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Germany: 'Was will Spartakus?' ('What does Spartakus Represent?'). Spartacus League poster featuring worker cutting the hydra-heads of new militarism, capitalism and the aristocracy issued by the Communist Party of Germany, 1919

Germany: 'Was will Spartakus?' ('What does Spartakus Represent?'). Spartacus League poster featuring worker cutting the hydra-heads of new militarism, capitalism and the aristocracy issued by the Communist Party of Germany, 1919

The Spartacus League (German: Spartakusbund) was a Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany during World War I. The League was named after Spartacus, leader of the largest slave rebellion of the Roman Republic. It was founded by Karl Liebknecht, Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin, and others.

The League subsequently renamed itself the Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands (KPD), joining the Comintern in 1919. Its period of greatest activity was during the German Revolution of 1918, when it sought to incite a revolution by circulating the newspaper Spartacus Letters.

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