Jailed in the Barnimstrasse women’s prison for an anti-war speech, Rosa Luxemburg yearns to spend New Year’s Eve with comrades in this letter to Luise Kautsky..

‘Letter from Barmin Street Jail’ (1915) by Rosa Luxemburg from Letters to Karl and Luise Kautsky from 1896 to 1918. Robert M. McBride and Company, New York. 1925.

From the Barnim street Jail, 27.12.15.

Beloved Lulu! Your love message brought me both joy and pain: joy at having a sign of life in hand again from you and thus feeling your nearness; pain, because we were unable to see each other and you got excited about it. I sense from your letter that your nerves vibrate very easily and that your golden good humor, such as you displayed in earlier letters, is miserably shipwrecked at the slightest contact with “reality.” Such vexations are entirely foreign to me; I have so trained myself in firm equanimity that I swallow everything with the gayest mien, without as much as winking. If I could but make you calm and “fortified,” you poor dear I But that can’t be done here. I fear that you, especially, will suffer disappointment if we can only greet each other conventionally for a quarter of an hour with guards watching us. You would naturally have been a better advocate of your wishes than our good Weinberg,1 but consider carefully whether the whole matter will not excite you more than it will satisfy you.

That you and Hans got up a Christmas present for me and took so much pains to do it, has warmed my heart. I haven’t received it as yet, but I am happy in anticipation and thank you a thousand times. I recall the various beautiful and happy evenings in Halensee, where we were so jolly under the fir-tree with your “bunch.” Perhaps it will happen accidentally that I won’t sit in the “pen” next year, and the world will perhaps accidentally still be standing, even though only on one leg—then we shall assemble again at Halensee. Until then we shall certainly see each other, and often, too. Here, too, you will in all probability be permitted to see me before January is over, if you personally make application (in writing) for it and if you are not afraid of a disappointment. You can’t imagine how I yearn to sit with you on the soft, broad sofa and to listen with you as Hans plays something good to us. That Faisst,2 to whom I owe my acquaintance with Wolf, died at the very beginning of the war, you no doubt know; it happened a day before Jaures death. Now Vaillant’s3 death has shaken me badly. You remember, no doubt, that I was on especially intimate terms of friendship with him, more even than with Guesde. I had a deep and sincere admiration for the old man, and I retain this feeling for him in undiminished manner despite everything. Clara, too, was deeply stirred by this matter. Hannes has in all probability written you how ill Clara has been and how serious her condition is. Everybody was forbidden to write her anything that might excite her or cause her exertion. I therefore prefer to send her nothing but a brief greeting (especially since objective limits have been set to my writing here); under these circumstances it is probably better for you to wait about writing her. When I get out, I hope to visit her and shall then pick up the threads orally. Dearest, be quiet and cheerful and receive herewith a thousand greetings and kisses for the new year and share them with Hans and your boys. Happy New Year. In spite of everything! Guadeamus igitur—“as long as we are young and foolish.” I shall be with you in thoughts Sylvester eve. Once more I embrace you heartily.

Always your Rosa.

NOTES

1. Dr. Siegfried Weinberg, her lawyer, to whom I had turned unsuccessfully in the matter of permission for a visit. L.K.

2. Faisst, personal friend and promoter of the composer Hugo Wolf. L.K.

3. Vaillant and Guesde, French socialists. L.K.

Letters to Karl and Luise Kautsky from 1896 to 1918 by Rosa Luxemburg. Edited by Luise Kautsy, Translated by Louis Lochner. Robert M. McBride and Company, New York. 1925.

Contents: Introduction by Luise Kautsky, Beginnings, 1896-1899, Incipient Friendship1900-1904, From the Imprisonment at Zwickau to the First Russian Revolution, The First Russian Revolution 1905-06, Up to the World War 1907-1914, Letters from Prison During the War 1915-1918, Postscript by Luise Kautsky, Appendix: Biography of Karl Kautsky. 238 pages.

PDF of original book: https://archive.org/download/lettersofrosalux0000unse/lettersofrosalux0000unse.pdf