ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses life history of Rosa Luxemburg, a feminist thinker, who was a communist revolutionary during the heyday of proletarian struggle in Europe. Even as evocations of Luxemburg figured in practices of political legitimation in the USSR and GDR, they also appeared in the language of political dissidents. Communist state power and those resisting it both positioned themselves as followers of Rosa Luxemburg. In the 1980s, the West German anti-nuclear movement and East German dissidents cited Luxemburg as a political-theoretical resource. After the collapse of state socialism, Luxemburg, unique among communist leaders, remained a respected figure. The divergent treatments of Luxemburg's Marxism continue in efforts to separate Luxemburg from Lenin. Luxemburg's pronounced limp suggests her availability as a resource for disability studies. Intersectional and identitarian treatments of Luxemburg stand in stark contrast to her commitment to proletarian internationalism, her resolute rejection of nationalism in any form.
