Luise Kautsky

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Stumbling block in front of the house, Windscheidstrasse 31, in Berlin-Charlottenburg

Luise Kautsky , also Luise Kautsky-Ronsperger , born Ronsperger (* 11. August 1864 in Vienna , † 8. December 1944 in the Auschwitz concentration camp ) was a Berlin local politician of the USPD . She was a socialist and since 1890 the wife of Karl Kautsky . She was also a friend of Rosa Luxemburg .

Life

Luise Kautsky was born into a middle-class Jewish family. From around 1880 she worked in her parents' pastry shop. At that time she became friends with the socialist writer Minna Kautsky and became officially engaged to her eldest son Karl Kautsky in the winter of 1889/90. In 1890 the couple moved to Stuttgart, in 1897 from Stuttgart to Berlin. At first she mainly worked as a (unpaid) secretary and translator for her husband, but later, at the suggestion of Rosa Luxemburg, she also became active as a journalist herself.

She translated u. a. a part of the collected writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 1852 to 1862 from English into German; both volumes appeared in 1917.

After 1918 she also became active in local politics and became a Berlin city ​​councilor for the USPD. Between September 1920 and January 1921, she and her husband visited the Democratic Republic of Georgia , which was then governed by social democrats ; In April 1921 she published a series of articles in the Wiener Arbeiter-Zeitung about her travel impressions . In 1924 she moved back to Austria . In 1929 she published a memorial book for Rosa Luxemburg after the KPD had prevented the originally planned publication of her second volume with letters from Rosa Luxemburg in a copyright dispute.

After the annexation of Austria (March 1938) she had to flee as a socialist and a Jew; she moved to the Netherlands . In 1944, at the age of 80, she was deported from the Westerbork transit camp to Auschwitz . There she was smuggled from the selection ramp by fellow inmates into the inmates' sick bay, but died a few weeks later of a weak heart.

Memory of Luise Kautsky on the tombstone of her husband Karl Kautsky in the Westerveld cemetery.

A memorial plaque on the Berlin City Hall commemorates Luise Kautsky. Her estate is in the International Archive for Social History in Amsterdam .

In January 2011, the Luise-und-Karl-Kautsky-Haus, their former home in Berlin's Saarstrasse, opened as the federal office of the Socialist Youth of Germany - Die Falken .

A tribute to Luise Kautsky

After her death in the summer of 1945, her life was described in the “SOCIALIST MESSAGES. News for German Socialists in England "honored:

“A tragic fate put an end to the life of the aged comrade Luise Kautsky. She was abducted by the Nazis from her country of asylum in Holland in September 1944 - a few weeks after her 80th birthday - to the Auschwitz death camp. She died there a few weeks later. Your son, Dr. Benedict Kautsky , who was liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp , conveyed this tragic news to his friends in London . Luise Kautsky - herself a great, upright socialist - is an indispensable part of the history of the international and German labor movement as the loyal companion of our Karl Kautsky. "

Works

literature

  • Rosa Luxemburg. A memorial book. Laub, Berlin 1929. (New edition heptagon Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-96024-000-6 (= Luise Kautsky: Collected writings. Edited by Günter Regneri, vol. 1. ))
  • Julie Bebel . A child from Leipzig, born 1843, d. 1910 . In: Leipziger Volkszeitung of November 29, 1930. ISSN  0232-3222 .
  • Strong women. 15 portraits from Jenny Marx to Rosa Luxemburg . heptagon Verlag, Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-934616-04-2 (= Luise Kautsky: Gesammelte Schriften. Edited by Günter Regneri, Vol. 2 )
  • Smart Men: Thoughts on Leaders of the Socialist Movement . heptagon Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-96024-002-0 (= Luise Kautsky: Gesammelte Schriften. Edited by Günter Regneri, Vol. 3 )

Editing

Translations

  • Louis B. Boudin : The theoretical system of Karl Marx. Translated from English by Luise Kautsky. With a foreword to the German edition by Karl Kautsky. JHW Dietz Nachf., Stuttgart 1909. (= International Library 46)
  • Paul Lafargue : Origin and Development of the Concept of the Soul. 1909.
  • Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels : Collected Writings 1852-1862. Edited by N. Ryazanoff. 1917
  • Gilbert Murray : The Foreign Policy Problem. A consideration of the current dangers and the best ways to counter them. Translated from English by Luise Kautsky based on the edition for America. With a foreword by Karl Kautsky. JHW Dietz Nachf., Berlin 1922.
  • Karl Marx : The inaugural address of the international workers' association. Translated by Luise Kautsky. Edited, introduced and commented on by Karl Kautsky. JHW Dietz Nachf., Berlin 1922. (2nd extended edition 1928).

literature

  • Luise Kautsky in memory. Obituaries by Friedrich Adler and Oda Lerda-Olberg. Reports from Amsterdam: Annie van Scheltema, from Birkenau: Lucie Adelsberger. Letters from and about Buchenwald from Benedikt Kautsky . Willard, New York, NY 1945.
  • Karl and Luise Kautsky. Correspondence with Czechoslovakia 1879–1939. Edited by Zdeněk Šolle. With co-workers from Jan Gielkens. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1993. ISBN 3-593-34902-7 .
  • Jutta Dick, Marina Sassenberg (ed.): Jewish women in the 19th and 20th centuries . Lexicon to life and work, Reinbek 1993, ISBN 3-499-16344-6 .
  • Günter Regneri: Luise Kautsky. Soul of international Marxism - friend of Rosa Luxemburg . Hentrich & Hentrich, Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-942271-82-0 . ( Jewish Miniatures series . )

Web links

Commons : Luise Kautsky  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Friedrich Engels' correspondence with Karl Kautsky. Danubia Verlag, Vienna 1955, pp. 213 and 251.
  2. ^ First volume ( full text ) and second volume ( full text ).
  3. ^ Book review by Günter Regneri in Neues Deutschland , November 22, 2014.
  4. ↑ Luise Kautsky: A trip to Georgia. "In Arbeiter-Zeitung ', Part I: April 6, 1921, Part II: April 7, 1921, Part III: April 9, 1921.
  5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20141020123542/http://www.luise-berlin.de/gedendetafeln/cha/k/kautsky_luise.htm
  6. ^ Luise Kautsky: Rosa Luxemburg. A memorial book. heptagon Verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-96024-000-6 , pp. 9-11.
  7. ^ ER: A doctor from Auschwitz tells: How Luise Kautsky died ; in: Arbeiter-Zeitung No. 121, December 25, 1945, p. 3.
  8. ↑ Ursula Langkau-Alex: Karl Kautsky in the Netherlands . In Hans Würzner, Ed .: Austrian exile literature in the Netherlands 1934-1940 . Rodopi 1986, ISBN 90-6203-908-1 , p. 50.
  9. ↑ www.wir-falken.de
  10. ↑ SOCIALIST INFORMATION. News for German Socialists in England. No. 75/76 - 1945. June - July 1945
personal data
SURNAME Kautsky, Luise
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kautsky-Ronsperger, Luise
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Local Politician (USPD)
DATE OF BIRTH August 11, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1944
Place of death Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp