Karl Liebknecht

Karl Liebknecht (1871–1919) was a German lawyer and socialist politician. He joined the SPD in 1900 and served as a member of the Reichstag from 1912 to 1917. In 1914, he was one of the few deputies to vote against war credits. Because of his opposition to the political truce, he was expelled from the SPD parliamentary group in 1916 and later sentenced to imprisonment for high treason; he was subsequently pardoned. Liebknecht was a co-founder and leading figure of the Spartacus League and a co-founder of the KPD in 1918. After taking part in the January uprising of 1919, he was murdered by Freikorps members on 15 January.