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The Bavarian Soviet Republic, also known as the Munich Soviet Republic was, as part of the German Revolution of 1918-19, the short-lived attempt to establish a socialist state
Socialist state

The term socialist state can carry one of several different meanings:*Strictly speaking, any real or hypothetical state organized along the principles of socialism may be called a socialist state....
 in form of a council
Soviet (council)

A soviet originally was a workers' councils in late Imperial Russia. According to the official historiography of the Soviet Union, the first Soviet was organized during the 1905 Russian Revolution in Ivanovo in May 1905....
 republic in the Free State of Bavaria. It sought independence from the also recently proclaimed Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic was the democracy and republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933. Following World War I, the republic emerged from the German Revolution in November 1918....
. Its capital was Munich
Munich

Munich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. Munich is located on the River Isar north of the Northern Limestone Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg....
.

Kurt Eisner
On 7 November 1918, the first anniversary of the Russian October Revolution, Kurt Eisner
Kurt Eisner

Kurt Eisner was a Bavarian politician and journalist. As a German socialist journalist and statesman, he organized the German Revolution that achieved the overthrow of the monarchy in Bavaria in 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....
 (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 supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged in an individual, who is the head of state, often for Life tenure or until abdication, and "is wholly set apart from all other members of the state." The person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch....
 of the Wittelsbach
Wittelsbach

The Wittelsbach family is a European royal family and a Germany dynasty from Bavaria. Their major principal roles were as List of rulers of Bavaria , Electoral Palatinate , List of rulers of Brandenburg , Counts of Holland, County of Hainaut and Zeeland , List of bishops and archbishops of Cologne , Duchy of J?lich and Berg , Kings of Sweden...
 dynasty which had ruled for over 700 years.






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The Bavarian Soviet Republic, also known as the Munich Soviet Republic was, as part of the German Revolution of 1918-19, the short-lived attempt to establish a socialist state
Socialist state

The term socialist state can carry one of several different meanings:*Strictly speaking, any real or hypothetical state organized along the principles of socialism may be called a socialist state....
 in form of a council
Soviet (council)

A soviet originally was a workers' councils in late Imperial Russia. According to the official historiography of the Soviet Union, the first Soviet was organized during the 1905 Russian Revolution in Ivanovo in May 1905....
 republic in the Free State of Bavaria. It sought independence from the also recently proclaimed Weimar Republic
Weimar Republic

The Weimar Republic was the democracy and republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933. Following World War I, the republic emerged from the German Revolution in November 1918....
. Its capital was Munich
Munich

Munich is the capital city of Bavaria, Germany. Munich is located on the River Isar north of the Northern Limestone Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg....
.

Kurt Eisner


On 7 November 1918, the first anniversary of the Russian October Revolution, Kurt Eisner
Kurt Eisner

Kurt Eisner was a Bavarian politician and journalist. As a German socialist journalist and statesman, he organized the German Revolution that achieved the overthrow of the monarchy in Bavaria in 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....
 (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 supreme power is absolutely or nominally lodged in an individual, who is the head of state, often for Life tenure or until abdication, and "is wholly set apart from all other members of the state." The person who heads a monarchy is called a monarch....
 of the Wittelsbach
Wittelsbach

The Wittelsbach family is a European royal family and a Germany dynasty from Bavaria. Their major principal roles were as List of rulers of Bavaria , Electoral Palatinate , List of rulers of Brandenburg , Counts of Holland, County of Hainaut and Zeeland , List of bishops and archbishops of Cologne , Duchy of J?lich and Berg , Kings of Sweden...
 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, who presides over the council of ministers....
 of Bavaria. Though he advocated a "socialist republic", he distanced himself from the Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
n Bolshevik
Bolshevik

Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists were a faction of the Marxism Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the 2nd Congress of the RSDLP in 1903 and ultimately became the Communist Party of the Soviet Union....
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 Germany economics 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 Minister of 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 Anton Graf Arco-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, Germany political activist, is best remembered as the assassin of the Bavarian socialist leader Kurt Eisner in February 1919....
, who was rejected from membership in the Thule Society
Thule Society

The Thule Society , originally the Studiengruppe f?r germanisches Altertum 'Study Group for Germanic peoples Antiquity', was a German occultist and v?lkisch group in Munich, named after a Thule from Greek legend....
 because of Jewish
Judaism

Judaism is a set of beliefs and practices originating in the Hebrew Bible , as later further explored and explained in the Talmud and other texts....
 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 Communism regime established in Hungary from March 21 until August 6, 1919, under the leadership of B?la Kun....
 in Hungary
Hungary

Hungary , officially in English the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in the Carpathian Basin of Central Europe, bordered by Austria, Slovakia, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia....
 encouraged communists
Communism

Communism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarianism, classlessness, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general....
 and anarchists
Anarchism

Anarchism is a political philosophy encompassing anarchist schools of thought which consider the state to be unnecessary, harmful, and/or undesirable....
 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 Toller
Ernst Toller

Ernst Toller was a Germany Communism playwright, best known for his expressionist plays....
, 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 Anarchist communism and an avowed pacifism....
, Silvio Gesell
Silvio Gesell

Silvio Gesell was a Germany merchant, theoretical economist, social activist, anarchist and founder of Freiwirtschaft....
 and Erich Mühsam
Erich Mühsam

Erich M?hsam was a German-Jewish anarchism, writer, poet, dramatist, and cabaret performer.Both a prolific poetry, dramatist and a Bohemianism, M?hsam emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a Federalism 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

A psychiatric hospital is a hospital specializing in the treatment of serious mental illness, usually for relatively long-term inpatients.Two rules usually govern whether someone should be placed in a psychiatric hospital: if someone is an immediate threat to harm themselves, or to harm other people....
s), declared war on Switzerland
Switzerland

Switzerland is a landlocked Swiss Alps country of roughly 7.7 million people in Western Europe with an area of 41,285 km?. Switzerland is a federal republic consisting of 26 states called Cantons of Switzerland....
 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 September 3, 1914 to January 22, 1922, succeeding Pope Pius X ....
 and informed Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin

Vladimir Ilyich Lenin , born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov and also known by the pseudonyms V.I. Lenin and N. Lenin, was a Russians revolutionary, a Bolshevik Communism politician, the principal leader of the October Revolution and the first head of the USSR....
 via cable that the ousted former Minister-President Hoffmann
Johannes Hoffmann

Johannes Hoffmann was a Bavarian Minister-President and member of the SPD....
 fled to Bamberg
Bamberg

Bamberg is a town 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 getting near to Bamberg....
 and took 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....
, with Eugen Leviné
Eugen Levine

Eugen Levin? was a Communism, revolutionary and leader of the short lived Bavarian Soviet Republic.Levin? was born in St. Petersburg, to Jewish parents, and educated in Germany....
, sometimes characterized as a "potential German Lenin", 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 last album to feature Sammy Hagar as lead vocalist....
 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 Red Army was the armed force first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and, in 1922, became the army of the Soviet Union....
 of Soviet Russia
Russian SFSR

The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic , also called the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic, the Russian SFSR and the RSFSR for short, was the largest and most populous of the fifteen Republics of the Soviet Union of the Soviet Union and became the Russian Federation after the collapse of the Soviet Union....
. In order to support the revolutionary government, thousands of unemployed workers volunteered; soon the ranks of the Rote Armee reached 20,000. The Red Guards began arresting suspected counterrevolutionaries and on 29 April 1919, eight men, including the well-connected Prince Gustav von Thurn and Taxis, 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), having a force of 9,000, and Freikorps
Freikorps

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 119-1983-0012, Kapp-Putsch, Marienbrigade Erhardt in Berlin.jpgThe designation of Freikorps was originally applied to voluntary armies formed in German lands from the middle of 18th century onwards....
 such as the Freikorps Epp
Franz Ritter von Epp

Franz Ritter von Epp was a regular officer in the German Army of the early part of the 20th century, who rose to the office of Reichsstatthalter of Bavaria, a position of dictatorial power, under the Nazis....
 and the Marinebrigade Ehrhardt
Marinebrigade Ehrhardt

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 119-1983-0007, Kapp-Putsch, Marinebrigade Erhardt in Berlin.jpgThe Marinebrigade Ehrhardt was a Freikorps 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....
, having a force of 30,000 men, 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 I
    Aftermath of World War I

    The fighting in World War I ended when an armistice took effect at 11:00 am Greenwich Mean Time on November 11, 1918. In the aftermath of World War I the political, cultural, and social order of the world was drastically changed in many places, even outside the areas directly involved in the war....
  • German Revolution of 1918-19
  • History of Bavaria
    History of Bavaria

    The 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 States of Germany of the modern Federal Republic of Germany....
  • History of Germany
    History of Germany

    Despite the lack of a German nation state before 1871, the countrydates back to the era of the Germanic tribes. Following the migration period, the Franks subsequently subdued the West Germanic tribes, who made up for most of East Francia after the Frankish Empire fell apart....
  • Weimar Republic
    Weimar Republic

    The Weimar Republic was the democracy and republican period of Germany from 1919 to 1933. Following World War I, the republic emerged from the German Revolution in November 1918....
  • Soviet (council)
    Soviet (council)

    A soviet originally was a workers' councils in late Imperial Russia. According to the official historiography of the Soviet Union, the first Soviet was organized during the 1905 Russian Revolution in Ivanovo in May 1905....


External links