Karl Liebknecht

Karl Paul August Friedrich Liebknecht was a German socialist and anti-militarist. A member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) beginning in 1900, he was one of its deputies in the Reichstag from 1912 to 1916, where he represented the left-revolutionary wing of the party. In 1916 he was expelled from the SPD's parliamentary group for his opposition to the Burgfriedenspolitik, the political truce between all parties in the Reichstag while the war lasted. He twice spent time in prison, first for writing an anti-militarism pamphlet in 1907 and then for his role in a 1916 antiwar demonstration. He was released from the second under a general amnesty three weeks before the end of the First World War.

13 August 1871

Born on the same birth day (13 August): Benny Bailey • Bill Masterton • Corey Patterson • Dan Fogelberg • Eric Medlen • George Shearing • Jean Borotra • Leonora Barry • Louis François, Prince of Conti • Niklas Sundin • Salvador Luria • Sir George Stokes, 1st Baronet • Tal Bachman

Born in the same month (August 1871): Albert Lebrun • Ernest Rutherford • Guangxu Emperor • Gustavs Zemgals • James E. Ferguson • John Lester • John Sloan • Theodore Dreiser • Vernon Louis Parrington • William Holman • Wright brothers