That same month, she decides to organize a meeting in her apartment in opposition to the socialist "capitulation to imperialist war" and worsening conditions for citizens in Germany. Karl Liebknecht, who also opposed the war, (The Reader), joins the group. For this meeting on the evening on August 4th, Luxemburg had one goal: to think about how to disassociate socialism from "the betrayal" of the SPD.
By the end of this meeting, Luxemburg and Liebknecht and others had formed the Die Gruppe Internationale and the Die Internationale journal. It was this crucial event that "helped galvanize antiwar sentiment and led a year later to the formation of Spartacus Group." Luxemburg breaks from "the political legacy" of the SPD and the editors of Vorwarts and New Zeit. She and Karl Liebknecht, are arrested and imprisoned, but the Die Gruppe Internationale, now the Spartacus League, moves underground and continues to find creative ways in which to wage an "illegal campaign" against the war, distributing pamphlets, many of which were written by an imprisoned Luxemburg.
What I am in favor of, in general, is that things should proceed slowly and thoroughly rather than hastily and superficially. It is an entire process of political schooling that must be gone through by the masses of our people, and that requires time. In such times of transition, patience is the duty of a political person and a leader, even if it is not a pleasant duty. Letter to Clara Zetkin, [Sudende,] March 9, 1916, The Letters)
***
With the German Revolution now in full swing by November 1918, enlisted soldiers and masses of workers take to the streets, for the soldiers and workers knew, writes historian Gordon Craig, that "the war had been lost" (Germany 1866-1945). Radical workers' groups emerge in the manufacturing centers of Berlin, Bremen, Braunschweig, Stuttgart, and Hamburg (The Reader); these groups are inspired by the Spartacus Group. While the war continues to drain the country's resources, more workers form workers' councils.
In the streets, 300 workers in the Maybach motor construction plant in Friedrichshafen, Wurttemberg chant --The Kaiser is a scoundrel'" (Germany). At Kiel and in the capital of Bavaria, enlisted men form "sailors' councils" at the navel base (Germany). As they re-act to the "crisis," their uprising spreads throughout Germany. Prince Max dispatches Majority Socialist Gustav Noske to Kiel with orders to restore order!
And he does! Noske becomes the workers' savior by proclaiming himself chairman of the sailors' council at Kiel! Of course, Noske fulfills the workers most immediate demand: he releases their "imprisoned comrades" (Germany). Cheers to Noske! At the Imperial Palace, Noske is a hero too! Outmaneuvering "the most radical elements in the sailors' movement," (Germany)--how could he not be a hero to the New Order in Berlin!
But other workers persisted. "Within days there were the red flags of communism all over German cities. Revolutionary councils formed and radical slogans, displayed, all inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, historian Michael Strurmer writes in The German Empire).
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