How are you? I hope you're doing great and having a nice sunday!
I'm not, and have never been, good in Humanities at all, so it was just natural that I gradually lost interest for historical issues. My knack has always been for maths and other maths-related subjects. My professors, however, do encourage me to read more about humanities in general and ask me to do some readings and submit a brief written account to a very nice and sweet Professor at the Humanities Dept. of what I was able to understand.
I think people in general would benefit a lot from reading and learning more about Rosa Luxemburg and the times she lived in. It may amount to a dry and difficult reading sometimes, yes, but with proper guidance you guys who are just like myself and are not much into Humanities, will find it very interesting, I'm sure about it.
A whole new world may open up for us math-geeks. :op
An interesting article about the end of the story - her death and corpse - has been published by the BBC, probably as a resumé of a more detailed coverage by Der Spiegel.
An unidentified corpse found in the basement of a Berlin hospital could be that of murdered revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg, say German authorities.
A pathologist at Berlin's Charite hospital told Der Spiegel magazine the headless corpse bore "striking similarities" to the left-wing icon.
Ms Luxemburg was murdered by right-wing paramilitaries in 1919 at the age of 47 and thrown in an icy canal.
Months later, a body thought to have been hers was retrieved and buried.
The grave, in Berlin's Freidrichsfelde cemetery, has since become a place of pilgrimage for communists, feminists and left-wing activists.
But Michael Tsokos, head of the hospital's Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensics Science department, told Der Spiegel that he doubted the identity of the corpse that was buried there.
He pointed to several inconsistencies in the post mortem examination his predecessors at the hospital had carried out on the interred body, which made him question its conclusions.
"We hope that the identity of the body is clarified as soon as possible so that whoever it may be will finally be laid to rest." (Murat Cakir Rosa Luxemburg Foundation)
These included the fact that the pathologists made no mention of the hip defect and differing leg lengths which made Luxemburg limp all her life.
The body also showed no sign of the rifle butt blows Ms Luxemburg is known to have received to her skull nor of the bullet in the head which is believed to have killed her.
In contrast, the body which Mr Tsokos found two years ago showed clear signs of having been waterlogged, said Der Spiegel.
Further tests showed the corpse was a woman aged between 40 and 50, who had suffered from osteoarthritis and had legs of different lengths.
The missing extremities could be explained by anecdotal evidence that weights were tied to Ms Luxemburg's hands and feet before she was thrown into the canal, said Mr Tsokos. When the water froze, it could have separated them from the body. The corpse, said Mr Tsokos, bore "striking similarities to the real Rosa Luxemburg".
'Disturbing'
Mr Tsokos told the DDP news agency there had been rumours for many years that Ms Luxemburg's body was actually in the hospital.
He said he had been searching for DNA samples to test against the body since he found it - stamps used by Ms Luxemburg had given no insight so he was hoping to be able to find samples of her clothing.
"A hat would be nice," he said, as it could contain strands of her hair.
Murat Cakir, a spokesman for the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, told the Local paper it was "conceivable that the authorities at the time made sure [the body] would disappear".
"But it's also disturbing that her body could have been in a hospital cellar for the last 90 years," he said.
"We hope that the identity of the body is clarified as soon as possible so that whoever it may be will finally be laid to rest."
Tests on the body buried in Berlin are not possible, as the grave was desecrated in the Nazi era and the remains removed.
But Mr Cakir said that when and if the identity of the corpse was discovered, Ms Luxemburg's legacy would not be affected.
"The world over she is thought of as a revolutionary forward thinker - millions visit her grave each year - and she will always be this, regardless of where her body rests," he said. as soon as possible so that whoever it may be will finally be laid to rest."
Rosa Luxemburg lived in a time when the common people were losing everything they had up to and including their freedom to the owners of industry, which employed most of them. Labour unions were outlawed, yes, in some countries, including the U.S. before the dawn of the Progressive Era with Theodore Roosevelt, even health regulations were deemed unconstitutional. While the utopian objectives of the likes of Rosa Luxemburg were to remain mere dreams, it is the radical left of the early 20th century that is largely responsible for the basic rights of workers, and the fact that in the Western world, there is a system of social security designed to help the socially and economically weak. Even though the neo-conservative and pseudo-classical liberal leaders want to tear it down to the ground, it is not forgotten, nor will the fight that had to be fought to attain it ever be.