The following is extracted from the-Zast German handout the socalled Democratic German Report, Id. Notes
‘Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg were pioneers in the left-wing of German Social Democracy before “Jorld War One; as leaders of the Spartakus League they led the fight, from inside and outside prison, to end the war and get rid of the Kaiser. In November 1918, when the German soldiers, sailors and workers finally did revolt, overthrow Kaiser Wilhelm and stop the slaughter at the battlefronts, Liebknecht and Luxemburg took the lead in the movement to oust the militarists and establish a socialist Germany. On January lst 1919 they were co-founders of the German Communist Party. On January 15th 1919 they were arrested in Berlin by officers of a "Free Corps" formation, a pre-nazi fascist body, and brutally murdered. The officer who gave the order for their arrest and "execution", a Major Waldemar Pabst, later played a prominentpart in various right-wing putshees and murders, and later fled to Austria, where he organised a fascist militia. He is now an arms dealer in West Germany, and has recently begun to write articles boasting about the murder. Writing in the West Germ m nagazine “Der Stern" in 1960 he stated: " I gained the impression that Liebknecht and Luxemburg were the brains of the revolution, and decided to have them liquidated. On my orders, the two were seizede" IMajor Pabst continued his reminiscences in an article in the right-wing West German student magazine "Deutsche Studentenanzeiger" on January 15th, 1962, in which he stated: "Consciously weighing the circumstances, I took the decision to depart from the path of legality. The execution carried out by my subordinates took a considerably different form from that which I had ordered. It therefore raised more dust than was really necessary."
This article might perhaps have been disregarded as the boastings of a retired thug, who today plays no part in public affairs; but the official Vest German Government organ, the 'Bulletin', reprinted Major Pabst's article on February 8th,,adding an. editorial note stating: "Pabst was a well known leader of the Free Corps, which successfully prevented the bolshevising of Germany. In cooperation with Government troops, and often after bloody conflicts, the Free Corps dealt with this first communist aggression."
This official accolade for political assassination is, in the opinion of legal circles in Berlin, a clear offenceagainst article 140 of the German Penal Code, which forbids “acts glorifying murder". Acting on legal advice, Karl Liebknecht's widow, Sophie Liebknecht, who lives today in Berlin has filed charges with the Bonn Prosecutor's Office against State Secretary Felix Von lickardt, former nazi propagandist who is now head of the Information Office of the West German Government, and therefore responsible for the publication of the "Bulletin."