bavarikon4UContemporaneous Sources and Collections of Sources
Contemporaries of the events documented the Revolution by collections and editions of sources. At least in part, they have remained to this day indispensable for the scholarly debate. At the same time, they bear witness to the ways, in which particular societal groups experienced the revolutionary upheaval.
The Collection of Sources by Franz August Schmitt and Max Gerstl
Back in 1919, the BVP-journal Politische Zeitfragen (Political Issues of the Times) published numerous documents on the Revolution and on the Soviet Republic in Bavaria, which appeared as a special issue in three volumes. These volumes present to this day an essential collection of sources for the period between November 1918 and May 1919. Editors were Franz August Schmitt (1894-1956), later a long-standing member of the economics committee of the BVP and after 1945 administrative director of the Bayerische Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation), and the Munich BVP- and CSU-politician Max Gerstl (1883-1968).
- "Die neue Zeit in Bayern" (The New Age in Bavaria) includes documents dated from 8 November 1918 up to Eisner’s assassination and of the interruption of the session of the state parliament on 21 February 1919.
- "Die Zeit der zweiten Revolution in Bayern" (The Time of the Second Revolution in Bavaria) documents the development between 21 February 1919 and the formation of the first Hoffmann government on 17/18 March 1919.
- "Die Münchener Räterepublik" (The Munich Soviet Republic) provides source material on the events of April and May 1919.
All three volumes contain documents in chronological order, made accessible by an index (according to Schmitt: table of contents).
Collections of Flyers on the Munich Soviet Republic
The Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library) preserves in the holdings of the “Historiae universalis appendix” (H.un.app.), a special compartment which includes books on WWI, three collections of flyers and handbills on the Munich Soviet Republic.
Most of the proclamations and placards gathered in these three collections, according to format, date back to April 1919, while some originated in the previous months as well as in May 1919. The majority document the conflicts surrounding the Soviet Republic. Propaganda handbills by supporters of the councils and of the Hoffmann government as well as exhortations to join the Red Army, the Peoples’ Guard loyal to the government or the Freikorps (voluntary military units) dominate. The invasion of troops from Wuerttemberg as well as the progression of the battle for Munich left their mark. The handbills also document additional conflicts, such as strikes and issues of socialisation. Some are openly anti-Semitic. Handwritten notes are particularly revealing. Statements such as “flung from a car” or “Fliegerabwurf” (distributed by plane) clarify modes of news dissemination in a situation of civil war.
The flyers and handbills concern mainly Munich and the deployment zone of the government troops in the West and North of the city. Northern Bavaria, Lower Bavaria and eastern Upper Bavaria are represented but little. A series of handbills were printed in Landsberg am Lech or were collected there. By means of a donation code (G.n. 1692) they can be identified as the bequest of the future director of the Universitätsbibliothek München (Munich University Library), Adolf Hilsenbeck (1873-1947), who worked between 1896 and 1925 for the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek.
The Economic Programme of Silvio Gesell
After the government Eisner and the first Hoffmann government had already started to plan socialisations, such aspirations reached a new quality during the periods of the first and second Munich Soviet Republic.
From 7 April 1919, the people’s deputy for finance, Silvio Gesell (1862-1930), attempted to realise his Freiwirtschaftsprogramm (programme for a free economy). By means of an “absolute currency” the issue of inflation was supposed to be solved. The proclamation of the second Communist Soviet Republic on 13 April 1919, however, made the implementation of his programme impossible, even though Gesell remained in office for a further few days. The “proletarian activities programme” he proposed on 15 April 1919, including a substantial capital levy, was not implemented either.
Carl Polenske (1876-1956) who worked closely with him published in 1919 a collection of 15 documents on Gesell’s activities.
The Destruction of the Economy in Munich
The Munich Chamber of Commerce recognised in its session on 9 May 1919, i.e. only a few days after the end of the Soviet Republic, the economic outcome of the events in April 1919. As was to be expected, the judgement was shattering. In this context, there were undifferentiated complaints about “Kommunistenwirtschaft” (Communist economy), even though the KPD only started to influence events from 13 April with the advent of the second Soviet Republic.
At the same time, the report published as a separate excerpt from the minutes of the meeting offers an illuminating insight into the economic problems, which Soviet rule had brought with it. Among the issues mentioned were for example the breakdown of the postal system, the lack of charcoal supply, general strikes, unemployment, interventions into the banking system, problems with financial liquidity, famine, shortage of goods, as well as the interruption of residential construction. The anonymous commentator expressed the opinion that the generally difficult economic situation in Munich - without a well-funded hinterland, with insufficient transport connections and high labour and transport costs - had become even worse through Soviet rule.
Hofmiller: Revolutionstagebuch (Revolutionary Diary)
In 1904, Dr. Josef Hofmiller (1872-1933), who worked as a teacher in his main profession, had been one of the co-founders of the conservative cultural journal Süddeutsche Monatshefte. To this day, Hofmiller is known as a brilliant essayist. In August 1918, Hofmiller began to keep a diary under the impression of the exacerbating political situation and continued his records up to July 1919. Nonetheless, he published them only between autumn 1932 and February 1933 in the Münchner Neueste Nachrichten. The complete edition was published in 1938 by his widow Hulda Hofmiller (1890-1981).
In Hofmiller’s Revolutionstagebuch (Revolutionary Diary), a stylistically confident author describes the events taking place in Munich during 1918/19 under the impression of his own direct experience. Depictions of every-day life including the reproduction of the numerous rumours alternate with reflecting passages The events and protagonists, in particular Kurt Eisner, are seen highly critically by Hofmiller, without however glorifying those in power thus far. The diary is characterised by a resigned tone and allows therefore an insight into how the Munich bourgeoisie experienced the Revolution.
Literature:
- Harald Werner, Heimaten des Geistes. Erinnerung an Josef Hofmiller, Freising 1997.
- Hans-Christof Kraus, Süddeutsche Monatshefte, publiziert am 24.07.2006; in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (27.06.2018).
Brother Marianus: the Miraculous Image of the Virgin Mary of Altötting on Her Way to Safety
While from the North and West government troops and free corps proceeded towards Munich, by the end of April 1919 Red Army soldiers still pushed towards the South and East of the Bavarian capital. One of these advances led into the direction of Mühldorf, which was occupied on 25 April, and in the direction of Altötting, where the Red Army soldiers arrived in the night between 25 and 26 April and which they kept occupied until 28 April. Given the imminent invasion, the desecration of the highly symbolic miraculous image of Altötting by the Red Army soldiers was to be expected. The parson of Altötting, Franz Xaver Konrad, therefore, fled with the miraculous image in the night between 24 and 25 April from Altötting. By way of Eggenfelden and Vilshofen the miraculous image arrived at Passau, where it was displayed for worship on 27 April at first at the Niedernburg monastery and from 10 May in Passau Cathedral. After the political situation had been stabilised, the miraculous image returned on 29 May via Simbach to Altötting, where it was ceremoniously received on 31 May 1919.
Under the name of Brother Marianus, the Altötting Capuchin P. Cyprian Fröhlich (1853-1931) published in 1919 a detailed description of the escape and return of the miraculous image of the Virgin Mary. The publication is supplemented by three sermons of the bishop of Passau, Sigismund Felix von Ow-Felldorf (1855-1936). The diocesan bishop who had been in office since 1906 reflected in great detail on the events taking place since November 1918 (in particular in the sermon dated to 29 May 1919 on the “fight between the haughty princes of this world and the humble handmaid of the Lord”). Beyond the local historical reference, the description and the sermons bear witness to how Bavarian Catholicism interpreted the changes of the years 1918/19.
Literature:
- Eduard Baumann, Als vom Rathaus die rote Fahne flatterte, in: Oettinger Land 16 (1996), 106-119.
The Munich Hostage Murders
Massive journalistic attention received the so-called “murder of hostages” at the Luitpold-Gymnasium. Shortly before the end of the Soviet Republic, on 30 April 1919, ten prisoners were shot, mostly members of the Thule Society who had been arrested a few days previously. Before the end of 1919, a number of depictions of the “murder of hostages” appeared, one of which is documented here. It is based, among other things, on the bill of indictment by the Munich department of public prosecution from the trial against the perpetrators at the Munich people’s court in September 1919.
Literature:
- Hermann Gilbhard, Thule-Gesellschaft, 1918-1933, publiziert am 17.07.2006; in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (27.06.2018).
- Bernhard Grau, Roter Terror, publiziert am 16.08.2006; in: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns (27.06.2018).
The Trials against the Assassins of 21 February 1919
During the morning of 21 February 1919, Anton Graf von Arco-Valley (1897-1945) shot Prime Minister Kurt Eisner (1867-1919), who was on his way to the opening of the newly elected state parliament. When the news of Eisner’s murder arrived, the regional parliament was adjourned by an hour to 11:00 am. Only a few minutes after reopening the session, Alois Lindner (1887-post 1943), a member of the Revolutionary Workers Council, began a shoot-out, during which among others the socialist home secretary Erhard Auer (1874-1945) was heavily wounded and several other attendees were killed. The two attacks of 21 February 1919 were going to influence decisively the future political development of Bavaria, since they contributed significantly to the radicalisation of substantial parts of the population. With Kurt Eisner, the Revolution lost its formative personality; the interruption of the session of the state parliament made the configuration of a new government impossible.
For the juridical reappraisal of the attacks the People’s Courts were responsible, i.e. the special political jurisdiction that existed from 1918 to 1924 in Bavaria. The People’s Courts passed a number of scandalous sentences. Both trials took place before the Munich People’s Court, when it was chaired by Georg Neithardt (1871-1941), who would become well known for his mild sentence in the Hitler-Ludendorff-trial.
The trial against Alois Lindner and further co-defendants took place between 9 and 15 December 1919 and ended for Lindner with a prison sentence lasting several years. The Court, however, did not see any indication that the attack against the home secretary Erhard Auer (SPD) who was critical of the Revolution had been premeditated in the long-term by radical circles. In the context of the trial, Auer’s role between November 1918 and February 1919 was discussed several times. Therefore, as early as in 1919, the Birk publishing house sympathetic to the SPD printed a detailed documentation of the trial, which described in a lengthy introduction the case history of the attacks and of the Soviet Republic from the perspective of the SPD.
The People’s Court tried the case against Count Arco on 15 and 16 February 1920 and sentenced him to death for homicide. On 17 February 1920, the second Hoffmann government with the support of SPD and BVP changed the sentence into a life-long prison sentence. In 1920, a documentation appeared in the Munich publishing house Lehmann, a leading publisher for nationalist and racist literature. The exemplar digitised here, bears on its front page a note by its owner “Dr. Buttmann”. Dr. Rudolf Buttmann (1885-1947), then librarian of the state parliament, was later chairman of the NSDAP-party in the Bavarian regional parliament and from 1935 to 1945 general director of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library).
Literature:
