by Felix Schneider
In the midst of World War I, Rosa Luxemburg writes to her friend Luise Kautsky on 26 January 1917:
“You must have lost your desire for music, as well as for everything else, for quite a while now. Your mind is filled with worries about the faltering course of world history, and your heart is full of sighs over the wretchedness of Scheidemann and comrades1 and everyone who writes to me similarly groans and sighs. I find nothing more ridiculous than this. Do you not realise that the universal Dalles [a Yiddish word for hardships] are too vast to be moaned over?
I may find myself troubled when little Mimi2 falls ill or when something ails you. But when the entire world seems to be unravelling, I simply strive to understand what has occurred and why. Once I have fulfilled my duty, I remain composed and in good spirits. Ultra posse nemo obligatur.3 Moreover, I still have all the things that delight me: music, painting, the clouds, springtime botanizing, good books, Mimi, you, and much more. In short, I am immensely rich and intend to remain so until the end. This complete immersion in the sorrow of the day is utterly incomprehensible and unbearable to me.
Consider, for example, how Goethe stood above the fray with cool composure. Just think of what he had to endure: the Great French Revolution, which, when viewed up close, must have seemed like a bloody and entirely pointless farce, and then from 1793 to 1815, an uninterrupted chain of wars, during which the world appeared as a madhouse let loose. Yet, how calmly, with such intellectual equilibrium, he pursued his studies on the Metamorphosis of Plants, on the Theory of Colours, on a thousand different matters.
I do not demand that you compose poetry like Goethe, but his philosophy of life – the universality of interests, the inner harmony – can be adopted or at least aspired to by anyone. And if you suggest that Goethe was not a political fighter, I would argue that a true fighter must strive to rise above the mundane, lest they find themselves stuck with their nose in every trivial detail – though indeed, I refer to a fighter of grander vision, not the kind of weathervane ‘great men’ from your round table4 who recently sent me a postcard here. […]”5
Under Detention
Rosa Luxemburg (born 1871 in Russian Poland) penned the letter, from which the above excerpt is taken, while incarcerated in a German prison. Following the completion of her sentence, stemming from her socialist and pacifist activities, she was not released but was instead placed in ‘protective military custody’. Consequently, she was initially held in the police prison at Alexanderplatz in Berlin and subsequently at the women’s prison on Barnimstrasse. Luxemburg was eventually imprisoned in the fortress of Wronke in Posen, where she composed the lengthy letter to ‘Lulu, beloved!’ She was later transferred to Breslau, from where she was eventually liberated during the November Revolution of 1918. Tragically, she had approximately two months remaining to live until her assassination by members of the Freikorps.
Defence
Luxemburg, known for her steadfast adherence to principles, had, of her own volition, relinquished a conventional bourgeois career, a life of comfort, and even her physical freedom. Yet, it is ironically this very same person who now stands in defence of personal, private happiness. How does one reconcile this apparent contradiction?
To some extent, Luxemburg’s discourse reflects an internal dialogue, an effort to ward off her own struggles, as she was no stranger to bouts of depression and suicidal thoughts. In the same letter to Luise Kautsky, she refers to a “brief period of miserable cowardice,” where she felt “tiny and weak,” yearning desperately for “a heartfelt, warm letter” from her circle of friends. Her anticipation was in vain. “Thus, as always, I picked myself up again on my own, and it is just as well,” she writes.6
Proportions
Anyone interpreting this quoted letter merely as an opposition to dark spiritual forces would be underestimating Luxemburg. The focal point seems to be the sentence: “Don’t you understand that the general Dalles is far too immense to merely groan about it?” The Yiddish word “Dalles” signifies hardship, misery, catastrophe, and may serve as a reminder, perhaps unconscious, of the Jewish imperative to improve the world to hasten the arrival of the Messiah. This sentence undoubtedly implies a conception of proportionality, in which vast general and societal problems stand in contrast to the smallness of the individual. To us today, heavily influenced by narcissism, this notion might seem antiquated. For Luxemburg, it was founded on a belief that we have seemingly lost: a faith in “the objective logic of history, which tirelessly performs its work of enlightenment and differentiation.”7
Acting from inner freedom
Far from being outdated, Luxemburg’s stoic revolutionary ethos remains relevant.“ Above all,” she writes, “one must live at all times as a complete human being.” For Luxemburg, being completely human means also to be “resolute, clear, and cheerful.” The cheerfulness frequently mentioned in her letters expresses an inner freedom, which is the essential prerequisite for overcoming worries and fears, enabling one to move from paralysis to action. Here, being political and being human are inseparable. Cheerfulness, perspective, and sovereignty in the face of fate enable a person to intervene and act decisively at critical moments. One must, as Luxemburg suggests, be able to cast aside one’s life and simultaneously delight in the beauty of a cloud. •
1 Scheidemann and comrades: A swipe at the Social Democrats who had abandoned their internationalist positions and approved war loans for Germany.
2 Rosa Luxemburg’s cat
3 Latin: No one is obliged to do more than he can.
4 see note 1
5 quoted from Rosa Luxemburg: Gesammelte Briefe (Collected Letters), Volume 5, Dietz Verlag Berlin GDR 1987, p. 162f.
6 ibid. p. 161
7 ibid. p. 106
Source: https://www.infosperber.ch/gesellschaft/kontertext-rosa-luxemburgs-heiterkeit-in-kriegszeiten/ of 5 January 2025
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