Bavarian Soviet Republic
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"Workers of the world, unite!"
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The Internationale
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The Bavarian Soviet Republic, also known as Bavarian Council Republic or the Munich Soviet Republic (Template:Langx), was a short-lived unrecognised socialist state in Bavaria during the German revolution of 1918–1919.Template:Sfn
A group of communists and anarchists declared the Bavarian Soviet Republic on 6 April 1919, forcing the government of the existing Free State of Bavaria to flee to Bamberg in northern Bavaria.Template:Sfn The members of the new government, led by playwright Ernst Toller, had no political or administrative experience,<ref>Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb; Template:Harvnb</ref> and after just six days in power they were ousted in a putsch organized by the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). The new head of state, the Russian-German Bolshevik Eugen Leviné, quickly instituted communist measures such as worker control of factories. Food shortages led to popular unrest, and on 3 May the Soviet Republic was put down by soldiers of the German Army supported by paramilitary Template:Lang troops. Some 600 people died in the fighting.Template:Sfn On 14 August 1919, the democratic Free State of Bavaria resumed control over all of Bavaria.
Background
The roots of the Bavarian Soviet Republic lay in the German Empire's defeat in the First World War and the ensuing German revolution of 1918–1919. Faced with demonstrations and growing unrest in Munich, King Ludwig III of Bavaria fled the city on 7 November 1918. Kurt Eisner of the left-wing Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), with the support of local revolutionary workers' and soldiers' councils, then became Template:Awrap of the newly proclaimed Free State of Bavaria.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn In January, Bavarian voters elected a Landtag (parliament) to draft a republican constitution for Bavaria. On 21 February 1919, the day of the Landtag's first meeting, Eisner was assassinated by a right-wing extremist while on his way to the assembly. After a period during which the workers' councils attempted to form a new government, the Landtag met again on 17 March and chose Johannes Hoffmann of the moderate Social Democratic Party as the new minister-president. He then put together a minority cabinet to govern Bavaria along with the Landtag.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
First Toller government
On the night of 6–7 April, communists and anarchists, energized by the news of a communist revolution in Hungary, declared a soviet republic, with Ernst Toller as chief of state.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>Template:Sfn Toller called on the non-existent Bavarian Red Army to support the new dictatorship of the proletariat and ruthlessly deal with any counter-revolutionary behaviour.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn The KPD reluctantly took part in the newly formed soviet republic, although the party's chairman, Paul Levi, denounced the republic as "revolutionary adventurism".Template:Sfn
The Hoffmann government fled Munich and took its seat in Bamberg in northern Bavaria.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Initially, the Bavarian Soviet Republic was ruled by USPD members such as Ernst Toller and anarchists like writer Gustav Landauer, economist Silvio Gesell and playwright Erich Mühsam.Template:Sfn Toller, who was also a playwright, described the revolution as the "Bavarian Revolution of Love".Template:Sfn Among the café society of Schwabing, the new government became known as "the regime of the coffeehouse anarchists".Template:Sfn
Toller's cabinet picks were controversial. For instance, a burglar with a conviction for moral turpitude was chosen as police president of Munich.Template:Sfn Most infamous was the Commissar of Foreign Affairs Franz Lipp, who had been admitted several times to psychiatric hospitals. He declared war on Württemberg and Switzerland over the Swiss refusal to lend 60 locomotives to the Republic.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn He claimed to be well acquainted with Pope Benedict XV<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and informed Lenin and the Pope by cable that the ousted former Minister-President Hoffmann had fled to Bamberg and taken the key to the ministry toilet with him.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Toller's brief government was characterized by bold declarations without real enforcement. The minister for public housing published a decree saying that no house could thereafter contain more than three rooms and that the living room must always be above the kitchen and bedroom. It was also declared that Finance Minister Silvio Gesell's concept of Freigeld (Template:Lit) would be implemented, although it never was.Template:Sfn
Members of the Toller cabinet were:<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Cabinet table start Template:Cabinet table minister Template:Cabinet table minister Template:Cabinet table minister Template:Cabinet table minister Template:Cabinet table minister Template:Cabinet table minister Template:Cabinet table minister Template:Cabinet table minister Template:Cabinet table minister Template:Cabinet table minister |}
Eugen Leviné government
On Saturday 12 April 1919, only six days into Toller's regime, the KPD seized power, led by three Russian-German Bolsheviks, with Eugen Leviné as head of state and Max Levien as the chairman of the Bavarian KPD.Template:Sfn<ref name=bullock70>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn The communists managed to secure power after the Palm Sunday Putsch, when the Bavarian Red Army – which consisted of factory workers and members of the workers' and soldiers' councils under the command of Rudolf Egelhofer – defeated the Bavarian militia forces of the Republican Defense Troop.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>Template:Sfn Twenty men died in the fighting.Template:Sfn
Having received the blessings of Lenin – who at the annual May Day celebration in Red Square said: "The liberated working class is celebrating its anniversary not only in Soviet Russia but in ... Soviet Bavaria"<ref name="bullock70" />Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn – Leviné began to enact more communist reforms, which included forming a "Red Army" from factory workers, seizing cash, food supplies, and privately owned guns, expropriating luxurious apartments and giving them to the homeless, and placing factories under the ownership and control of their workers. One of Munich's main churches was taken over and made into a revolutionary temple which would be presided over by "Goddess Reason". Bavaria was to be in the vanguard of the Bolshevization of central Europe, with all workers to receive military training.Template:Sfn
Leviné also had plans to abolish paper money and reform the education system, but he did not have time to implement them. There was time, however, for Max Levien, following Lenin's orders, to arrest aristocrats and members of the middle class as hostages.Template:Sfn
During Leviné's short reign, food shortages quickly became a problem, especially the absence of milk. Public criticism over the milk shortage turned political, precipitating the communist government to publicly declare: "What does it matter? ... Most of it goes to the children of the bourgeoisie anyway. We are not interested in keeping them alive. No harm if they die – they'd only grow into enemies of the proletariat."Template:Sfn
Second Ernst Toller government
On 27 April, due to disputes over whether negotiations should be held with the Hoffmann government, Leviné's committee resigned and re-elected Toller to lead the Bavarian Soviet Republic.Template:Sfn
The rival governments – Hoffmann's seated in Bamberg and the Bavarian Soviet Republic located in Munich – clashed militarily at Dachau on 18 April when Hoffmann's 8,000 soldiers met the Soviet Republic's 30,000. The BSR forces led by Ernst Toller were victorious in the first battle at Dachau, but Hoffmann made a deal that gave him the services of 20,000 men of the Template:Lang under Lt. General Template:Ill. Oven and the Template:Lang, along with loyalist elements of the German Army – called the "White Guards of Capitalism" by the communists – then took Dachau and surrounded Munich.Template:Sfn In the meantime, supporters of the BSR had occupied the rooms of the Thule Society in the Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten on 26 April and arrested Countess Hella von Westarp, the society's secretary, and six others, who were to be held as hostages.Template:Sfn Rudolf Egelhofer, had these seven and three other hostages executed on 30 April.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn They included the well-connected Prince Gustav of Thurn and Taxis.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The executions were carried out despite Toller's efforts to prevent them.Template:Sfn
The Template:Lang broke through the Munich defences on 1 May,Template:Sfn leading to bitter street fighting that involved "flame-throwers, heavy artillery, armoured vehicles, even aircraft".Template:Sfn At least 606 people were killed, of whom 335 were civilians.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Leviné was later condemned to death for treason and shot by a firing squad in Stadelheim Prison. Gustav Landauer was killed by the Template:Lang,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and Egelhofer was murdered without trial after being arrested.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Numerous others were given prison sentences, such as Toller (5 years) and the anarchist writer Erich Mühsam (15 years); others received longer sentences, 6,000 years' worth in all, some of it to hard labour.Template:Sfn
General von Oven declared the city secured on 6 May, ending the reign of the Bavarian Soviet Republic.Template:Sfn Although the Hoffmann government was restored, power in Munich had shifted to the right.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
The republican Template:Ill was enacted on 14 August 1919, creating the Free State of Bavaria as a constituent state of the new Weimar Republic.
Aftermath
The tumultuous period of the Bavarian Soviet Republic created fear and hatred of "Bolshevism" in Bavarian society.Template:Sfn The period during which the two states existed was popularly remembered as one of shortages, censorship, restrictions on freedom, violence and general disorder.Template:Sfn The many separate strands of Bavarian conservatism found a common enemy in the far left, and Bavaria became profoundly "reactionary, anti-Republican, [and] counter-revolutionary".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The fact that some of the prominent figures of the Soviet Republic were Jewish was used to push the conspiracy theory of "Jewish Bolshevism" in Bavaria.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Sfn
Notable people
One notable supporter of the Soviet Republic was the artist Georg Schrimpf, then aged 30, who was arrested when the movement was crushed.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> His friend, the writer Oskar Maria Graf, who was also arrested, wrote about the events in his 1927 autobiographical novel, Template:Lang (Prisoners All). The famed anarchist novelist Ret Marut (later known as B. Traven) was an active participant in the establishment of soviet power and worked as head of the Press Department of the Soviet Republic.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> During the early days of the Soviet Republic, representatives of cultural life also played an important role in the revolution. Some intellectuals such as the economist Lujo Brentano, the conductor Bruno Walter and the writers Heinrich Mann and Rainer Maria Rilke formed the Template:Lang (Council of Intellectual Work) with Mann as its chairman.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:AnchorAdolf Hitler's longstanding chauffeur and first leader of the Schutzstaffel (SS) Julius Schreck signed up and served as a member of the Red Army in late April 1919. Balthasar Brandmayer, one of Hitler's closest wartime friends, remarked "how he at first welcomed the end of the monarchies" and the establishment of the republic in Bavaria.Template:Sfn
Active participants in the Template:Lang units – those of Oven, Franz Ritter von Epp, and Hermann Erhardt – that suppressed the Bavarian Soviet Republic included future powerful members of the Nazi Party, including Rudolf Hess, a member of the Template:Lang.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
In his 1952 memoir Witness, Whittaker Chambers named Eugene Leviné as one of three people whom he most admired as he joined the Communist Party USA, along with Felix Dzerzhinsky and Igor Sazonov:<ref name="Witness">Template:Cite book</ref>
Hitler's role
Adolf Hitler was present in the Munich area at the time of the Bavarian Soviet Republic as part of the 16th Bavarian Reserve Infantry Regiment.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> He had been appointed a deputy battalion representative (deputy Template:Lang) for his army regiment on April 3 – before the soviet period – a position that was created by the German Army High Command; part of the duties of the role were education and propaganda.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Although authors such as Ian Kershaw<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and others claim that Hitler held the role as early as February, it contradicts evidence put forth by Othmar Plöckinger in his book Template:Lang ("Among Soldiers and Agitators").<ref name=":0">Template:Cite book</ref> The idea that Hitler attended Eisner’s funeral and supported the Soviet Bavarian Republic originate with German journalist and documentarian Guido Knopp.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> (In 2004, a group of international historians warned that documentaries like the ones produced by Knopp could reduce important historic facts to mere infotainment.<ref>German Who is Who</ref>)
Hitler's unit and regiment declared themselves neutral and refused to join the Bavarian Red Army (an act of passive resistance). They did not give their allegiance to the new regime nor were they under its control. Author Sjoerd de Boer notes that there is no evidence of Hitler having aided the Soviet Republic personally, despite the claim of some authors. In fact, information originating from Hitler's barracks assisted the advancing Freikorps units in capturing the city.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite book</ref> After the fighting ended, Hitler was part of a committee that prosecuted soldiers for aiding the soviet revolt. Hitler was next employed by the occupying ‘"White" forces in the information bureau led by Captain Karl Mayr of Reichswehr Gruppen Kommando 4, which was responsible for countering soviet activity. Mayr had likely been impressed by Hitler’s role on the prosecuting committee, making it extremely unlikely that he would have brought him on had he been involved with the soviet forces.Template:Sfn In order to prevent the troops in his barracks from joining the Red Army in 1919, Hitler was recorded as saying “we are no Revolutionary Guard” for Jews (whom he called vagrants).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Certain authors have argued that Hitler was in attendance at Kurt Eisner’s funeral.<ref name="Hitler - Eline Bilanz by Guido Knopp2">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Hitler's First War by Thomas Webber2">Template:Cite book</ref> A separate photo and video have been used as evidence that he was: in a photograph, a man purported to be Hitler (based on physical appearance) is shown observing a memorial procession from the side while Russian prisoners of war carry a portrait of Eisner. In the footage of Eisner's funeral, another man (actually participating) is claimed to be Hitler.<ref name="Hitler's First War by Thomas Webber2" /> Historians debate about the authenticity of the claim, especially with regard to the graininess of the footage. Thomas Weber believes that Hitler did attend but concluded that it was impossible to know for sure; other historians dismiss the claim outright.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Representatives of Hitler’s unit were ordered to attend a memorial procession for Eisner, but that was on 3 April 1919, separate from the funeral in February.<ref name=":0" /> As of May 1919 Hitler was an informant for the Reichswehr.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Author Peter den Hartog has concluded Hitler’s attendance at Eisner's funeral can safely be considered a myth.<ref name=":1" />
See also
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References
Works cited
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External links
Template:States of the Weimar Republic Template:Socialism by state Template:Authority control Template:Coord
- Pages with broken file links
- Bavarian Soviet Republic
- States and territories disestablished in 1919
- Communism in Germany
- Early Soviet republics
- Former countries in Europe
- Former socialist republics
- Anarchism in Germany
- Former states and territories of Bavaria
- History of Munich
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