100,000 remember Liebknecht and Luxemburg
BERLIN — The traditional January 9 march to the graves of Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg, the revolutionary Communist leaders murdered in 1919 on the orders of the Social Democrats, attracted 100,000 people.
Liebknecht and Luxemburg had been Social Democrat members of parliament in the Reichstag until they split to form a communist party. Liebknecht was the son of Social Democrat leader Wilhelm Liebknecht, a contemporary of Marx. Rosa Luxemburg came from Poland, where she was active in revolutionary politics.
On January 9, two demonstrations went to the Friedrichshain graveyard. One was organised by the Party of Democratic Socialism, the reformed ruling party of the German Democratic Republic. The other demonstration was organised by various left radical groups.
Red flags and banners were present from the Social Democrats, the PDS, Stalinists and Maoists. The anarchists and autonome movements were also present.
The left radical demonstration was attacked brutally by police, with 39 detained for "rioting", hiding their faces or waving the flag of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party.