Exhibition
“Rosa Luxemburg: A Life for the Idea of Socialism”
The exhibition was developed and privately financed in the 1990s by Maxi Besold, a member of the board of the Archiv der Münchner Arbeiterbewegung association. It was shown in trade union institutions and left-wing clubs and societies in and around Munich. In 1999, with the founding of the Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung, Maxi Besold made the offer to produce a transportable version of the exhibition in a joint project with the RLS. Consisting of 36 A0 panels, it was finished in November 2002 and has been on display at the RLS ever since, except when loaned as a travelling exhibition. The panels vividly combine texts by the author Maxi Besold with historical photographs and quotations from Rosa Luxemburg’s letters and works, as well as documents from the international labour movement.
Content
Panels 1 to 23:
- Her origins and the stages of her life
- Formation of her theoretical work
- Rosa Luxemburg’s personal friendships
- Her influence and disputes in Polish and German social democracy and in the foundation of the KPD
- Her contribution to the November Revolution in Germany
- Her experience of repression, including long periods of incarceration, and her assassination by the counter-revolution in January 1919
Panels 24 to 35:
- Her comrades, closest friends, and the men with whom she shared loving relationships are each presented on a panel
- The mourning over her death and the recognition Rosa Luxemburg received following her murder
- The impact of Rosa Luxemburg’s life and work in history and today, with examples
The exhibition cannot, of course, reflect all the facets of Rosa Luxemburg’s extraordinary life. But it can inspire us to continue to study the life, ideas, and the tireless struggle of this outstanding woman, who even as a schoolgirl had already stated: “I would like to load all suffering, all the hidden, bitter tears onto the conscience of the rich”.