Who were Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburg—women whose personal lives seemed to be more turbulent than their own careers?

Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburgo are known for fighting for women’s rights — spurring the feminist movement and the creation of the International Women’s Day. Despite his professional achievements and the legacy he left for future generations, his personal relationships were not the most stable.

We, from awesome.club, we reopen the old archives and realize that the personal lives of great revolutionary women can be more turbulent than you imagine. Follow!

Clara’s birth name was Eisner. She was born on July 5, 1857, in Saxony, into a family of teachers. Intelligent by nature, Clara wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps. She graduated in Pedagogy in Leipzig, where she also participated in a meeting of young idealists and met Russian immigrant Ossip Zetkin, which caught his attention. The boy spoke in such an inspiring way about equality and fraternity, that he managed to win over young Clara, 18 years old.

After one of the encounters, Ossip was deported from Germany, in 1880. Clara then spent two years looking for her beloved and found him again in Paris. Due to an illness, he was unable to work full time, so Clara committed herself to helping him with the same vigorous energy, so noticeable in her public speeches. By the way, it was from there that she got the nickname “Clara the Wild”.

The couple never registered their relationship, as Ossip considered marriage a product of the bourgeoisie. So Clara just took her husband’s last name and gave birth to their two sons, Maxim and Konstantin. At that time, she worked a lot: in addition to being a housekeeper in the home of a wealthy family, she was also a washerwoman and gave private lessons.

Ossip did odd jobs translating, and in early 1889 he became seriously ill. In June of the same year, he died. At 32, Clara looked much older physically: gray hair, rough hands, curved spine. Hard work and grief over the loss of her beloved had exhausted her strength.

Later, Clara and her children returned to Germany, her homeland. At the age of 42, Clara met her future husband — the artist and painter Georg Zundel — while working for the newspaper Equality🇧🇷 Though he was 18 years younger, the two got married. Zundel began to receive many works and his fees allowed the couple, a few years later, to buy their own house. They also managed to acquire one of the most expensive possessions of the time: an automobile.

Fifteen years later, in 1914, the German painter announced that he would leave Clara for another woman🇧🇷 After the separation, the activist directed all her efforts to the fight for women’s rights. It was during this time that she became friends with Rosa Luxemburg. By the way, Clara spent many years trying to take revenge on her husband and did not give her consent to the divorce. The separation was made official only in 1928, when Zundel was finally able to marry Paula Bosch, his beloved for many years.

Rosa Luxemburg at age 12.

Rosa Luxemburg was born in Zamość, now Polish territory, into a large and prosperous Jewish family (she was the fifth and last child). At age 5, Rosa had a hip problem and had to be bedridden for a year. Although she managed to overcome the disease, one of her legs grew longer than the other, and this left her with a limp for life.

The short stature, body disproportion and limp step were some of the reasons for the girl to develop many complexes. She tried to hide her physical features with long, wide dresses and brimmed hats. Even her mother, who loved her very much, told Rosa since childhood that she should only rely on herself and her potentialtherefore, it was unlikely that he would marry.

Rosa studied in Warsaw, where she was fascinated by ideas of social equality, a novelty at the time. She felt embraced by members of the clandestine movement who valued your intelligence, oratorical skills and did not care about their physical “imperfections”. From Warsaw, she moved to Zurich, where she defended her thesis. Rosa was seen by many as someone special, for being one of the few women in the world with a PhD.

Since she was a child, she never expected to get married. However, after meeting Leo Jogiches, Rosa fell madly in love with the boy. She opened up and told him her feelings, including being willing to put your career asideto stay with him.

In response, Jogiches said he found marriage something from the past, but enjoyed receiving attention from a woman so respected by her peers. And he showed reciprocal feelings, but made it clear that he wanted an open relationship. Rosa, on the other hand, declared in many letters her desire to build a family.

In her letters, Rosa scolded her lover for being cold and too preoccupied with work. They didn’t have children. The 16 years of their relationship were marked by jealousy and anguish, until the moment when she decided to end the relationship.

In April 1897, the activist married Gustav Lübeck, the son of an old friend, with the aim of obtaining German citizenship. They never lived together and officially divorced after five years. And it was in Germany that Rosa met Clara Zetkin.

Pink, 36 years old, ended up approaching Clara’s 22-year-old son, Konstantin. On one occasion, the boy attended one of Rosa’s presentations with his mother and was enchanted. Despite the age difference, their romance lasted eight years. At that time, the relationship between the two friends was a little shaken.

The relationship with Konstantin Zetkin, in a way, ended up “killing Rosa’s will” to be a mother: she often called him “little Konstantin”. After some time, the boy met another woman and married her🇧🇷 After that, Rosa did not have another serious relationship and started to dedicate herself exclusively to social activities. And although her romances ended, she kept in touch with Konstantin and Leo.

Clara Zetkin and Rosa Luxemburgo resumed their friendship after breaking free from their respective relationships and thus decided to dedicate themselves entirely to the fight for women’s rights. Their main motto was based on their life experiences: if you want happiness and respect, go ahead and fight to reach them! Rosa was considered by many to be a feminist, as the term is understood today, as she considered women’s emancipation and gender equality to be integral parts of the foundations of a healthy society.

Clara lived 14 springs longer than Rosa. In the last years of her life she lived in Russia and always remembered her friend. On the day she died, Clara was already having difficulty speaking, but it is believed that one of her last words was “Rosa”.

In your opinion, did the personal lives of these incredible women end up influencing the legacy left by their careers? Comment!