Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht

Born in Leipzig on August 13, 1871, he was the son of socialist leader Wilhelm Liebknecht. Trained as a lawyer, he became active in socialist politics and eventually entered the Reichstag, where he stood out for his sharp criticism of German militarism and imperial policy.

He is especially remembered for breaking with his party’s wartime line during World War I. As opposition to the war deepened, he became closely associated with Rosa Luxemburg and the revolutionary left, and his name became tied to the Spartacist movement during the final crisis of Imperial Germany.

After the German Revolution of 1918, he remained a prominent and deeply controversial political figure. He was killed in Berlin on January 15, 1919, a death that fixed his place in modern European history as both a revolutionary activist and a martyr for many on the left.