Lawyer who founded the USPD against the war and co-chaired the Council of People’s Deputies with Ebert in 1918
After Ebert’s government bloodily suppressed the revolutionary Volksmarinedivision in December 1918, Haase and fellow USPD delegates resigned from the Council of the People’s Deputies in protest.
Born to a Jewish family in East Prussia, he made his name as a lawyer defending socialists and in 1911 became SPD co-chairman alongside Bebel. In August 1914 he opposed war credits but had to read the party’s statement in their favour in the Reichstag. In 1917 he founded the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) with the war’s opponents. In November 1918 he co-chaired the Council of People’s Deputies with Ebert, leaving the government after the Christmas crisis. Shot outside the Reichstag in October 1919, he died in November.
Career timeline
1888Established himself as a lawyer, defending workers, peasants, and socialist activists.
1911Became co-chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) with August Bebel.
1914Opposed war credits but, following party discipline, voted for them in the Reichstag and defended the party’s support.
1917Helped found the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) and became its chairman.
1918From November, co-chaired the Council of the People’s Deputies with Ebert; resigned in December to protest the government’s suppression of the sailors’ division.
1919Was shot while entering the Reichstag on 8 October and died of blood poisoning from the wound on 7 November.
German Social Democratic and Independent Social Democratic politician who headed Berlin police in 1918
“I got my job from the Revolution, and I shall give it up only to the Revolution.”
A trained mechanic, Eichhorn worked for the Social Democratic Party before joining the Independent Social Democratic Party in 1917. After the November Revolution of 1918, he became Berlin police president and pursued a policing policy favorable to left-wing political groups. On 4 January 1919, the Prussian cabinet tried to dismiss him and replace him with Social Democrat Eugen Ernst. Mass demonstrations and a general strike opposed the move, followed by occupations and armed clashes that became the January uprising.
Career timeline
1893Became a full-time Social Democratic Party official and worked as an editor in Dresden
1903–1911Member of the Reichstag for Baden's 9th constituency
1908–1917Head of the Berlin Social Democratic press office
1917Joined the Independent Social Democratic Party
1918–1919Served as Berlin police president
1919–1920Member of the Weimar National Assembly for Berlin
1920–1925Joined the Communist Party of Germany and served in the Reichstag
Journalist who overthrew the Bavarian monarchy in Munich in November 1918, proclaimed the People’s State and was assassinated the next year
He organized the November 1918 Bavarian Revolution, overthrew the monarchy and proclaimed the People’s State; he was assassinated in February 1919 while on his way to resign.
Born to a Jewish merchant family in Berlin, he was a theatre critic and editor of the SPD’s Vorwärts before moving to Munich. He joined the USPD against the war and was jailed for leading the munitions strike of January 1918. On 7 November he led demonstrators from a rally on the Theresienwiese round the barracks, and the next day proclaimed the People’s State of Bavaria and became premier. His publication of documents on German war guilt earned him the right’s hatred. Heavily defeated in the January 1919 election, he was assassinated by Count Arco-Valley on 21 February on his way to resign.
Career timeline
1890–1895Contributing editor of the Frankfurter Zeitung.
1898Joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).
1900–1905Edited Vorwärts.
1907–1910Chief editor of the Fränkische Tagespost in Nuremberg.
1917Joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD).
1918Convicted of treason for inciting a munitions workers’ strike, he was imprisoned at Stadelheim and released in October under a general amnesty.
1918–1919Served as the first republican premier of the People’s State of Bavaria.
The revolution's underground organizer, always behind the scenes, until he had to lead
On 10 March 1919, still investigating the killings of Luxemburg and Liebknecht, Jogiches was arrested and shot in the back of the head in Berlin's Moabit prison within hours. His last words to an interrogator: 'You will never find these murderers.'
Polish-Jewish Marxist revolutionary. Co-founded the SDKPiL with Rosa Luxemburg in 1893, the main forerunner of the Communist Party of Poland. During the First World War he was the key behind-the-scenes organizer of the underground Spartacus League in Germany. For decades Luxemburg's closest political comrade and personal companion, a brilliant organizer who struggled to write for himself. After Luxemburg and Liebknecht were murdered in January 1919, Jogiches took over KPD leadership and investigated their killings, only to be assassinated by the same Freikorps milieu two months later.
Career timeline
1885Founded one of Vilnius's first underground socialist study circles
1890Fled conscription to Zürich; met Rosa Luxemburg
1892Founded the Social-Democratic Library publishing house
1893Co-founded the Social Democracy of the Kingdom of Poland (SDKP, later SDKPiL) with Luxemburg
1905–1906Led SDKPiL Central Committee in Warsaw; arrested, sentenced to 8 years' hard labor, escaped
1907Elected candidate member of the RSDLP Central Committee at the London Congress
1916–1918Directed the underground Spartacus League; oversaw the Spartacus newsletter
1919.01–03Took over KPD leadership; led the investigation into the murders of Luxemburg and Liebknecht
German social-democratic politician and co-chair of the Independent Social Democratic Party.
A painter and journalist, Crispien opposed the Social Democratic Party's support for the war and helped found the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD) in 1917. He served as interior minister in Württemberg's provisional government in 1918–19 and became a USPD co-chair in 1919. He attended the Communist International's Second Congress in 1920 as a USPD delegate but opposed its admission conditions and merger with the Communist Party of Germany. After most of the USPD reunited with the Social Democratic Party in 1922, he joined its leadership; he went into exile after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933.
Career timeline
1918–1919Interior minister in Württemberg's provisional government
1919–1922Co-chair of the Independent Social Democratic Party
1920Attended the Second Congress of the Communist International as a USPD delegate
1922–1933Co-chair of the Social Democratic Party of Germany
From Rosa Luxemburg's lawyer to KPD leader, his 'anti-putschism' took on Comintern adventurism
Right after the March Action of 1921 he wrote: 'When I conceived this pamphlet, the Communist Party had 500,000 members in Germany. Eight days later when I wrote it, the party was shaken to its foundations and its very existence called into question. The fallen, sacrificed to this Bakuninist madness, cry out: Never again!'
A socialist who rose from Rosa Luxemburg's lawyer to chairman of the German Communist Party (KPD). Expelled for his pamphlet Unser Weg, which condemned the 1921 March Action as 'Bakuninist putschism,' he returned via the USPD to lead the SPD left. Trotsky called him 'the only man in Germany who had a head to lose.'
Career timeline
1906Joined the SPD; began law practice in Frankfurt
1913Defended Rosa Luxemburg in court on charges of inciting soldiers to disobedience
1915–1918Co-founded the Spartacus League; Zimmerwald Left bureau; edited Spartakusbriefe
1918.12Introduced the 'National Assembly' debate at the KPD founding congress
1919.03–1921.02KPD chairman — rebuilt the party after the murders of Luxemburg, Liebknecht, and Jogiches
1920Led unification with the USPD left, turning the KPD into a mass party; championed the 'Open Letter' tactic
1921Expelled from the KPD for Unser Weg: Wider den Putschismus, his critique of the March Action
1922Returned to the SPD via the USPD; published Luxemburg's suppressed manuscript The Russian Revolution
1924–1930SPD Reichstag deputy; fought to expose the Liebknecht–Luxemburg murders and opposed the rising Nazi movement
Hitler's personal prisoner, unbroken by eleven years in solitary
“A vote for Hindenburg is a vote for Hitler; a vote for Hitler is a vote for war.” — presidential campaign, 1932
KPD chairman. A Hamburg dock worker, he built the party into a Weimar mass force. Arrested after the Nazi takeover, he spent eleven years in solitary and was shot at Buchenwald in 1944.
Career timeline
1903–1920Hamburg docker; from the SPD via the USPD to the KPD
1925–1933KPD chairman; leads the Red Front-Fighters' League
1925Runs for Reich President
1932Runs for Reich President
1933Arrested by the Gestapo; eleven years in solitary
1944.08Shot at Buchenwald on Hitler's direct order
Co-founder of Western Marxism, the German philosopher who challenged Marxist orthodoxy with Marxism and Philosophy
“If we get a few more of these Professors spinning out their theories, we shall be lost.” — Zinoviev at the 5th Comintern Congress, 1924, attacking Korsch and Lukács
German Marxist philosopher and revolutionary who, alongside Lukács, laid the foundations of Western Marxism. In Marxism and Philosophy (1923) he applied the materialist conception of history to Marxism itself, arguing for the revolutionary recovery of the Hegelian dialectic, a move that drew fierce denunciation from the Comintern. Served as Justice Minister in the 1923 Thuringian workers' government and as a KPD Reichstag deputy before his expulsion as a left-oppositionist. Fled the Nazis for American exile, where his scholarship left a deep imprint on Brecht, Benjamin, and the Frankfurt School.
Career timeline
1906–1910Studies law and philosophy at Munich, Geneva, Berlin; doctorate in law, University of Jena
1912–1914Legal research in London; joins the Fabian Society
1914–1918German Army service — refuses to carry weapons; awarded the Iron Cross twice for bravery
1917Joins USPD; elected delegate to soldiers' soviet
1920Joins KPD with the USPD left wing; lecturer at University of Jena
1923.03Publishes Marxism and Philosophy; becomes target of fierce Comintern criticism
1923.10–11Justice Minister, Thuringian workers' government — collapses after 27 days under Reichswehr intervention
1924–1928KPD Reichstag deputy; delegate to 5th Comintern Congress
1926.04Expelled from KPD; forms the Resolute Lefts (Entschiedene Linke) opposition faction
1933Flees Germany the night of the Reichstag fire; passes through Denmark and England
1936–1961US exile — Tulane University, Institute for Social Research; teaches Marxism to Brecht
1938Publishes Karl Marx; deeply influences Benjamin's Arcades Project
1950Ten Theses on Marxism Today — declares break with orthodox Marxism
German Communist who abstained on the Comintern’s founding at its first congress and was later shot in the Great Purge
At the 1919 Comintern founding congress, Eberlein conveyed Luxemburg and Jogiches’s mandate against immediate foundation. Lenin persuaded him personally, but he followed the mandate and abstained rather than vote against.
A draughtsman from Saalfeld, he joined the SPD and during the war co-founded the Spartacus League with Luxemburg. As the KPD’s delegate to the Comintern’s founding congress in March 1919 he abstained on the founding vote, as Luxemburg and Jogiches had advised, believing a premature International would be dominated by the Bolsheviks. Afterwards he did organisational and financial work for the Comintern and the German party and sat in the Prussian Landtag. He fled to the Soviet Union in 1933, was arrested in 1937 and was shot in Moscow in October 1941.
Career timeline
1916Helped organize the Spartacus League as an underground political organization.
1918Helped found the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).
1919Attended the Comintern’s founding congress as the KPD delegate and abstained on its founding vote.
German Jewish Expressionist playwright who took part in the Bavarian revolution
After volunteering for the German army in World War I and being wounded at Verdun, Toller was discharged in 1917; his wartime experience turned him toward pacifism, and he joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany. In April 1919 he served six days as president of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and took part in its armed resistance; sentenced to five years for high treason, he wrote several major plays in prison. Exiled after the Nazis came to power, he continued warning against Nazism and died by suicide in New York in 1939.
Career timeline
1914Volunteered for the German army and served in World War I.
1917Discharged from military service after wartime injury and ill health.
1919As a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany, joined the leadership of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and served as its president, April 6–12.
1919Sentenced to five years in prison for high treason over his role in the republic's armed resistance.
1925Released, expelled from Bavaria, and went to Berlin.
1933After the Nazi seizure of power, left Germany and went into exile, moving through Switzerland, France, and England before the United States.
Marxist playwright who weaponized theatre for class struggle through epic theatre and the Verfremdungseffekt
When I read Marx's Capital, I understood my plays — Marx was the only spectator for my plays I'd ever come across.
Bertolt Brecht was the 20th century's most important Marxist playwright and the founder of epic theatre, a poet and director who transformed the stage into a forum for class consciousness and anti-capitalist critique. After embracing Marxism under Karl Korsch in the late 1920s, he developed the Verfremdungseffekt — a defamiliarization technique that broke emotional immersion to provoke critical reflection — and with works like The Threepenny Opera, Mother Courage and Her Children, and The Good Person of Szechwan, he fused avant-garde form with popular idiom to anatomize capitalism and war. Driven out by the Nazis in 1933, he lived in exile in Scandinavia and the US—where HUAC investigated him in 1947—before returning to found the Berliner Ensemble with Helene Weigel in East Berlin in 1949, defining postwar theatre worldwide until his death in 1956.
Career timeline
1922Wins Kleist Prize for Drums in the Night
1924Moves to Berlin; assistant dramaturg at Deutsches Theater
1928The Threepenny Opera premieres, biggest Berlin hit of the 1920s
1933Flees Nazi Germany; begins 15-year exile through Scandinavia and the US
1947Testifies before HUAC in Hollywood; leaves the US the next day
1949Founds Berliner Ensemble in East Berlin with Helene Weigel
