Herbarium

by Rosa Luxemburg, Holger Politt (Foreword), Massimo Ferraris (Translator)

Rosa Luxemburg fu una giornalista di successo, una brillante oratrice e rivoluzionaria. Da Varsavia, la città della sua infanzia e giovinezza, sotto il dominio dell’Impero Russo, si recò in Svizzera per studiare botanica. Iniziò ad allestire un vasto erbario, raccogliendo piante ovunque andasse e si trovasse, in libertà o in prigione. A partire dal 1915, sempre più isolata all’interno del partito socialdemocratico tedesco, tornò alle sue aspirazioni originarie. Fiori, piante ed erbe riempiono un totale di diciotto quaderni, in cui oltre ai nomi tedeschi e latini, compaiono informazioni e appunti. La raccolta finì negli Stati Uniti negli anni Trenta, nel bagaglio di parenti emigrati prima che iniziasse lo sterminio degli ebrei, e poi nelle mani della diplomazia della Repubblica Popolare di Polonia a New York, prima di essere conservata nell’archivio del Partito dei Lavoratori Polacchi.

416 pages, Hardcover

Published November 29, 2024

About the author

Rosa Luxemburg (Rosalia Luxemburg, Polish: Róża Luksemburg) was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen. She was successively a member of the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania, the Social Democratic Party of Germany(SPD), the Independent Social Democratic Party and the Communist Party of Germany.

In 1915, after the SPD supported German involvement in World War I, she co-founded, with Karl Liebknecht, the anti-war Spartakusbund (Spartacist League). On 1 January 1919 the Spartacist League became the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). In November 1918, during the German Revolution she founded the Die Rote Fahne (The Red Flag), the central organ of the Spartacist movement.

She regarded the Spartacist uprising of January 1919 in Berlin as a blunder, but supported it after Liebknecht ordered it without her knowledge. When the revolt was crushed by the social democrat government and the Freikorps (WWI veterans defending the Weimar Republic), Luxemburg, Liebknecht and some of their supporters were captured and murdered. Luxemburg was drowned in the Landwehr Canal in Berlin. After their deaths, Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht became martyrs for Marxists. According to the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, commemoration of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht continues to play an important role among the German far-left.

Reviews

[Alena]

Lovely book to look at, even if you're not into botany.

Missing from this wonderful edition is a ribbon page marker, I love those anyway (my favorite cookbook series have three each), but it would be perfect to mark the place here.