The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation was founded in 1990 as a registered non-profit organization with the name Gesellschaftsanalyse und politische Bildung e.V. (Social Analysis and Political Education Association). In 1996, the PDS (Party of Democratic Socialism) party convention recognized it as its related party foundation. In 1999, it was officially named Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung (Rosa Luxemburg Foundation).
The Foundation is one of the major forces in the field of political education in the Federal Republic of Germany and has developed into a nationwide institution for political education, a forum for discussion of critical thinking and political alternatives, and a partner in international cooperation. It supports scholarship and research as well as art and culture.