The Revolution of 7/8 November 1918

On the afternoon of 7 November 1918, a peace rally of the social democrat parties, USPD and MSPD, with tens of thousands of participants took place on Munich's Theresienwiese. The Mehrheitssozialdemokraten ended the meeting, as planned, with a march to the statue of the Friedensengel. Kurt Eisner (1867-1919), however, set out with a small group of adherents to the Munich barracks in the north of the city. There the soldiers joined the call for revolution.

In the following hours revolutionaries occupied the government buildings and the parliament. The Bavarian royal couple, Louis III. (1845-1921) and Therese (1849-1919), fled to Austria. Eisner's political uprising had been a success.

During the night, some of the revolutionaries gathered in the Chamber of Deputies' plenary hall, where Kurt Eisner gave a speech. In it, he announced the establishment of a provisional parliament, the Provisional National Council, as well as new state elections in accordance with democratic principles. In addition, Eisner emphasised that he wanted to bring about the most favourable peace agreement possible by changing the political system and those involved. The sole record of Eisner's speech consists of the report of an American journalist who happened to be present and was published in the Frankfurter Zeitung on 8 November 1918.