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Bavarian Soviet Republic

Coordinates: 48°08′N 11°34′E / 48.133°N 11.567°E / 48.133; 11.567
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Bavarian Soviet Republic
Münchner Räterepublik
1919
Flag of Bavarian Soviet Republic
Motto: "Proletarier aller Länder, vereinigt Euch!"
"Workers of the world, unite!"
Anthem: Die Internationale
The Internationale
Territory claimed by the Bavarian Soviet Republic (in red) shown with the rest of the Weimar Republic (in beige)
Territory claimed by the Bavarian Soviet Republic (in red) shown with the rest of the Weimar Republic (in beige)
StatusUnrecognized state
CapitalMunich
Common languagesGerman
GovernmentSoviet republic
• 6–12 April 1919
Ernst Toller
• 12 April 1919 – 3 May 1919
Eugen Leviné
Historical eraInterwar period
 · Revolutions of 1917–1923
 · Political violence in Germany (1918–1933)
• Established
6 April 1919
• Disestablished
3 May 1919
CurrencyGerman Papiermark (ℳ)
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
People's State of Bavaria
Weimar Republic
Free State of Bavaria
Today part ofGermany

The Bavarian Soviet Republic (or Bavarian Council Republic), also known as the Munich Soviet Republic (German: Räterepublik Baiern, Münchner Räterepublik), was a short-lived unrecognised socialist state in Bavaria during the German revolution of 1918–1919.[1]

A group of communists and anarchists declared the Bavarian Soviet Republic on 6 April 1919, forcing the government of the existing People's State of Bavaria to flee to Bamberg in northern Bavaria.[2] The members of the new government, led by playwright Ernst Toller, had no political or administrative experience,[3] 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 People's State was put down by soldiers of the German Army supported by paramilitary Freikorps troops. Some 600 people died in the fighting.[4]

On 14 August 1919, the democratic Free State of Bavaria was established as a constituent state of the Weimar Republic.

Background

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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 minister-president of the newly proclaimed People's State of Bavaria.[5][6][7] 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 the People's State along with the Landtag.[8]

First Toller government

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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.[9][10] 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.[11][12] The KPD reluctantly took part in the newly formed soviet republic, although the party's chairman, Paul Levi, denounced the republic as "revolutionary adventurism".[13]

The Hoffmann government fled to Bamberg in northern Bavaria,[14] which it declared the new seat of government.[15]

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.[16] Toller, who was also a playwright, described the revolution as the "Bavarian Revolution of Love".[17] Among the café society of Schwabing, the new government became known as "the regime of the coffeehouse anarchists".[18]

Toller's cabinet picks were controversial. For instance, a burglar with a conviction for moral turpitude was chosen as police president of Munich.[15] Most infamous was the Commissar of Foreign Affairs Dr. 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.[19][18] He claimed to be well acquainted with Pope Benedict XV[20] and informed Vladimir 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.[21]

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 (lit. 'free money') would be implemented, although it never was.[18]

Members of the Toller cabinet were:[22][23]

Portfolio Minister Took office Left office Party
President.. USPD
Foreign Minister.. USPD
Finance Minister[24].. Independent
Interior Minister.. USPD
Minister of Military Affairs.. KPD
Minister of Transportation.. USPD
Minister of Education.. USPD
Minister of Welfare.. USPD
Minister of Justice.. BB
Ministry of Social Welfare
Martin Steiner
.. BB

Eugen Leviné government

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Eugen Leviné, head of the second and more radical government of the Bavarian Soviet Republic

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.[1][25][26] 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.[27][26] Twenty men died in the fighting.[18]

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"[25][14][18] – 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.[18]

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.[18]

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."[14]

Second Ernst Toller government

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On 27 April, due to disputes over whether negotiations should be held with Hoffmann's People's State of Bavaria, Leviné's committee resigned and re-elected Toller to lead the Bavarian Soviet Republic.[16]

The rival governments – Hoffmann's People's State of Bavaria 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 Freikorps under Lt. General Burghard von Oven [de]. Oven and the Freikorps, along with loyalist elements of the German Army – called the "White Guards of Capitalism" by the communists – then took Dachau and surrounded Munich.[10] 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.[28] Rudolf Egelhofer, panicked by Munich being surrounded by Hoffmann's forces, had these seven and three other hostages executed on 30 April.[14][10] They included the well-connected Prince Gustav of Thurn and Taxis.[29] The executions were carried out despite Toller's efforts to prevent them.[30]

The Freikorps broke through the Munich defences on 1 May,[30] leading to bitter street fighting that involved "flame-throwers, heavy artillery, armoured vehicles, even aircraft".[31] At least 606 people were killed, of whom 335 were civilians.[14][31] Leviné was later condemned to death for treason and shot by a firing squad in Stadelheim Prison. Gustav Landauer was killed by the Freikorps,[32] and Egelhofer was murdered without trial after being arrested.[33] 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.[31]

General von Oven declared the city secured on 6 May, ending the reign of the Bavarian Soviet Republic.[30] Although the Hoffmann government was restored, power in Munich had shifted to the right.[34]

The republican Bamberg Constitution [de] was enacted on 14 August 1919, creating the Free State of Bavaria as a constituent state of the new Weimar Republic.

Aftermath

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The tumultuous period of the People's State of Bavaria and the Bavarian Soviet Republic was used by conservative and far-right circles to stoke fear and hatred of "Bolshevism" among Bavarian society.[35] The period during which the two states existed was popularly remembered as one of shortages, censorship, restrictions on freedom, violence and general disorder.[36] 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".[35][37] The fact that some of the prominent figures of the People's State and the Soviet Republic were Jewish was used to push the conspiracy theory of "Jewish Bolshevism" in Bavaria.[38][39]

Notable people

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One notable supporter of the Soviet Republic was the artist Georg Schrimpf, then aged 30, who was arrested when the movement was crushed.[40] His friend, the writer Oskar Maria Graf, who was also arrested, wrote about the events in his 1927 autobiographical novel, Wir sind Gefangene (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.[41] 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 Rat der geistigen Arbeit (Council of Intellectual Work) with Mann as its chairman.[42][43]

Adolf 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.[44]

Hitler himself acted as a liaison between his army battalion – he had been elected "deputy battalion representative" – and the Soviet Republic's Department of Propaganda.[45][46][10] Both newsreel film footage and a still photograph show Hitler marching in Eisner's funeral procession. He wears both a black mourning band and a red band showing support for the Government. It is uncertain whether this indicated that Hitler was a true supporter of the Soviet Republic, or that he was simply taking an available opportunity not to return to his impoverished pre-war civilian life. Befitting what is now known about his character, Hitler's so-called left-wing politics may have been purely opportunistic, rather than reflecting a deeper political belief. It is also known that once the Soviet Republic had fallen to government troops and the Freikorps, Hitler immediately changed his loyalties, aligning himself with the Weimar Republic and – as part of a three-man committee assigned to investigate the behavior of his regiment's soldiers – informed on other soldiers who had shown sympathy for the soviet government.[47][46]

Active participants in the Freikorps 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 Freikorps Epp.[48][49][50]

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:[51]

During the Bavarian Soviet Republic in 1919, Leviné was the organizer of the Workers and Soldiers Soviets. When the Bavarian Soviet Republic was crushed, Leviné was captured and courtmartialed. The court-martial told him: "You are under sentence of death." Leviné answered: "We communists are always under sentence of death." That is another thing that it meant to be a Communist.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Gaab 2006, p. 58.
  2. ^ Bartolf & Miething 2019, pp. 226–228.
  3. ^ Kershaw 1999, pp. 112–116; Mitcham 1996, p. 11, 30; Evans 2003, pp. 158–161
  4. ^ Kershaw 1999, pp. 112–116.
  5. ^ Mitchell 1982, p. 65.
  6. ^ Bartolf & Miething 2019, pp. 223–224.
  7. ^ Riddell 1986, p. 73.
  8. ^ Winkler, Heinrich August (1993). Weimar 1918–1933. Die Geschichte der ersten deutschen Demokratie [Weimar 1918–1933. The History of the FIrst German Democracy] (in German). Munich: C.H. Beck. p. 77. ISBN 3-406-37646-0.
  9. ^ Ernst Toller. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 17 Feb 2012.
  10. ^ a b c d Bartolf & Miething 2019, p. 225.
  11. ^ Mühsam, Erich (1929). Von Eisner bis Leviné [From Eisner to Leviné] (in German). Berlin: Fanal Verlag. p. 47.
  12. ^ Mitcham 1996, pp. 32–33.
  13. ^ Heynen 2019, pp. 52–53.
  14. ^ a b c d e Burleigh 2000, p. 40.
  15. ^ a b Mitcham 1996, p. 33.
  16. ^ a b Bronner 2019, p. 244.
  17. ^ Gaab 2006, p. 59.
  18. ^ a b c d e f g Evans 2003, pp. 158–161.
  19. ^ Taylor, Edumund (1963). The Fall of the Dynasties: The Collapse of the Old Order. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 365.
  20. ^ Noske, Gustav (2015). Von Kiel bis Kapp [From Kiel to Kapp] (in German). Norderstedt: Vero Verlag. p. 136. ISBN 978-3-737-22351-5.
  21. ^ Frölich, Paul (2001). Die Bayerische Räte-Republik. Tatsachen und Kritik [The Bavarian Soviet Republic. Facts and Criticism] (in German). Cologne: Neuer Isp Verlag. p. 144. ISBN 978-3-929-00868-5.
  22. ^ Bischel, Matthias (22 March 2019). "Räterepublik Baiern (1919)" [Bavarian Soviet Republic]. Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (in German). Retrieved 11 June 2024.
  23. ^ Khunchukashvili, David; Kliewer, Natalja; Lisov, Maja; Piorun, Carolin; Rikić, Bojana; Türmer, Philipp; Winterer, Beate. "Die Verflechtungen zwischen der Oktoberrevolution 1917 und der Münchner Räterepublik" [The Entanglements between the October Revolution of 1917 and the Munich Soviet Republic]. Fachinformationsdienst Ost-, Ostmittel- und Südosteuropa (in German). Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  24. ^ Onken, Werner [in German] (2018). Silvio Gesell in der Münchener Räterepublik. Eine Woche Volksbeauftragter für das Finanzwesen im April 1919 [Silvio Gesell in the Munich Soviet Republic. One week as People's Representative for Finance in April 1919] (in German). Oldenburg. ISBN 978-3-933891-31-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  25. ^ a b Bullock, Alan (1991). Hitler and Stalin: Parallel Lives. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 70. ISBN 0-394-58601-8.
  26. ^ a b Bartolf & Miething 2019, pp. 230–231.
  27. ^ Sepp, Florian; Bischel, Matthias (23 September 2021). "Palmsonntagsputsch, 13. April 1919". Historisches Lexikon Bayerns. Retrieved 10 December 2021.
  28. ^ Bracher 1970, pp. 109–110.
  29. ^ "Timebase Multimedia Chronology: Timebase 1919". humanitas-international. Archived from the original on 29 September 2006. Retrieved 23 September 2006.
  30. ^ a b c Mitcham 1996, pp. 34–35.
  31. ^ a b c Kershaw 1999, pp. 112–116.
  32. ^ Horrox, James. "Gustav Landauer (1870–1919)". Anarchy Archives. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  33. ^ "Egelhofer, Rudolf". Bavarikon (in German). Retrieved 10 April 2025.
  34. ^ Shirer, William L. (1960). The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 33.
  35. ^ a b Kershaw 1999, p. 115.
  36. ^ Kershaw 1999, pp. 114–115.
  37. ^ Heynen 2019, p. 53.
  38. ^ Friedländer, Saul (2007). Das Dritte Reich und die Juden. Die Jahre der Verfolgung 1933–1939. Die Jahre der Vernichtung 1939–1945. Die Jahre der Vernichtung 1939–1945 [The Third Reich and the Jews. The Years of Persecution 1933–1939] (in German) (One-volume special ed.). Munich: Beck. p. 1072, footnote 80. ISBN 978-3-406-56681-3.
  39. ^ Bronner 2019, pp. 237, 252.
  40. ^ Friedrich, Julia, ed. (2012). Modernist Masterpieces. The Haubrich Collection at Museum Ludwig. Munich: König. ISBN 978-3-863-35174-8.
  41. ^ Richter, Armin (1970). "B. Traven und die Münchner Zensur : unveröffentlichte Dokumente aus der Zeit des 1. Weltkrieges" [B. Traven and the Munich Censors: Unpublished Documents from the Time of the First World War]. Geist und Tat (in German). 4 (October–December): 225–233. OCLC 86154513.
  42. ^ Gross, David (1973). "Heinrich Mann and the Politics of Reaction". Journal of Contemporary History. 8 (1): 125–145. doi:10.1177/002200947300800107. ISSN 0022-0094. JSTOR 260072. S2CID 155049742.
  43. ^ Veitenheimer, Bernhard. "Heinrich Mann und der Politische Rat geistiger Arbeiter München – Versuch einer Chronik" [Heinrich Mann and the Political Council of Intellectual Workers in Munich – Attempt at a Timeline]. literaturkritik.de (in German). Retrieved 12 October 2021.
  44. ^ Kershaw 1999, p. 119.
  45. ^ Hett 2018, p. 46.
  46. ^ a b Ullrich, Volker (2016). Hitler: Ascent 1889–1939. Translated by Chase, Jefferson. New York: Vintage Books. pp. 79–80. ISBN 978-1-101-87205-5.
  47. ^ Hett 2018, pp. 46–47.
  48. ^ Mitcham 1996, p. 35.
  49. ^ Manvell, Roger; Fraenkel, Heinrich (1971). Hess: A Biography. London: MacGibbon & Kee. p. 20. ISBN 0-261-63246-9.
  50. ^ Padfield, Peter (2001). Hess: The Fuhrer's Disciple. London: Cassell & Co. p. 13. ISBN 0-304-35843-6.
  51. ^ Chambers, Whittaker (1952). Witness. New York: Random House. p. 6. ISBN 978-0895269157. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)

Works cited

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

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