Berlin  - As Germany begins a year thick with comemorations, tens of thousands of German leftists gathered Sunday to recall two revolutionaries who were murdered in 1919.

Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, founders of the German Communist Party, were killed by rightist soldiers in the early days of the Weimar Republic and are seen by the left as martyrs.

Two separate marches were organized at the Socialist Monument in Berlin's Friedrichsfelde Cemetery.

The main body was from the Left Party, which claims descent from the Communist Party, and the Socialist Unity Party of East Germany, which has seats in the German parliament. The other group comprised far-leftists and anarchists.

Police said total attendance was 23,000 people. The Left Party asserted 80,000 attended Sunday.

Germany has a rash of "round-number" anniversaries this year, recalling the tumultuous birth of democracy in 1919, the start of the Second World War in 1939, the creation of the modern republic in 1949 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. (dpa)