Wilhelm Liebknecht

Wilhelm Martin Philipp Christian Ludwig Liebknecht, most often called just Wilhelm Liebknecht, was a German socialist revolutionary in the late 19th century.

Biography

He was born in 1826.

In 1847, he tried to emigrate to the United States, but before he could, he became involved in the Swiss revolution of 1847. He then travelled to Paris in 1848 to participate in another uprising there. Upon his return to Germany, he was imprisoned for treason before being freed by another revolution. This revolution was short-lived, however, and he again fled to Switzerland.

After being banned from Switzerland, he moved to London and befriended Karl Marx. Finally, he was allowed to return to Germany and became an important socialist politician. He was imprisoned for a second time for opposing the Franco-Prussian War in 1870; on release he was reelected to the Reichstag in the Social Democratic Party, but the party was outlawed until 1890. During this time, while he held office but his party was illegal, he wrote several socialist parables including The Spider and the Fly and The Map and the Spiders.

He died in 1900. (PROSE: Biographies of Authors)