The German newspaper Die Rote Fahne ("The Red Flag") was created on 9 November 1918 by Karl Liebknecht

Karl Liebknecht

was a German socialist and a co-founder with Rosa Luxemburg of the Spartacist League and the Communist Party of Germany. He is best known for his opposition to World War I in the Reichstag and his role in the Spartacist uprising of 1919...

 and Rosa Luxemburg

Rosa Luxemburg

Rosa Luxemburg was a Marxist theorist, philosopher, economist and activist of Polish Jewish descent who became a naturalized German citizen...

 in Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

, first as organ of the left wing revolutionary Spartakusbund. After the founding of the Communist Party of Germany

Communist Party of Germany

The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...

 (KPD) on 1 January 1919 it became the central publication of the party, until 1945. Outlawed after the end of the Weimar Republic

Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...

 and the Reichstag fire

Reichstag fire

The Reichstag fire was an arson attack on the Reichstag building in Berlin on 27 February 1933. The event is seen as pivotal in the establishment of Nazi Germany....

 in 1933, it was illegally distributed during the Nazi

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

dictatorship by underground groups close to the Communist Party until 1942.

Since the 1970s, a number of projects by different left wing socialist groupings or small parties tried to publish "Die Rote Fahne" again. Presently, at least two internet publications use the name, claiming to be the successor of the historical newspaper.