Rosa Luxemburg (also Rozalia Luxenburg; Polish: R髗a Luksemburg; 5 March 1871 - 15 January 1919) was a Marxist theorist; philosopher; economist and revolutionary socialist 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 (SDKPiL); the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD); the Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD); and the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).

In 1915; after the SPD supported German involvement in World War I; she and Karl Liebknecht co-founded the anti-war Spartakusbund ('Spartacus League'); which eventually became the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). During the German Revolution she co-founded the newspaper Die Rote Fahne ('The Red Flag'); the central organ of the Spartacist movement.

She considered the Spartacist uprising of January 1919 a blunder; but supported it as events unfolded. With the crushing of the revolt by Friedrich Ebert's social democratic government; Freikorps troops captured Luxemburg; Liebknecht and some of their supporters. Luxemburg was shot and her body thrown in the Landwehr Canal in Berlin. Pictures From History