The Death of Rosa Luxemburg by Klaus Gietinger

The timing and, more than anything, the source of the sailors’ uprising in Kiel and other German coastal cities that kicked off the Revolution of 1918-19 took the old rulers by surprise: it was, as one historian would later describe it, ‘a spontaneous and elemental revolt within the armed forces themselves.’*

It sent the “Kaiser’s elite’, the naval officers who had hitherto regarded themselves as a kind of knightly order of the German Reich, into a state of shock. Martin Niemoller, the anti-Nazi Lutheran pastor, wrote in his autobiography: ‘I accepted all the horrors of war as a matter of course and without being shaken to the depths of my soul .  .  .What did shake my soul to its innermost depths and forced me to seek a clear and definite issue for myself was the revolution, which was not merely an upheaval, but a complete breakup. A whole world sank under me at that time.’

After overcoming their initial paralysis, these officers had one thing on their minds: revenge. Revenge for the ‘disgrace”, the ‘humiliation’. They were driven by hated – a deep hated for the ‘masses, for the revolt and for those who allegedly fomented it: the Independent Social Democrats (USPD) together with Liebknecht and Luxemburg.

Officers began to organize into brigades. One of the most enterprising figures in this undertaking was a young lieutenant, who appeared to know everything and everyone. So impressed was the Social Democrat official responsible for naval and military affairs, Gustave Noske, that he made him his liaison officer in Kiel, and thus into a pivotal element in the counterrevolution. The man’s name was Wilhelm Canaris.

He preferred working in the background, in the shadows. ‘Canaris . . . . was fascinated by these cat-and-mouse games with the enemy .  .  . As one who had experimented with invisible inks and assumed false names in his boyhood, he was fond of the mysterious – of veiled allusions and the concealment of ulterior motives and intentions.’ He also believed that the sailors had been manipulated, that the “Marxist- Communist”  foe had surreptitiously infiltrated the fleet and subverted it with the aid of undercover accomplices on board.

A friend of Canaris’s established a relatively small naval officer’s association. These officers were ‘shock troops, forming in a capital city swept up by ‘the red flood’ around the turn of 1918-19. They were housed in In den Zelten, no. 4, from where they were ‘called on for special operations.’

The name of their leader was Lieutenant Commandwer (‘Kaleu’) Horst von Pflugk-Harttung. He and his naval squadron were in turn under the command of a division which would play a decisive role in the ‘battle for the Reich, In fact, they were led by a captain whom Canaris knew very well: Waldemar Pabst, the first general staff officer of the Garde-Kavallerie-Schutzen-Division.

Originally an elite unit of the Kaiser under the command of Lieutenant General Heinrich von Hofmann, the GKSD had been deployed to the Western Front in 1918. But since von Hofmann suffered from a heart ailment, the unit was soon commanded by Pabst, who joined the GKSD in March 1918 on General Erich Ludendorff’s orders. Short, vain, ambitious and thirst for power, Pabst would become one of the most notorious figures of the 1918-19 revolution. His influence and above all his position of strength in the military have tended to be underestimated in the past.

With the GKSD, the ‘remarkable’ Pabst held sway over the strongest counterrevolutionary military formation-, the ‘backbone of all deployed troops upon which Noske’s authority was based.

As soon as news of the revolution reached him, Pabst began driving the GKSD home in forced marches, fully intent on sweeping away ‘ the rule of the inferior.’ Pabst and the GKSD reached Potsdam’s Wildpark train station on 30 November, 1918. Here, Pabst experienced his first encounter with ‘Red Berlin’. Volksbeauftragte or ‘People’s Deputy” Emile Barth, a member of the newly-formed revolutionary government, had been expecting him.

Barth: Hey, you, come over here!
Pabst: Hey, you, come over here!
Barth: I am your superior!

Pabst: Have you lost your mind?

As soon as Barth introduced Pabst to his companions, including the ‘Councillor of Deserters’, Pabst lost his composure. Pabst: ‘Clear the train platform in three minutes, or expect a thrashing!’

The GKSD set up its headquarters in Nikolasee, near Berlin’s Wannsee, and ‘agreed as a precaution that no unbidden guests would be permitted.’; Shortly thereafter, on 10 December 1918, Pabst marched his GKSD into Berlin through the city’s iconic Brandenburg Gate.

Nevertheless, the attempted putsch against the Workers and Soldiers’ Councils, plotted by the Supreme Army Command with the SPD (Social Democratic Party) leader Friedrich Ebert’s knowledge, would fail.

 

The old order’s gleaming defenses were falling apart, and Berlin appeared to be in the hands of the masses. Pabst single-handedly held the GKSD together, at least to some extent, insulating them from all external influences and imparting continuous ‘educational’ instruction that reflected his reactionary worldview.

Thanks to this, the GKSD would be one of the few combat-ready units left over from the old armed forces. On 24 December 1918, Pabst led an attack on the revolutionary Volksmarinedivision, or ‘People’s Naval Division’, as ordered by Ebert, not hesitating to use gas grenades in his artillery strikes.

Yet the thundering of the artillery did not fade away unheard. ‘Counterrevolution by the officers! Was the echo it called forth. It flew from mouth to mouth, was taken up by the factory sirens and stirred up by the farthest corners of the sea of buildings that was Berlin, and the dragon that had been sown over the previous weeks rose up prodigiously .  .  . in frantic rage, the unleashed mutiny .  .  . leapt at our troops.

The masses forced an end to the operation.

Pabst had now witnessed the power of the masses at first hand, along with the demoralizing effect on the institution that was the very essence of his life: the Army. Rosa Luxemburg’s ‘dragon seed’ had arisen. Germany no longer had a royal army. Nevertheless, Pabst refused to give up. He retreated to the edge of Berlin with what remained of his troops, dismissed the elements ‘infested with Spartacism’ and recruited  volunteers to develop a powerful squadron that would be as motivated as himself. Disguised as a civilian, he attended gatherings where Liebknecht spoke, and soon identified him as his most fearsome adversary.

Pabst became fully convinced of the ‘danger’ represented by the Sparticists when one of his own officers asked him to allow Rosa Luxemburg to address the brigade. The officer, ‘A Catholic nobleman’, had heard Luxemburg speak and ‘believed her to be a saint, a new Messiah’, with an incredible sense of purpose,’ Pabst later recalled:

‘At that moment I completely understood the danger Frau Luxemburg posed. She was more dangerous than all the others, even those bearing arms.’** He decided to eliminate her. The outbreak of the January Uprising provided the necessary opportunity.

In the early morning of 15 January 1919, with all strategically significant points in Berlin long secured by the right-wing paramilitaries known as Freikorps, the resistance of the insurgents crushed, and the first ‘shootings of fugitives’ already underway, the GKSD set up its new headquarters in the luxurious Hotel Eden, erected in 1912.

The hotel; nevertheless continued to house civilian guests, such as the former Chancellor of the Reich, Bernhard von Bulow. Pabst GKSD was not only paid by the Supreme Army Command, but also received direct financial support from two German industrialists, Hugo Stinnnes and Friedrich Minoux. Pabst also cultivated relations with Berlin’s Reichsburgerrat ( Council of Reich Citizens, a counterrevolutionary alliance of middle-class politicians and businessmen), and particularly with its chairman Saloman Marx. Pabst also had ties to Eduard Stadtler, chairman of the Anti-Bolshevik League, which was in turn generously funded by big industry.

At this point in time, the GKSD also held command over the Reinhard Regiment, the Pflugk-Harttung naval squadron and the so-called Einwohnerwehren, of Citizens Defense, all of which were founded with the shared aim of defeating the revolution.

Pabst himself had played a significant role in the formation of these units. As early as their time in Dahlem, Noske had ordered Lieutenant Friedrich W von Oertzen to tap Liebknecht’s telephone. In parallel both Noske and Pabst monitored Liebknecht’s written correspondence.

Gang-like organizations and civil defense units hunted for Liebknecht and Luxemburg throughout the city. Whether such actions were legal did not seem to worry anybody.

On the evening of 15 January 1919, following a tip-off whose source is unknown to this day, five members of the counter revolutionary Wilmersdorfer Burgerwehr, without a warrant of any kind, forced their way into an apartment on Mannhimer Strasse. . . . both Liebknecht and Luxemburg were seized and, following calls to the Reich Chancellery, ultimately transported to the hotel Eden. All eight men involved in their arrest received a total of 13,600 marks as their bounty, an enormous sum at the time.

Karl Liebknecht was led through the main entrance and lobby and up to the first floor of the Hotel Eden at around 21:30. Pabst had installed his headquarters here across two spacious rooms, the ‘Little Hall’, the former casino, and the ‘Little Salon’, where he carried out his duties. Liebknecht was led into the Little Salon and presented to Captain Pabst.

The news that the Spartacus leader had arrived created a pogrom-like mood among the hotel guests and the officers and men of the GKSD who were there. According to the highly vivid account given by the murderers’ defense lawyer, Fritz Grunspach, a kind of excitement broke out that he called ‘German fever’, as quoted in Republik, a left-wing magazine of the time.

A collective thrill quivered through the luxury hotel. Liebknecht, fully aware of what lay before him, continued to identify himself to Pabst as Marcusson ,but was betrayed by the initials on his clothing. Pabst moved to the Little Hall next door and engaged in consultations with his adjutant, Captain von Pflugk-Harttung; his deputy, Captain Ruhle von Lilienstern, was probably also present.


Following Liebknecht’s confinement in Pabst’s Little Salon at around 21:30 on 15 January 19019, Pabst went next door – he knew that Rosa Luxemburg would also be ‘delivered’- and mused for a while. He then decided to  ‘dispatch’ both of them, unhooked the telephone and dialled the number of the man in the Reich Chancellery who he would later describe as his most faithful supporter-Gustav Noske.

Noske, who – according to Pabst – had earlier dropped hints that Luxemburg and Liebknecht should be eliminated, initially refused to give the order and told Pabst to seek permission from General von Luttwitz to execute the two prisoners. Pabst countered : ‘I will never get it.’ Noske’s response: ‘Then you will have to take responsibility for what must be done.’


It was decided to summon the naval squadron of Captain Lieutenant Pflugk-Harttung from its quarters In den Zelten Street, in aid of Liebknecht’s further ‘treatment.’ The captain drove there in an open NSU, the same automobile in which Liebknecht would latter be taken away and returned with his brother and four young officers. These were First Naval Lieutenant Urich von Ritgen, Naval Lieutenant Heinrich Stiege, Naval Lieutenant Herman W. Souchon. All of them were veritable giants, measuring up to 1.90 meters.


The ‘shock troops’ in military uniform arrived at the Hotel Eden around 21:45. Liebknecht was taken out of the Little Salon by these men a around 22:45. Liebknecht was then led down the steps to the hotel’s side exit, while guests and men in uniform shouted insults and spat at him.

Soldiers lined the streets in front of the hotel, which was securely cordoned off. Liebknecht and his guards stepped into the the car. Liebknecht sat in the back; Stiege was next to him, Kaleu Pflugk-Harttung in front of him, next to the driver, Peschel. Schulze stood on the right footboard, infantryman Friedrich on the left.

Lieutennt Liepmann, also an aide-de-camp- top Pabst but not one of the naval officers, boarded the car as well. He regarded himself as the leader of the transport, since everyone but him was wearing squad coats, but was disabused of that notion by Pflugk-Harttung. Another uniformed man,  infantryman Runge, who stood guard inside the front entrance to the right of the revolving door, also felt duped – for one Captain Petri, unaware of the ‘decisions reached above him on the first floor, had bribed Runge out of fear that Liebknecht would leave the hotel alive.

Runge watched through the glass of the revolving door as Liebknecht was led through the side exit. He ran around the Hotel Eden together with the chauffeur Guttinger, reaching the automobile just as Liebknecht sat down between the two disguised officers. Runge struck him with the butt of his rifle. Hit hard, Liebknecht instinctively ducked the second blow. As he did so, blood sprayed on to Stiege trousers. Liebknecht cried: ‘I’m bleeding!’ The automobile started up. A man wearing a sailor’s cap and a pilot’s jacket jumped onto the automobile, punched Liebknecht in the face with his fist, and jumped back off.  The vehicle quickly drove off towards the Moabit prison through the Tiergarten, but was forced to halt near the Neuer See due to engine trouble. They then continued with Liebknecht on foot. He tore free and ran, ignoring several warnings, and was shot dead by the military escort. Liebknecht was left at the first-aid station near the Berlin Zoo, as an unidentified body, at 23:15.

Short;ly after 22:00, Rosa Luxemburg and Wilhelm Pieck arrived at the hotel and were led through the lobby, mobbed by frenzied hotel; guests and uniformed men – Luxemburg was instead as a ‘whore’- and brought to the first floor. Pieck was made to wait in a cramped nook between the rooms, under heavy guard, while Rosa Luxemburg was presented to Pabst in the Little Hall. At this time, Liebknecht  was still next door in the Salon.

 

Pabst recalled their encounter: ‘Are you Frau Luxemburg? In response, she said: Please decide for yourself. Then I said, according to this picture it must be you. To this she countered: If you say so! I thus knew just as much as I had beforehand.’ Shortly thereafter – Liebknecht ha just been ushered out of the Little Salon – she was most likely brought in through the side door to that room. In front of Pabst, whose office it was, she mended the hem of her skirt which had been damaged during the journey and read a bit of Goethe’s Faust.

Rosa Luxemburg was taken away at around 23:40. Retired  First Lieutenant Vogel, who hade been appointed to lead the transport, picked her up and led her through the lobby to the main entrance.

As he had with Liebknecht ( and again unbeknownst to Pabst), Runge lay in wait, determined to earn Captain Petri’s promised reward. He had even refused the change of guard  at 23:00. Vogel; let Luxemburg walk ahead of him through the propped-open revolving doors. Runge struck her violently with the butt of his rifle. Knocked unconscious, she fell backwards, losing a shoe and her handbag. The soldier Kurt Becker took it as a trophy. One of the guarding officers, Albert Freiherr von Wechmar  ( later a military advisor on Dieter Ertel’s television film about the murder), stole out of the same bag a letter from Clara Zetkin, which he would sell to the historian Hermann Weber  for several hundred marks in 1969.

Lying on the ground, Luxemburg received a second blow from Runge. Only then did Vogel feel obliged to intervene.  She was dragged to the car, ‘hauled in’ and thrown onto the back seat a ‘blood streamed from her nose and mouth.’

 

Infantryman Max Weber sat down to her left, while to her right sat infantryman Willy Grantke. Infantryman Hermann Poppe stood on the left footboard. The driver, Hermann Janschkow, sat in front (thye steering wheel was on the right side, and the front-seat passenger was Richard Hall. Vogel also boarded the car. As the open-topped Priamus rolled down the driveway, von Rzewusk again leaped forward and punched the unconscious Luxemburg twice in the face before jumping off.

We can state with almost absolute certainty that roughly forty meters later, at the corner of Kurfurstendam and the Nurnberger Strasse, Souchon ( who had been lying in wait) hopped  onto the left footboard, leaned towards the unconscious Luxemburg, placed a Mauer pistol against her left temple and pulled the trigger. The shot did not go off at first, as he had forgotten about the gun’s safety catch in the excitement. The shot went straight through her skull, shattering it. Rosa Luxemburg died instantly. Souchon sprang from the car and disappeared into the night.

Hermann Wilhelm Souchon in 1969

Vogel threw Rosa’s corpse into the Landwehr canal. Four months later, on Saturday 31 May 1919, a sluice gate attendant discovered a female corpse between the Freiarchen and S-Bahn bridges. It was the body of Rosa Luxemburg.

* The sailors reacted against a proposed suicide mission by the Admirals
https://alphahistory.com/weimarrepublic/kiel-mutiny/

** Rosa was opposed to revolutionary actions. She she believed that the Communists could never take power without the clear support of the majority of the people.