Author, Politician. He was a 19th century German politician, who was co-founder of the German Social Democratic Party. Born into a comfortable family, he attended the universities of Giessen, Marburg, and Berlin, developing an interest in French socialist thinking. After being a school teacher in Switzerland, he studied law and passed the Swiss bar. Returning to Germany, he became political active by leading protests. For this protesting or rioting, he was arrested, serving eight months in jail before returning to Switzerland. He was expelled from Switzerland for causing unrest in the labor force. In 1849 he went to England, where he remained for 13 years. During his exile in London, he met Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and became a Communist. In 1862 the Prussian government granted him amnesty; he returned to Berlin and became a newspaper reporter, writing about socialists governments. The Prime Minister Otto von Bismarck had him expelled from Prussia in 1865. He had a long-time feud with von Bismarck. After moving to Leipzig, he continued his political writings for another newspaper. In 1869 the Social Democratic Labor Party in Germany was founded. At the dawn of the Franco-German War in 1870, Liebknecht's devotion to international socialism became a test as he published articles against the war. For this, he was charged with "treasonable intentions" in 1872 and was sentenced to two years' confinement. From 1878 to 1890, an Anti-Socialist Law was enforced in Germany and he was not allowed to write. During the final nine years of his life, he continued to write articles to support socialism, writing in his life-time for five decades. He was the champion of the poor. His funeral was attended by more than 150,000 people. He was the father of Karl and Theodor Liebknecht, who were very political in Germany, especially after World War I.