Today in Labor History January 15, 1919: Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, founders of the Spartacist League and the German Communist Party, were murdered. On January 7, the Spartacists called a General Strike to overthrow the moderate Social Democratic government. 500,000 workers participated. To quash the rebellion, the Social Democrats utilized the Freikorps, a right-wing paramilitary composed of World War I veterans, many of whom were suffering from PTSD, and many of whom went on to become Nazis, including Heinrich Himmler. The Freikorps slaughtered 200 people during the week-long uprising. Demonstrations and further unrest broke out in response to the assassinations of Luxemburg and Liebknecht. The Freikorps quashed these, too, as well as the soviets that had been implemented in Bavaria and other parts of Germany. In all, they slaughtered over 5,000 people.
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