Rosa Luxemburg (1986)
Director: Margarethe von Trotta.
Cast: Barbara Sukowa (Rosa Luxemburg), Daniel Olbrychski (Leo Jogiches), Otto
Sander (Karl Liebknecht), Adelheid Arndt (Luise Kautsky), Jurgen Holtz (Karl
Kautsky), Doris Schade (Clara Zetkin), Hannes Jaenicke (Kostja Zetkin), Jan(Paul
Biczycki (August Bebel), Karin Baal (Mathilde Jacob), Winifred Glatzeder (Paul
Levi), Regina Lemnitz (Gertrud), Barbara Lass (Rosa's Mother), Dagna Drozdek
(Rosa at Age 6).
The story of Jewish German political activist Rosa Luxemburg.
Historical Background:
1871 -- born in Zamoßç, Poland (then a part of Russia). Educated in Warsaw.
1889 -- flees Poland and lives in Switzerland in order to avoid imprisonment for her political activities.
1898 -- writes a doctoral dissertation at the University of Zürich entitled The Industrial Development of Poland. Migrates to Germany and marries a German worker. She becomes involved with the German Social Democratic party (SPD), then the leading organization of international socialism.
1905 -- during the revolutionary struggles in Russia, she goes to Warsaw to join in and gets herself imprisoned.
1907-1914 -- teaches in the SPD school in Berlin.
1913 -- writes The Accumulation of Capital.
World War I -- with German socialist Karl Liebknecht she forms a revolutionary faction within the SPD (known as the Spartacists). Is imprisoned because of her opposition to the war.
1918 -- is released from prison. She helps turn the Spartacists into the Communist party of Germany.
1919 -- reluctantly takes part in the Spartacist uprising against the government, is arrested and, along with Liebknecht, murdered by German troops.
Return to Home Page (Vernon Johns Society)