Letter to Wolfgang Fernbach
Berlin, Hotel Moltke, Rosa Luxemburg on 18 November 1918
Dear Comrade Fernbach!
With regard to your contributing to the newspaper, we have counted on it without any problem. There will be a lot of work, because we want to put out another paper in addition to the Rote Fahne.1 The only thing is that regular contact is necessary. As you can see from today's issue, for example, we have already dealt with the topic you chose: the death penalty. To avoid such occurrences, it will be necessary in the future that you always come to an agreement with us in advance on the topic and the length. So then, the biggest difficulty: all of us on the editorial board are of the opinion that in a single issue no more than two [substantial] articles can appear; otherwise the paper becomes too heavy. But currently these two are accounted for by a series of fundamental political issues of the revolution and of tactics, so that we cannot freely add any more articles. However, what is very necessary and useful would be short items [Notizen], brief paragraph-length newspaper items [entrefilets] of a current nature. These would have to be agreed to case by case. For all these reasons it would be necessary that you come to the editorial office sometime in the near future and talk with us, in particular with Comrade [Ernst] Meyer, who is the secretary of the editorial board, or with Comrade [Paul] Levi, who for the most part deals with that "department" [that is, the kind of short items needed]. Obviously we do not have an opening on the editorial board at present. All that kind of thing is still to be organized and arranged. Yet I hope everything will come together soon.
In the meantime, with best wishes, yours, R. Luxemburg
1 The newspaper of the Spartacus League.
Quoted by Rosa Luxemburg: The Letters of Rosa Luxemburg, edited by George Adler, Peter Hudis and Annelies Laschitza, translated by George Shriver, Verso 2011, p. 479.