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Karl Radl · June 7th, 2011

In Brief: Karl Liebknecht not a Jew?

I was browsing through the working papers on the Social Science Research Network and I came across a noteworthy work in progress by Nico Voigtländer and Hans-Joachim Voth, which was posted on May 27th of this year entitled: ‘Persecution Perpetuated: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Semitic Violence in Nazi Germany’. (1)

As I was reading and mulling their presentation I happened to look at n. 14 on p. 8 of their working paper and I read the following in relation to the Marxist leader Karl Liebknecht with surprise:

‘Luxembourg and Liebknecht led the USPD, the ultra-left wing of the socialist party (SPD). Liebknecht was widely (and incorrectly) believed to be Jewish.’ (2)

I admit I haven’t kept up with the literature regarding Karl Liebknecht as he holds little interest for me outside of his being a favourite target of anti-Semites and the German radical right in the 1920s and the 1930s (as well as; along with Rosa Luxembourg, being a mythological figure for the KPD in the same period and the SED later). However this surprised me and as the authors don’t give the origin of this assertion I can’t see if it has a decent grounding in the evidence.

That said a little bit of checking lead me to Liebknecht’s father; Wilhelm Liebknecht, who was definitely German, but his wife; Liebknecht’s mother, was something quite different her maiden name being Reh. It is Liebknecht’s mother who is the potential jewess; especially as jewishness is largely carried maternally according to Judaism, as I can certainly find jews; specifically Czech ones, with the surname Reh. (3)

However I am finding it difficult to show definitively that Liebknecht’s mother was a jewess as there appears to be a real dearth of literature on the subject on the web and from what I can find there appears little actual evidence of a jewish origin for Liebknecht’s mother other than her unusual name; which doesn’t appear in Benzion Kaganoff’s ‘Dictionary of Jewish Names’, (4) and her family's left-wing and radical political credentials. Nor does Karl Liebknecht appear in Geoffrey Wigoder’s ‘Dictionary of Jewish Biography’ as a jew (5) in spite appearing in Rosa Luxembourg’s entry, but as a gentile. (6)

I’ll have to have a look at the literature, but I thought this would surprise a great many people as I myself believed him to have been so. However I am certainly not going to rule him out as being a jew at this point as it might just be a case of presumption not evidence per se on the part of academia.

References

(1) http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c...act_id=1824744 [Last Accessed: 05/06/2011]
(2) Nico Voigtländer, Hans-Joachim Voth, 2011, ‘Persecution Perpetuated: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Semitic Violence in Nazi Germany’, Unpublished Working Paper, p. 8
(3) For example the Czechoslovak Jewish Committee’s May-June 1945 Bulletin (No. 14) contains reference to several jewesses surnamed ‘Reh’.
(4) Benzion Kaganoff, 1978, ‘A Dictionary of Jewish Names and their History’, 1st Edition, Routledge & Kegan Paul: London
(5) Geoffrey Wigoder, 1991, ‘Dictionary of Jewish Biography’, 1st Edition, Jerusalem Publishing: Jerusalem, pp. 304-305
(6) Ibid, pp. 313-314

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This was originally published on the following address: http://semiticcontroversies.blogspot...t-not-jew.html

June 7th, 2011	#34
Karl Radl The Epitome of Evil Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: The Unseen University of New York Posts: 3,130	In Brief: Karl Liebknecht not a Jew? In Brief: Karl Liebknecht not a Jew? I was browsing through the working papers on the Social Science Research Network and I came across a noteworthy work in progress by Nico Voigtländer and Hans-Joachim Voth, which was posted on May 27th of this year entitled: ‘Persecution Perpetuated: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Semitic Violence in Nazi Germany’. (1) As I was reading and mulling their presentation I happened to look at n. 14 on p. 8 of their working paper and I read the following in relation to the Marxist leader Karl Liebknecht with surprise: ‘Luxembourg and Liebknecht led the USPD, the ultra-left wing of the socialist party (SPD). Liebknecht was widely (and incorrectly) believed to be Jewish.’ (2) I admit I haven’t kept up with the literature regarding Karl Liebknecht as he holds little interest for me outside of his being a favourite target of anti-Semites and the German radical right in the 1920s and the 1930s (as well as; along with Rosa Luxembourg, being a mythological figure for the KPD in the same period and the SED later). However this surprised me and as the authors don’t give the origin of this assertion I can’t see if it has a decent grounding in the evidence. That said a little bit of checking lead me to Liebknecht’s father; Wilhelm Liebknecht, who was definitely German, but his wife; Liebknecht’s mother, was something quite different her maiden name being Reh. It is Liebknecht’s mother who is the potential jewess; especially as jewishness is largely carried maternally according to Judaism, as I can certainly find jews; specifically Czech ones, with the surname Reh. (3) However I am finding it difficult to show definitively that Liebknecht’s mother was a jewess as there appears to be a real dearth of literature on the subject on the web and from what I can find there appears little actual evidence of a jewish origin for Liebknecht’s mother other than her unusual name; which doesn’t appear in Benzion Kaganoff’s ‘Dictionary of Jewish Names’, (4) and her family's left-wing and radical political credentials. Nor does Karl Liebknecht appear in Geoffrey Wigoder’s ‘Dictionary of Jewish Biography’ as a jew (5) in spite appearing in Rosa Luxembourg’s entry, but as a gentile. (6) I’ll have to have a look at the literature, but I thought this would surprise a great many people as I myself believed him to have been so. However I am certainly not going to rule him out as being a jew at this point as it might just be a case of presumption not evidence per se on the part of academia. References (1) http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.c...act_id=1824744 [Last Accessed: 05/06/2011] (2) Nico Voigtländer, Hans-Joachim Voth, 2011, ‘Persecution Perpetuated: The Medieval Origins of Anti-Semitic Violence in Nazi Germany’, Unpublished Working Paper, p. 8 (3) For example the Czechoslovak Jewish Committee’s May-June 1945 Bulletin (No. 14) contains reference to several jewesses surnamed ‘Reh’. (4) Benzion Kaganoff, 1978, ‘A Dictionary of Jewish Names and their History’, 1st Edition, Routledge & Kegan Paul: London (5) Geoffrey Wigoder, 1991, ‘Dictionary of Jewish Biography’, 1st Edition, Jerusalem Publishing: Jerusalem, pp. 304-305 (6) Ibid, pp. 313-314 ---------------------- This was originally published on the following address: http://semiticcontroversies.blogspot...t-not-jew.html __________________ Semitic Controversies Last edited by Karl Radl; June 7th, 2011 at 01:19 PM.