Resistance to World War I
Overview
Statewide Dual Credit Modern World History: Unit 12, Lesson 7
A discussion of the opposition to World War I among various groups, including socialists, anarchists, syndicalists, and Marxists.
Before, during and even after the war, there was much opposition to World War I, including from socialist, anarchist, syndicalist and Marxist groups, even Christian pacifists. While leaders of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) encouraged their members to vote against a coming war, in the end they voted for the war on August 4, 1914. Left-wing forces such as the Russian Bolsheviks and the socialist faction of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, led by Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919) and Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919), were vehemently opposed to the war and the support of the German Parliament to fund the war. In 1916, Liebknecht and Luxemburg founded the anti-war Spartacus League (Spartakusbund), which later became the basis of the Communist Party of Germany. Producing anti-war pamphlets signed with Spartacus after the leader of the slave uprising in the Roman Republic, Liebknecht and Luxemburg organized anti-war strikes and were eventually incarcerated in 1916 and sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison. Following the German November revolution, which led to the abdication of Emperor Wilhelm II (1859-1941) in 1918, the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) with which the Spartacus League was affiliated, and which consisted of anti-war former Social Democrats, as well as the Social Democratic Party of Germany, assumed power in the new Weimar Republic. Released from prison just before the signing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, Liebknecht and Luxemburg were founding members of the Communist Party of Germany.
The newly formed Communist Party was dedicated to undermining the current government. Seen as the chief instigators, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were targeted and eventually assassinated by the Cavalry Guards of the Freikorps (Garde-Kavallerie-Schützendivision) on 15 January 1919. The killing of the two communist leaders caused increased upheaval and violence across Germany. It continued to deepen the divide within the German left, which eventually was one of the causes
that strengthened right-wing forces in the German political landscape and led to the eventual rise of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist Party of Germany. The murder of Luxemburg and Liebknecht did not weaken the Communist Party of Germany, which remained a major party during the Weimar Republic (1918-1933) and was a leading voice in the underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany.