Bavarian Soviet Republic
Encyclopedia
The Bavarian Soviet Republic, also known as the Munich Soviet Republic was, as part of the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the short-lived attempt to establish a socialist state
in form of a council
republic in the Free State of Bavaria. It sought independence from the also recently proclaimed Weimar Republic
. Its capital was Munich
.
, Kurt Eisner
of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
(USPD) declared Bavaria a "free state
" – a declaration which overthrew the monarchy
of the Wittelsbach
dynasty which had ruled for over 700 years. Eisner became Minister-President
of Bavaria. Though he advocated a "socialist republic", he distanced himself from the Russia
n Bolshevik
s, 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).
After Eisner's USPD had lost the elections, he decided to resign from his office. On 21 February 1919, as he was on his way to parliament to announce his resignation, he was shot by the right-wing
nationalist
Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley
, who was 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 soviet revolution
in Hungary
encouraged communists
and anarchists
to seize power.
, and anarchists like Gustav Landauer
, Silvio Gesell
and Erich Mühsam
. However, Toller, a playwright, was not very good at dealing with politics, and his government did little to restore order in Munich.
His government members were also not always well-chosen. For instance, the Foreign Affairs Deputy Dr. Franz Lipp (who had been admitted several times to psychiatric hospital
s), declared war on Switzerland
over the Swiss refusal to lend 60 locomotives to the Soviet Republic. He also claimed to be well acquainted with Pope Benedict XV
and 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. As such, the regime collapsed within six days, being replaced by the Communist Party
, with Eugen Leviné
as their leader.
Leviné began to enact communist reforms, which included 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.
Leviné refused to collaborate with the regular army of the city, and also organized his own army, the Red Army (Rote Armee) under Rudolf Egelhofer, similar to the Red Army
of Soviet Russia. In order to support the revolutionary government, thousands of unemployed workers volunteered; soon the ranks of the Rote Armee reached 20,000. In response to the massacre of 23 red prisoners by the “regular” army, Red Guards began arresting suspected counterrevolutionaries and 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 murdered.
such as the Freikorps Epp and the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt
, with 30,000, entered Munich and defeated the communists after bitter street fights in which over 1,000 volunteer supporters of the government were killed. About 700 men and women were arrested and executed by the victorious Freikorps. Leviné was condemned to death for treason.
Socialist state
A socialist state generally refers to any state constitutionally dedicated to the construction of a socialist society. It is closely related to the political strategy of "state socialism", a set of ideologies and policies that believe a socialist economy can be established through government...
in form of a council
Soviet (council)
Soviet was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the “Soviet of Ministers”; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union....
republic in the Free State of Bavaria. It sought independence from the also recently proclaimed Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic
The Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
. Its capital was Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
.
Kurt Eisner
On 7 November 1918, the first anniversary of the Russian October RevolutionOctober Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, Kurt Eisner
Kurt Eisner
Kurt Eisner was a Bavarian politician and journalist. As a German socialist journalist and statesman, he organized the Socialist Revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy in Bavaria in November 1918....
of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany was a short-lived political party in Germany during the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic. The organization was established in 1917 as the result of a split of left wing members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany...
(USPD) declared Bavaria a "free state
Free state (government)
Free state is a term occasionally used in the official titles of some states.In principle the title asserts and emphasises the freedom of the state in question, but what this actually means varies greatly in different contexts:...
" – a declaration which overthrew the monarchy
Monarchy
A monarchy is a form of government in which the office of head of state is usually held until death or abdication and is often hereditary and includes a royal house. In some cases, the monarch is elected...
of the Wittelsbach
Wittelsbach
The Wittelsbach family is a European royal family and a German dynasty from Bavaria.Members of the family served as Dukes, Electors and Kings of Bavaria , Counts Palatine of the Rhine , Margraves of Brandenburg , Counts of Holland, Hainaut and Zeeland , Elector-Archbishops of Cologne , Dukes of...
dynasty which had ruled for over 700 years. Eisner became Minister-President
Minister-President
A minister-president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments, in which a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government prevails, who presides over the council of ministers...
of Bavaria. Though he advocated a "socialist republic", he distanced himself from the Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
n Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s, declaring that his government would protect property rights. For a few days, the Munich economist Lujo Brentano
Lujo Brentano
Lujo Brentano was an eminent German economist and social reformer.Lujo Brentano, born in Aschaffenburg into one of the most distinguished German-Catholic intellectual families , attended school in Augsburg and Aschaffenburg...
served as People's Commissar for Trade (Volkskommissar für Handel).
After Eisner's USPD had lost the elections, he decided to resign from his office. On 21 February 1919, as he was on his way to parliament to announce his resignation, he was shot by the right-wing
Right-wing politics
In politics, Right, right-wing and rightist generally refer to support for a hierarchical society justified on the basis of an appeal to natural law or tradition. To varying degrees, the Right rejects the egalitarian objectives of left-wing politics, claiming that the imposition of equality is...
nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley
Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley
Anton von Padua Alfred Emil Hubert Georg Graf von Arco auf Valley , commonly known as Anton Arco-Valley, German political activist, is best remembered as the assassin of Kurt Eisner, the first republican premier of Bavaria, in February 1919.Arco-Valley was born in Sankt Martin im Innkreis in Upper...
, who was rejected from membership in the Thule Society
Thule Society
The Thule Society , originally the Studiengruppe für germanisches Altertum , was a German occultist and völkisch group in Munich, named after a mythical northern country from Greek legend...
because of Jewish
Judaism
Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...
ancestry on his mother's side. This assassination caused unrest and lawlessness in Bavaria, and the news of a soviet revolution
Hungarian Soviet Republic
The Hungarian Soviet Republic or Soviet Republic of Hungary was a short-lived Communist state established in Hungary in the aftermath of World War I....
in Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
encouraged communists
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and anarchists
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
to seize power.
Politics of the Soviet Republic
On 6 April 1919, a Soviet Republic was formally proclaimed. Initially, it was ruled by USPD members such as Ernst TollerErnst Toller
Ernst Toller was a left-wing German playwright, best known for his Expressionist plays and serving as President of the short-lived Bavarian Soviet Republic, for six days.- Biography :...
, and anarchists like Gustav Landauer
Gustav Landauer
Gustav Landauer was one of the leading theorists on anarchism in Germany in the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century. He was an advocate of communist anarchism and an avowed pacifist. Landauer is also known for his study and translations of William Shakespeare's works into German...
, Silvio Gesell
Silvio Gesell
Silvio Gesell was a German merchant, theoretical economist, social activist, anarchist and founder of Freiwirtschaft.-Life:...
and Erich Mühsam
Erich Mühsam
Erich Mühsam was a German-Jewish anarchist essayist, poet and playwright. He emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Bavarian Soviet Republic....
. However, Toller, a playwright, was not very good at dealing with politics, and his government did little to restore order in Munich.
His government members were also not always well-chosen. For instance, the Foreign Affairs Deputy Dr. Franz Lipp (who had been admitted several times to psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospital
Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental hospitals, are hospitals specializing in the treatment of serious mental disorders. Psychiatric hospitals vary widely in their size and grading. Some hospitals may specialise only in short-term or outpatient therapy for low-risk patients...
s), declared war on Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
over the Swiss refusal to lend 60 locomotives to the Soviet Republic. He also claimed to be well acquainted with Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV
Pope Benedict XV , born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from 3 September 1914 to 22 January 1922...
and informed Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
via cable that the ousted former Minister-President Hoffmann
Johannes Hoffmann
Johannes Hoffmann was a Bavarian Minister-President and member of the SPD.-Life:Born in Ilbesheim, near Landau, his parents were Peter Hoffmann and Maria Eva Keller...
had fled to Bamberg
Bamberg
Bamberg is a city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located in Upper Franconia on the river Regnitz, close to its confluence with the river Main. Bamberg is one of the few cities in Germany that was not destroyed by World War II bombings because of a nearby Artillery Factory that prevented planes from...
and taken the key to the ministry toilet with him. As such, the regime collapsed within six days, being replaced by the Communist Party
Communist Party of Germany
The Communist Party of Germany was a major political party in Germany between 1918 and 1933, and a minor party in West Germany in the postwar period until it was banned in 1956...
, with Eugen Leviné
Eugen Levine
Eugen Leviné was a Communist, revolutionary and leader of the short lived Bavarian Soviet Republic.-Background:...
as their leader.
Leviné began to enact communist reforms, which included 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
Paper Money
Paper Money is the second album by the band Montrose. It was released in 1974 and was the band's last album to feature Sammy Hagar as lead vocalist.-History:...
and reform the education system, but never had time to implement them.
Leviné refused to collaborate with the regular army of the city, and also organized his own army, the Red Army (Rote Armee) under Rudolf Egelhofer, similar to the Red Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
of Soviet Russia. In order to support the revolutionary government, thousands of unemployed workers volunteered; soon the ranks of the Rote Armee reached 20,000. In response to the massacre of 23 red prisoners by the “regular” army, Red Guards began arresting suspected counterrevolutionaries and on 30 April 1919, eight men, including the well-connected Prince Gustav of Thurn and Taxis
Prince Gustav of Thurn and Taxis
-Titles and styles:*22 August 1888 – 30 April 1919: His Serene Highness Prince Gustav of Thurn and Taxis-Ancestry:-References:...
, were accused as right-wing spies and executed. The Thule Society's secretary, Countess Hella von Westarp, was also murdered.
Demise
Soon after, on 3 May 1919, what remained loyal of the German army (called the "White Guards of Capitalism" by the communists), with a force of 9,000, and FreikorpsFreikorps
Freikorps are German volunteer military or paramilitary units. The term was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of the 18th century onwards. Between World War I and World War II the term was also used for the paramilitary organizations that arose during...
such as the Freikorps Epp and the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt
Marinebrigade Ehrhardt
The Marinebrigade Ehrhardt was a Free Corps group of around 6,000 men formed by Captain Hermann Ehrhardt in the aftermath of World War I, also known as II Marine Brigade or the Ehrhardt Brigade...
, with 30,000, entered Munich and defeated the communists after bitter street fights in which over 1,000 volunteer supporters of the government were killed. About 700 men and women were arrested and executed by the victorious Freikorps. Leviné was condemned to death for treason.
See also
- Aftermath of World War IAftermath of World War IThe fighting in World War I ended in western Europe when the Armistice took effect at 11:00 am GMT on November 11, 1918, and in eastern Europe by the early 1920s. During and in the aftermath of the war the political, cultural, and social order was drastically changed in Europe, Asia and Africa,...
- German Revolution of 1918–1919
- History of BavariaHistory of BavariaThe history of Bavaria stretches from its earliest settlement and its formation as a stem duchy in the 6th century through its inclusion in the Holy Roman Empires to its status as an independent kingdom and, finally, as a large and significant Bundesland of the modern Federal Republic of...
- History of GermanyHistory of GermanyThe concept of Germany as a distinct region in central Europe can be traced to Roman commander Julius Caesar, who referred to the unconquered area east of the Rhine as Germania, thus distinguishing it from Gaul , which he had conquered. The victory of the Germanic tribes in the Battle of the...
- Weimar RepublicWeimar RepublicThe Weimar Republic is the name given by historians to the parliamentary republic established in 1919 in Germany to replace the imperial form of government...
- Soviet (council)Soviet (council)Soviet was a name used for several Russian political organizations. Examples include the Czar's Council of Ministers, which was called the “Soviet of Ministers”; a workers' local council in late Imperial Russia; and the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union....
- Kurt EisnerKurt EisnerKurt Eisner was a Bavarian politician and journalist. As a German socialist journalist and statesman, he organized the Socialist Revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy in Bavaria in November 1918....
- Eugen LevinéEugen LevineEugen Leviné was a Communist, revolutionary and leader of the short lived Bavarian Soviet Republic.-Background:...