Wilhelm Liebknecht

Wilhelm Liebknecht (1826-1900), founder and leader of the German Social Democratic Party (SDP). Liebknecht was born in Giessen, Germany. An orphan, he was raised by a family that sent him to a number of German universities. As a student, Liebknecht was strongly influenced by socialist ideas. In 1846 he moved to Switzerland, where he taught and eventually became a lawyer.

During the German revolution of 1848, Liebknecht returned to Germany. He made a failed attempt to establish a republic in the German state of Baden, and he was imprisoned for eight months. After his release in 1849 he went to London, England, where he spent 13 years writing and teaching, often working closely with German political philosopher and revolutionist Karl Marx. In 1862 Liebknecht moved to Berlin and became editor of a newspaper, the radical Norddeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. He resigned his post, however, when he discovered that the paper was serving the interests of Prusso-German statesman Prince Otto Eduard Leopold von Bismarck, who was fighting for the unification of the German states under Prussian control. In 1865 Liebknecht was expelled from Prussia for unceasing opposition to the regime.

Liebknecht eventually settled in Leipzig, Germany, where he continued organizing socialist activities and helped turn German writer and political leader August Bebel on to socialism. Bebel was later a cofounder of the German Social Democratic Party (SDP). In 1867 Liebknecht was elected to the North German Reichstag (parliament). He was a vigorous opponent of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871), an attempt by Bismarck to facilitate unification by ridding Germany of French influence. Liebknecht’s antiwar activities led to his arrest in 1872. On his release in 1874, he worked to unite the German socialists into one political party, a goal he achieved the following year. Liebknecht led the German SDP and was editor of Vorwärts, its newspaper, until his death. He remained an antimilitarist to the end, serving his last prison sentence for anti-war protest in 1896.