Karl Liebknecht, (born Aug. 13, 1871, Leipzig, Ger.—died Jan. 15, 1919, Berlin), German socialist leader. Son of Wilhelm Liebknecht, he became a lawyer and a Marxist. In 1912 he entered the Reichstag and led the opposition to Germany’s pre-World War I policy. In 1916 he was expelled from the Social Democratic Party for opposing its leadership and came into close alliance with Rosa Luxemburg, with whom he founded the Spartacists. He was imprisoned (1916–18) for advocating the overthrow of the government. In 1918 he played a leading role in forming the German Communist Party. A series of bloody clashes culminated in the January 1919 putsch in which Liebknecht resorted to force; he was shot on the pretext that he was attempting to escape arrest.
