Rosa Luxemburg in Berlin: Ein biografischer Stadtführer in 40 Stationen

by Claudia von Gelieu

Am Tag ihrer Ankunft in Berlin, am 16. Mai 1898, schrieb Rosa Luxemburg nach Zürich an Leo Jogiches, ihren Geliebten und politischen Mitstreiter: »Heute um 6 ½ Uhr morgens bin ich angekommen. […] Ich bin einfach unmenschlich erschöpft und hasse Berlin und die Deutschen schon so, dass ich sie umbringen könnte.« Gleichwohl lebte Rosa Luxemburg – von kurzen Perioden in Dresden und Warschau sowie einigen unfreiwilligen Gefängnisaufenthalten abgesehen – bis zu ihrer Ermordung im Januar 1919 mehr als zwei Jahrzehnte in Berlin. Der Stadtführer – im Pocketformat, reichlich bebildert, mit Karten, nützlichen Informationen und ergänzenden Audios – zeichnet den Lebensweg von Rosa Luxemburg im damaligen Zentrum der internationalen Arbeiterbewegung nach. Beginnend mit ihrem ersten Quartier unweit des Tiergartens bis zur Fundstelle ihres Leichnams an einer Schleuse des Landwehrkanals viereinhalb Monate nach ihrer Ermordung führt er zu den Orten, an denen Rosa Luxemburg in Berlin wirkte und wo an sie erinnert wird. Er ist also ein Stadtführer und eine Biografie in einem.

132 pages, Paperback

Published February 26, 2021

Reviews

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

superslaymonstertastisch !

[Nathaniel Flakin · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're like me and you enjoy following the footsteps of Red Rosa through the German capital, then this is just about the perfect book. The level of detail in this tiny volume is amazing. Lots of people can tell you that Rosa Luxemburg lived in an apartment at Wielandstraße 23 in Friedenau. But did you know she lived in a room on the second floor that opened to the balcony on the right-hand side? That she rented the room from the Neufeld family, a young couple with three daughters? That Luxemburg took care of the Neufelds' dog when they went on vacation in 1905? Stuff like that. It's incredible how much research went into this. I have visited a ton of places where Rosa Luxemburg spent time in Berlin, but I had never heard that she gave lectures at what is today the Rossmann drug store at Hermannstraße 49 in Neukölln.

I would almost call this a perfect book, but then, towards the end, the author informs us: "In [Luxemburg's] view, a better world could not be created with violence." This is patently untrue. Luxemburg called on the working class to destroy the bourgeois state "with the full brutality that the proletariat can develop in its struggle." She said, in my favorite quote of hers: "Whoever opposes the armored car of socialist revolution will end up lying on the ground with broken limbs." Not exactly an opponent of violence, was she?

These lies about Luxemburg being a bourgeois democrat or a pacifist are widespread — it's just disappointing to see them repeated by a researcher who certainly knows better. Oh well. Other than that, this is a spectacular little book, if you can read German. If you're looking for an English-language tour through Rosa Luxemburg's Berlin , check out the chapter in my upcoming anticapitalist Berlin guide book, which will be published by Pluto Press next April. Or the tours from Revolutionary Berlin.