Theodor Liebknecht

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Theodor Karl Ernst Adolf Liebknecht (born April 19, 1870 in Leipzig ; died January 6, 1948 in Altendorf ), son of Wilhelm Liebknecht and brother of Otto and Karl Liebknecht , was a lawyer and during the Weimar Republic  - as a member and last chairman the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) and then the SAPD  - a socialist politician in Germany.

Life in a historical-political context

After studying law , he opened a law firm in Berlin in 1899 with Oskar Cohn and his brother Karl, who was one year younger . During the First World War he was a soldier from 1915 and later a non-commissioned officer until his demobilization in early 1919.

Theodor Liebknecht became publicly politically active from 1919 - after the murder of his brother by right-wing extremist Freikorps , who, together with Rosa Luxemburg, who was murdered on the same day, had co-founded the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) as the leader of the revolutionary Spartakusbund . At the same time he took in the three children of his murdered brother.

Theodor Liebknecht did not join the KPD, however, but stayed in the USPD, which had split off from the parent party during the First World War in protest against the SPD's approval of the war. After the November Revolution , the USPD was noticeably crushed until 1922. The majority of their left wing joined the Communist International and thus the KPD in December 1920 (see also United Communist Party of Germany ). A large part of the reform-oriented USPD members went back to the SPD by 1922.

In 1921 Liebknecht supported the founding of a new socialist international after the second international, founded in 1889 with the substantial help of his father, fell apart when the First World War broke out in 1914. Theodor Liebknecht was involved in the founding of the International Working Group of Socialist Parties (IASP), the so-called "two and a half internationals" (see International ), for which he observed the trial of 47 in 1922 together with Kurt Rosenfeld and the representative of the Belgian social democracy, Émile Vandervelde Members of the Social Revolutionary Party in Moscow.

Theodor Liebknecht rejected a merger of the USPD with the KPD, in part because he their accession to the young Soviet Union dominated, 1919 in Moscow under the leadership of Lenin founded the Communist International (Comintern) criticized. He saw in this a split in the international socialist movement. On the other hand, he was also hostile to the SPD under Friedrich Ebert and his successors. In Liebknecht's eyes it had come to terms too strongly with the old conservative forces from the German Empire and gambled away democratic opportunities during the November Revolution. He also rejected reunification with the SPD. Together with Georg Ledebour he continued the left-wing social democratic project USPD, for which he belonged to the Prussian state parliament from 1921 to 1924.

With their stance, however, Ledebour and Liebknecht found themselves in a minority position between the opposing Poles, the SPD and the KPD, which the broader population regarded as left-wing . After 1922, the USPD developed into a marginalized splinter party with a following mainly from the left-wing intellectual and pacifist milieu . Liebknecht replaced Ledebour from the leadership of the USPD in 1924 after conflicts within the party over the attitude towards the occupation of the Ruhr . Liebknecht, in contrast to Ledebour, rejected the KPD's slogan “Beat Poincaré on the Ruhr and Cuno on the Spree!” As nationalistic; Ledebour left the USPD with a minority and founded the Socialist League .

In 1931 the USPD became part of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAPD). In doing so, they united with a renewed left-wing split from the SPD and also some KPD renegades, whose goal was a left united front against the growing National Socialism in Germany and fascism in Europe. In doing so, the party turned against the Comintern's course set by Moscow under Stalin , which largely prevented cooperation between social democratic and communist parties against fascism with the social fascism thesis .

But the SAPD was not spared from violent wing fighting either. Parliamentary successes were also not granted to this party in the remaining two years of the Weimar Republic, which in fact had basically already failed.

The convinced pacifist Theodor Liebknecht belonged to the non-Leninist wing of the SAPD together with the left Social Democrats around Anna Siemsen and the Red Fighters group around Bernhard Reichenbach and turned against the increased influence of the Leninist wing in the party.

After the takeover of the Nazi Party and the transformation of Germany into a Nazi dictatorship Liebknecht went in 1933 to Basel in the Swiss exile . From 1936 to 1939 he worked at the International Institute for Social History (IISG) in Amsterdam / Netherlands .

Theodor Liebknecht survived National Socialism and the war. He kept his residence in Basel after the Second World War , but also visited friends in Germany, which was occupied by the Allies . During one such visit he died in 1948 at the age of 77 in the Lower Saxon village of Altendorf / district of Gifhorn , which at the time was on the border between the British and Soviet occupation zones .

Tomb

Grave slab of Theodor Liebknecht in the Engesohde city cemetery, Hanover

The tomb of Theodor Liebknecht can be found in the Engesohde city cemetery in Hanover, Department 17M , grave number 3-4 .

literature

  • Annelies Laschitza : Theodor Liebknecht "... that my head and my heart come to their right, that is what is essential for me ..." In: Contributions to the history of the workers' movement. 37th volume, 4/95, pp. 22-46

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karin van Schwartzenberg (responsible): Graves of honor and graves of important personalities at the Engesohde town cemetery , A3 leaflet with overview sketch, ed. from the City of Hanover, The Lord Mayor, Department of Environment and Urban Greenery, Department of Urban Cemeteries, Department of Administration and Customer Service, Hanover, 2012
personal data
SURNAME Liebknecht, Theodor
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Liebknecht, Theodor Karl Ernst Adolf (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer and socialist politician
DATE OF BIRTH April 19, 1870
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1948
Place of death Altendorf near Hanover