High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Rudolf Leonhard (October 27, 1889, in Lissa, Imperial Germany (today Leszno, Poland) December 19, 1953, in East Berlin) was a German author and communist activist. Leonhard came from a family of lawyers and studied law and Philology in Berlin and Göttingen. In 1914 he volunteered for the German military effort in World War I, but quickly converted to pacifism and was brought before a military court for his convictions. In 1918 he joined the USPD (Independent German Social Democratic Party) and fought alongside Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg in the 1918 revolution. In 1919, he joined the KPD (Communist Party of Germany), but left that party in favor of the left-communist KAPD (German Communist Workers' Party), which he also left after a year. In 1918 he married the author Susanne Köhler, but was divorced from her after one year.