Kostja Zetkin

Konstantin "Kostja" Zetkin (14 April 1885 – September 1980) was a German physician, social economist and political activist.

He was the son of Clara Zetkin, an iconic pioneer of the political left in Germany. For a time, he became the lover of another, Rosa Luxemburg.

Life Provenance and early years Konstantin Zetkin, always identified as "Kostja" in family correspondence and in almost all other sources, was born in Paris. Kostja's father, Ossip Zetkin (1850–1889), was a Russian revolutionary and socialist who had suffered persecution on account of his involvement in the Narodniks movement and fled to Leipzig where, as a young man, he had supported himself as a carpenter and become active in student politics. That was how he met the trainee teacher, Clara Eißner (1857–1933). In the context of the recently enacted Anti-Socialist Laws Ossip Zetkin was arrested at a political meeting in 1880, identified as a "burdensome foreigner" ("lästiger Ausländer") and deprived of his Leipzig residence permit. He moved to Paris where, two years later, he was joined by Clara Eißner. The two had probably become lovers in Leipzig, and now they resumed their partnership. Clara adopted his family name, but the two of them never formally married. Their two sons, Maxim and Kostja, were born in 1883 and 1885.

Ossip Zetkin died from tuberculosis at the start of 1889.

Rosa Luxemburg and student years

It was presumably as a result of his mother's political activism that Kostja Zetkin met Rosa Luxemburg. He became the lover of his mother's friend in 1907, and this aspect of the relationship with Rosa Luxemburg lasted till his conscription in 1915, although they would remain lifelong friends. In connection with the IFS, he was also one of those who took part in the "First Marxist Work Week" conference held near Arnstadt for eight days towards the end of May 1923.

Nazi Germany After the decline of the Weimar Republic, the Nazis took power in January 1933 and lost little time in transforming Germany into a one- party dictatorship. Jews and Communists were marked out as targets for state persecution, especially after the Reichstag fire in February 1933. Clara Zetkin was a high-profile communist and Ossip Zetkin had been Jewish. Kostja Zetkin moved to the Soviet Union, where Kostja's elder brother Maxim had been working as a physician since 1920. Clara Zetkin had already lived in Moscow and been looked after there by her elder son between 1924 and 1929.

Gertrude Bardenhewer In Czechoslovakia, Kostya Zetkin and Gertrude Bardenhewer became lovers in 1935. They were both qualified medical practitioners and there is speculation that they may originally have met as politically active medical students in Berlin. By the late 1930s the boy was virtually grown up, and finding himself in London when war broke out in 1939 he joined the British army. A few years later he emigrated to the United States of America. German invasion of Czechoslovakia during 1938 and 1939 enforced further flight. Kostja and Gertrude, now together, made their way to Paris.

North America The Zetkins always felt that they were viewed with mistrust by the authorities in the USA. Initially, the only work they could find as qualified physicians was at a dairy farm. Unfortunately the compilers of the collection of more than 600 letters left out around 70 on account of their "primarily private-intimate character". The restraint is hard to understand when the reader considers the way in which the published letters frequently display a "private-intimate character"".

"Die wichtigste Erstveröffentlichung stellen dabei die Briefe Rosa Luxemburgs an Kostja Zetkin (1885–1980) dar. Leider haben die Herausgeber von den über 600 erhaltenen Briefen wegen ihres "vorwiegend privat-intimen Charakters" rund 70 nicht aufgenommen und gelegentlich "geringe Auslassungen" vorgenommen. Diese Zurückhaltung ist wenig verständlich, zumal wenn man feststellt, daß auch die veröffentlichten Briefe häufig durchaus "privat-intimen" Charakters sind."

"Rosa Luxemburg war zeitlebens unverheiratet, sie hatte fast immer jüngere Liebhaber. Ihre glücklichste Zeit verbrachte sie mit Kostja Zetkin, dem Sohn ihrer besten Freundin Clara Zetkin, erzählt Regine Seidler. Das war eine ganz innige Liebesbeziehung. In der DDR sei dieser Aspekt nicht vorgekommen. Da hieß es dann, dass Rosa Luxemburg ein mütterliches Verhältnis zu ihrem Untermieter hatte. Eine interessante Umschreibung"