Bavarian Soviet Republic

Bavarian Council Republic
Voiksstaat Bayern
Bayerische Räterepublik
Unrecognized state
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1919 →
 
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Flag

Capital Munich
Languages Bavarian
German
Government Socialist republic
President
 •  6 April – 12 April Ernst Toller
 • 12 April – 3 May Eugen Leviné
History
 •  Established 6 April 1919
 •  Disestablished 3 May 1919
Currency German Papiermark (ℳ)
Today part of  Germany

The Bavarian Council Republic (German: Bayerische Räterepublik Bavarian: Voiksstaat Bayern)[1][2] was the short-lived attempt to establish a socialist state in the Free State of Bavaria during the German Revolution.[3][4] It took the form of a workers' council republic. Its name can alternatively be rendered in English as the Bavarian Soviet Republic[5] (using the Russian word for council or Rat in German) or the Munich Soviet Republic (Münchner Räterepublik).[6][2] after its capital of Munich. It sought independence from the also recently proclaimed Weimar Republic.

Kurt Eisner's bloodless revolution

On the afternoon of 7 November 1918, the first anniversary of the Russian revolution, Kurt Eisner, a politician [3] of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) addressed a crowd, estimated to have been about 60,000, on the Theresienwiese (current site of the Oktoberfest). He demanded an immediate peace, an 8-hour workday, relief for the unemployed, abdication of the Bavarian king, King Ludwig III, and Kaiser Wilhelm II, and proposed the formation of workers' and soldiers' councils. The crowd marched to the army barracks and won over most of the soldiers to the side of the revolution. That night, the King went into exile. The next day, Eisner declared Bavaria a "free state",[7] the Bavarian People's Republic (Freier Volksstaat Bayern).[8] This declaration overthrew the monarchy of the Wittelsbach dynasty which had ruled for over 700 years, and Eisner became Minister-President of Bavaria.[7] Though he advocated a "socialist republic", he distanced himself from the Russian Bolsheviks, declaring that his government would protect property rights. For a few days, the Munich economist Lujo Brentano served as People's Commissar for Trade (Volkskommissar für Handel).

Eisner's Independent Social Democrats were defeated in the January 1919 election, coming in sixth. On 21 February 1919, as he was on his way to parliament to announce his resignation, he was shot dead by the right-wing nationalist Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley, who had been rejected from membership in the Thule Society because of Jewish ancestry on his mother's side. This assassination caused unrest and lawlessness in Bavaria, and the news of a left-wing revolution in Hungary encouraged communists and anarchists to seize power.[9]

Hoffmann government

On 7 March 1919, the leader of the majority Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), Johannes Hoffmann, formed a coalition government, but was unable to muster political support.[10]

Ernst Toller government

On 6 April 1919, a soviet republic was formally proclaimed. Initially, it was ruled by USPD members such as Ernst Toller, and anarchists like Gustav Landauer, Silvio Gesell, and Erich Mühsam. Toller, a playwright, described the revolution as the "Bavarian Revolution of Love".[11]

His government members were not always well-chosen. For instance, the Foreign Affairs Deputy Dr. Franz Lipp (who had been admitted several times to psychiatric hospitals), declared war on Switzerland over the Swiss refusal to lend 60 locomotives to the Republic.[12] He also claimed to be well acquainted with Pope Benedict XV[13] and he informed Vladimir Lenin via cable that the ousted former Minister-President Hoffmann had fled to Bamberg and taken the key to the ministry toilet with him.[14]

Eugen Leviné government

On Sunday, 12 April 1919, the Communist Party seized power, with Eugen Leviné as their leader.[3] Leviné began to enact communist reforms, which included forming a "Red Army", seizing cash and food supplies, expropriating luxurious apartments and giving them to the homeless and placing factories under the ownership and control of their workers. Leviné also had plans to abolish paper money and reform the education system, but never had time to implement them.

On 30 April 1919, eight men, including the well-connected Prince Gustav of Thurn and Taxis, were accused as right-wing spies and executed. The Thule Society's secretary, Countess Hella von Westarp, was also executed.[15]

Demise

Soon after, on 3 May 1919, remaining loyal elements of the German army (called the "White Guards of Capitalism" by the communists), with a force of 9,000, and Freikorps (such as the Freikorps Epp and the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt) with a force of about 30,000 men, entered Munich and defeated the communists after bitter street fighting in which over 1,000 supporters of the Munich council government were killed. About 700 men and women were arrested and summarily executed by the victorious Freikorps troops. Leviné was condemned to death for treason, and was shot by a firing squad in Stadelheim Prison. Gustav Landauer was beaten and shot by a mob of soldiers.[16]

One notable supporter of the movement was the young artist Georg Schrimpf, then aged 20, who was arrested when the movement was crushed.[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Allan Mitchell. Revolution in Bavaria, 1918-1919: The Eisner Regime and the Soviet Republic. Princeton University Press, 1965 (reprinted 2015). p. 346. ISBN 9781400878802
  2. 1 2 Neil Hollander. Elusive Dove: The Search for Peace During World War I. McFarland, 2013. p. 283 (note 269). ISBN 9781476614106
  3. 1 2 3 Gaab, Jeffrey S. Munich: Hofbräuhaus & History. New York Washington, D.C./Baltimore Bern Frankfurt am Main Berlin Brussels Vienna Oxford Lang 2006. p. 58.
  4. ↑ Encyclopedia Britannia 1969, Bavarian Council Republic
  5. ↑ Gabriel Kuhn (ed.), All Power to the Councils! A Documentary History of the German Revolution of 1918-1919, Oakland: PM Press, 2012, p. 205
  6. ↑ Eric James Hooglund. The Munich Soviet Republic of April, 1919. University of Maine, 1966
  7. 1 2 Thomas Schuler (December 2008). "The Unsung Hero: Bavaria's amnesia about the man who abolished the monarchy". The Atlantic Times.
  8. ↑ William A. Pelz. Against Capitalism: The European Left on the March. Peter Lang, 2007. p. 113. ISBN 9780820467764
  9. ↑ Erich Mühsam, Von Eisner bis Leviné, p. 47
  10. ↑ Jeffrey S. Gaab (December 2011). "Hitler’s Beer Hall Politics: A Reassessment based on New Historical Scholarship" (PDF). International Journal of Humanities and Social Science. p. 36.
  11. ↑ Jeffrey S. Gaab. Munich: Hofbräuhaus & history. Peter Lang. p. 59.
  12. ↑ Taylor, Edumund (1963). The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of Old Order. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 365.
  13. ↑ Gustav Noske, Von Kiel bis Kapp, p. 136
  14. ↑ Paul Werner (Paul Frölich), Die Bayerische Räterepublik. Tatsachen und Kritik, p. 144
  15. ↑ Timebase Multimedia Chronography. Timebase 1919. Accessed September 23, 2006.
  16. ↑ James Horrox. "Gustav Landauer (1870-1919)". Anarchy Archives. Retrieved October 20, 2015.
  17. ↑
    • Olaf Peters (2012), Friedrich, Julia, ed., Modernist Masterpieces: the Haubrich Collection at Museum Ludwig, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, ISBN 978-3-86335-174-8

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Coordinates: 48°08′N 11°34′E / 48.133°N 11.567°E / 48.133; 11.567

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