos, art pieces she created, and art from her collection, including several loans from the Guggenheim Museum in NYC. Read more...