LIEBKNECHT, KARL (1871-1919), German socialist, was born in Leipzig on Aug. 13, 1871. The son of Wilhelm Lieb knecht (q.v.), he qualified as a lawyer, and became a prominent member of the extreme Left wing of the Social Democrat party. After serving a sentence of 18 months' imprisonment for high treason, in 2908 he was elected to the Prussian chamber of deputies, and in 1912 entered the Reichstag as a Social Democrat. He was one of a small group who refused to vote war credits in 1914. He violently opposed the war and the successive votes of credit. He organized anti-war demonstrations, and in 1916 gave the police the desired opportunity for arresting him, by shouting "down with the war" to some troops passing through the Pots damer Platz. He was condemned to two years' penal servitude, and was only released on Oct. 22, 1918. Before his imprisonment he had founded the international group, later the Spartacus Union, the policy of which was based on the full execution of the Erfurt programme. Liebknecht's condemnation was the signal for a strike of the metal workers in Berlin organized by the Spartacists independently of the trade unions. On his release in 1918 he placed
himself at the head of the Spartacists, and demanded a "free socialist republic," but the independent socialists had joined hands with the Ebert party, and Liebknecht's efforts failed. During the insurrection of the Spartacists in January 1919 Liebknecht was arrested ; and while being conveyed from military headquarters in the west end of Berlin to the prison at Moabit on Jan. 15, he was brutally murdered, on the usual pretext of attempted escape. His comrade, Rosa Luxemburg, perished the same night. Their bodies were thrown into the canal ; Liebknecht's was recovered, and re ceived a public funeral.
See his Militarismus and Antimilitarismus (1908, Eng. trans. 1918) ; Briefe aus dem Felde, aus der Untersuchungschaft and aus dem Zuchthaus (1919) ; and H. Schumann, Karl Liebknecht, ein unto litisches Bild (1919).