LizaHadiz

To this day, the torso of a female corpse lies somewhere in a German hospital, identity unconfirmed. Or perhaps it has been buried in a location undisclosed by German authorities. The headless and limbless corpse was found in the basement of Charité Hospital, Berlin in 2007 by forensic medicine head, Dr. Michael Tsokos. This was the beginning of the task to uncover the truth surrounding the death of 20th century socialist martyr, Rosa Luxemburg.

Dr. Rosa Luxemburg (born March 5, 1871) was a revolutionary socialist, a prolific writer, and political theoretician considered to be one of the key historical figures of the Left. Her activism began in her native Poland where she was forced to leave in 1889 to avoid authorities and move to Switzerland. After studying in Zurich University, she was one of the first women in the world to have a doctorate in economics. Luxemburg moved to Germany 1897 to join the socialist movement, where she obtained German citizenship.

In Germany in 1915, with German socialist, Karl Liebknecht, Luxemburg co-founded the anti-war Spartacus League (Spartakusbund). This caused them both to spend most of World War I imprisoned for opposing the war and Germany’s involvement in it. Luxemburg viewed that war and nationalism will destroy the international workers’ solidarity. Luxemburg and Liebknecht continued their opposition after being released in 1918 and subsequently had to go into hiding.

On January 15, 1919, Luxemburg and Liebknecht were found and arrested by members of the Freikorp, a right-wing paramilitary group. It was on this night that they were both murdered separately. It is believed that Liebknecht was shot from the back in Tiergarten park. He was buried in Friedrichsfelde cemetery. There were eyewitness accounts of Luxemburg being hit by a rifle butt on the head and shoulders, however, Luxemburg’s whereabouts were unknown until a few months later, when a body of a woman was found afloat along Berlin’s Landwehr Canal. It was officially identified as Rosa Luxemburg and then buried next to Liebknecht.

The discovery of an embalmed female torso in the Berlin hospital in 2007, almost 90 years after Luxemburg’s death, reignited the mystery surrounding her murder. After studying the corpse, Dr. Tsokos had reasons to believe that it could be Luxemburg, particularly because the hips showed signs of osteoarthritis which matched Luxemburg’s condition when she died. Luxemburg’s legs were of differing length causing her to walk with a limp.

As with the autopsy conducted of the body pulled out from the canal, it did not show this particular sign of hip damage and the rifle butt blows said to have been inflicted upon Luxemburg. These inconsistencies suggest that those who carried out the original autopsy in 1919 were pressured to confirm that it was Luxemburg’s body. Then, who was the woman found in the canal and buried next to Liebknecht? The initial grave was vandalized by the Nazis in 1935 and the remains were never recovered.

These circumstances led Dr. Tsokos to conduct a series of investigation to obtain Luxemburg’s DNA in order to confirm the identification of the mystery corpse. He began his investigation by trying to obtain saliva samples which in turn led him to trace Luxemburg’s ex-lovers.

Polish politician, Leo Jogiches—Luxemburg's former lover—was murdered for investigating her death. Luxemburg's love letters to Jogiches—who once threatened to kill her if she took another lover—are now part of a collection of Rosa's letters published in 2011. Initially, Dr. Tsokos tried to obtain these love letters to retrieve any traces of Luxemburg’s saliva that might remain on the back of the postage stamps but was unsuccessful.

Further search led Dr. Tsokos to another of Luxemburg’s ex-lover—physician, social economist, and political activist, Kostja Zetkin. Zetkin who was much younger than Luxemburg was the son of her best friend, Clara Zetkin—pioneer of International Women's Day. Unfortunately, it was not possible for Kostja Zetkin 's descendants, who are now living in the United States, to find anything that used to belong to Luxemburg that Zetkin had kept.

Dr. Tsokos even tried to obtain strands of Luxemburg’s hair kept by another former lover, German lawyer, Paul Levi. However, this too led to no avail.

The search was then directed toward Luxemburg’s surviving relatives. Finally, a DNA sample was obtained from Luxemburg’s great-niece from her brother’s side. Unfortunately, test results from the male relative line have only 40% to 60% certainty. This is the anticlimax in the story of the murder of the socialist hero, a murder ordered by Captain Waldemar Pabst. The corpse is now with the German government who had said that they will do further testing, but no announcement has since been made. Still, every year in January, Luxemburg’s admirers hold a march to the Friedrichsfelde cemetery to commemorate the death of the revolutionary icon.

-Some Thoughts from the Cappuccino Girl- (2022)

#RosaLuxemburg #socialism #Germany #history

Sources

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