The Life and Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg

Marxist theorist, social activist, and anti-war revolutionary.

Black and white image of Rosa Luxemburg, a Jewish-born socialist activist. — **Portrait of Rosa Luxemburg, ca. 1905.**

Apr 14, 2025

During ANTIQUES ROADSHOW’s visit to the Maryland Zoo in June 2024, a guest named Linda brought in a striking doll with long blonde hair and soft eyes that she inherited from her grandmother. Dolls appraiser Billye Harris informed Linda that the doll was made by German company, Simon & Halbig, made in the mid-1910s to be an exhibit doll in the image of Rosa Luxemburg.

But who was Rosa Luxemburg?

Marxist Theorist, Social Activist, Revolutionary

Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, social activist, and revolutionary who lived and worked in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born on March 5, 1871, in Zamość, Poland, she was the youngest of five children in a Jewish family of timber merchants. Rosa showed academic promise from an early age, securing a position at a school in Warsaw for daughters of the Russian elite, where she excelled. It was around this time that Rosa became interested in left-wing socialist politics in Poland.

In 1889, at the age of 18, Rosa moved to Switzerland and enrolled at the University of Zurich, where she earned a doctorate in economics in 1897. There, Rosa also pursued studies in philosophy and law, solidifying a foundational belief that she would advocate throughout her life: that the working classes could only achieve true freedom from bourgeois oppression through the full eradication of capitalism and its pervasive social, political, economic, and ethical consequences.

Luxemburg wrote hundreds of articles, pamphlets, and letters on the topic, as well as warnings regarding the social and political implications of the expansion of capitalism into non-capitalist countries. In 1913, while teaching at the Social Democratic Party School in Berlin, she published these ideas in a pamphlet titled “The Accumulation of Capital.”

Even as Rosa worked to unite the working class and socialist thinkers against Germany’s growing militarization, in 1914 the Socialist Democratic Party of Germany voted to financially support World War I. In retaliation, under the pseudonym Junius, Rosa wrote the "Junius Pamphlet," a harsh critique of the war.

By 1916, Luxemburg’s outspoken anti-war rhetoric landed her in prison. Upon her release in November 1918, she joined the angry protests and riots across Germany demanding a democratic republic. On January 15, 1919, Rosa and fellow activist Karl Liebknecht were apprehended by members of Freikorps, a German anti-revolutionary paramilitary group. The pair were arrested, beaten, and shot. Rosa’s body was thrown in a river. She was 48 years old.

Despite Rosa’s death, her contributions to the Socialist cause were not forgotten. After her death, Lenin called her an “eagle” and wrote that her memory would be cherished. At her funeral, her close friend and fellow activist Clara Zetkin said, “Rosa Luxemburg gave to Socialism all she had to give; no words can ever express the strength of her will … and the devotion with which she served the cause.”

Appraisal: Simon & Halbig Bisque "Rosa Luxemburg" Doll, ca. 1910

Transcript

GUEST: She's my paternal grandmother's doll.

APPRAISER: And when was your grandmother a little girl, what time period?

GUEST: Uh... 1900. And I don't really know when she actually got this.

APPRAISER: So you inherited it-- um...

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: Did, the other family members were involved in that, or...

GUEST: Well, they-- none of 'em liked it.

APPRAISER: And why is that?

GUEST: They didn't like the face. Nobody else wanted it. And I w, that was the only thing I really wanted out of her estate.

APPRAISER: Oh, you're my girl. (both laugh) So they didn't like her face? Why, though?

GUEST: I don't... They thought it was haunting.

APPRAISER: Oh, the creepy doll syndrome.

GUEST: Mm-hmm, yeah.

APPRAISER: She was made by a German company, Simon and Halbig, and she's mold number 152, and she was made some time in the, uh, 19-teens. She was actually made as an exhibit doll, and it's believed-- we don't have firm documentation, but it's believed by many doll scholars-- that she represents a historical figure named Rosa Luxemburg.

GUEST: Oh, my heavens! You have a name now!

APPRAISER: Yes, she does.

GUEST: (laughs)

APPRAISER: She was born in 1871, in Poland...

GUEST: Oh!

APPRAISER: ...as a Jewish girl. Rosa had a limp. A disability, actually.

GUEST: Oh.

APPRAISER: And she limped her whole life. In those times, being disabled...

GUEST: Oh, yes.

APPRAISER: ...you were kind of scorned and you just kind of stayed home.

GUEST: (murmuring) Ostracized.

APPRAISER: True. And Rosa? No. She was a human rights activist in Germany.

GUEST: Ah.

APPRAISER: She's very anti-war. She's all about the common man. She was in jail several times for her writings, and even died for those beliefs. And one of her biggest things was the January event in 1919, which was a bloody several days.

GUEST: Mm.

APPRAISER: And that-- and of course, then after that, she was killed. But they still celebrate her in Germany to this day.

GUEST: Oh, gee.

APPRAISER: Thousands of people. I've only seen four or five of these dolls ever. And in pictures.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: This is the first one I've had in my hands.

GUEST: Uh-huh

APPRAISER: And all the others-- Joan of Arc, all the other Rosa Luxemburgs-- all have blue eyes. And here you have the one and only one that I know about in the world with brown eyes.

GUEST: (chuckles)

APPRAISER: That is so rare. We call them intaglio eyes because they're not just flat painted eyes.

GUEST: Yeah.

APPRAISER: If you were to actually touch the doll, it indents a little bit.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: And that makes it look a little bit more realistically human. She's got a highly characterized face. She's obviously an adult woman.

GUEST: Yes.

APPRAISER: And Simon and Halbig made beautiful character dolls. And her head is made of fine porcelain bisque. Her body is wood and composition, and it's ball-jointed so that you could pose her. She has pierced ears, and this was a typical Simon Halbig thing to do. The earrings have been replaced in a very colorful fashion. (both chuckle) It's not her original undergarments, but definitely antique undergarments.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: And let me tell you, folks, this wig is divine. She has her beautiful original antique mohair wig.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: In outstanding condition. And then the other thing is... Her bisque is perfect. We've got a little glue residue on the forehead, probably when the wig was glued on.

GUEST: Uh-huh.

APPRAISER: And then we have a little bit of foot damage. Her retail value will be somewhere between $22,000 and $26,000.

GUEST: Wow. Wow. Thank you, I... I mean, that's amazing. (laughs)

APPRAISER: One just recently came to auction, and she sold for $90,000.

GUEST: Whoa!

Related info

For more information about Rosa Luxemburg:

• The Life of Rosa Luxemburg
• Rosa Luxemburg
• Towards Emancipation: Women in modern European history
• Spartacus League
• Rosa Luxemburg’s Legacy for Feminism

Melanie Albanesi

Melanie Albanesi is a digital producer for ANTIQUES ROADSHOW and a frequent content contributor to the series website. She has been a producer with the series since 2019.

The Life and Legacy of Rosa Luxemburg

Marxist Theorist, Social Activist, Revolutionary

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