When the First World War erupted in 1914, most of Germany’s socialist leaders abandoned international solidarity and backed their own ruling class’s war effort. But a minority of revolutionaries refused to surrender to nationalism and militarism.

From Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg to the mass strikes and revolutionary upheavals of 1918–19, German socialists fought to turn imperialist war into a struggle against the system that produced it.

This session explores their courage, their debates and their defeat, and the lessons for revolutionaries confronting war today.