“The Result of the Soviet Republic“ (from the Magazine “Feurjo“, 1919)

Between July and October 1919, the anti-Bolshevik weekly "Feurjo" appeared with a circulation of up to 100,000 copies. Its publisher was the "Heimatdienst Bayern für Ordnung, Recht und Aufbau" (home service for order, law and rebuilding), which was supported by the Bavarian department of the Reichswehr, the Aktionsauschuss of the bourgeois political parties, the regional "Bürgerrat" (citizens’ council) and several business associations. They promoted the membership in the residents' brigades and the organisation of the bourgeoisie in citizens' councils.

As the title suggests, Feurjo saw as its main task to warn of the danger of a Bolshevik wildfire caused by "foreign elements". As a cautionary example, one of its first editions cited the Munich Soviet Republic, whereby the reader is primarily made aware of the consequences of its mismanagement. As declared by the newspaper, this amounted to a financial loss of 200 million marks. The city of Munich, cut off from food supply, only narrowly escaped a famine. In the long run, the Bavarian economy had been damaged by counterfeit bank notes made by members of the Soviet Republic and by the loss of confidence in Munich as a business location. The devastating effects that the First World War had on the economy of the city were, of course, excluded in this presentation.

To the digitised copy