Wilhelm Liebknecht Was the Leader of German Socialism in Its Heroic Age
Wilhelm Liebknecht took part in Germany’s failed revolution of 1848 and became a close ally of Karl Marx in exile. He went on to lead the Social Democratic Party, which defied state repression to become the world’s most formidable working-class movement.
Fifty thousand people are said to have attended the funeral of German socialist Wilhelm Liebknecht (1826–1900) at Friedrichsfelde Cemetery in Berlin. (Jens Kalaene / Picture Alliance via Getty Images)
Wilhelm Liebknecht died of a stroke on August 7, 1900. The night before, he had been working as usual in his office in the editorial rooms of the socialist newspaper Vorwärts until after midnight.
His funeral five days later was attended by fifty thousand people. The mourners accompanied the procession from the middle of Berlin to the Friedrichsfelde Cemetery on the city’s eastern outskirts, where his grave can still be seen today, not far from that of his son Karl, the cofounder of Germany’s Communist Party, who was murdered in January 1919.
The German labor movement was not alone in mourning the news of Liebknecht’s death. Condolences came from throughout the Socialist International, of which Liebknecht had been such a committed advocate.
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