Erich Mühsam (6.4.1878 Berlin – 10.7.1934 Oranienburg Concentration Camp)

The son of a pharmacist, Mühsam met Gustav Landauer when he joined a group of anarchist writers in 1901. His journalistic career began in 1904 at the social democratic satirical magazine Der Wahre Jakob. In 1908, he relocated to Munich and became a central figure of the Schwabing bohemians. He founded the anarchist newspaper Kain. Zeitschrift für Menschlichkeit. After 1914, Mühsam quickly evolved into a fierce anti-war activist: he held lectures in workers’ groups, spoke out at public assemblies, and took part in the January 1918 strike in Germany.

During the November Revolution, he was co-opted into the Revolutionary Worker’s Council. Towards the end of November 1918, he founded the “Vereinigung Revolutionärer Internationalisten” (League of Revolutionary Internationalists), which worked closely with the Spartacus group/Communist Party of Germany (KPD). Mühsam also played a leading role in the proclamation of the Munich Soviet Republic on April 7, 1919. During the night of April 12-13, the counter-revolutionary “Republikanische Schutztruppe” (Republican Protection Force) arrested him in the wake of their failed putsch. The Munich People’s Court sentenced him to 15 years of penal servitude (July 12, 1919).

After an amnesty in 1924, Mühsam was released from Niederschönenfeld ‘Festungshaftanstalt’ (imprisonment with easier prison conditions, where prisoners retained their full civil rights). He moved back to Berlin where he continued his journalistic activities and vehemently opposed the rise of National Socialism. Due to his Jewish heritage and political activity, he was particularly detested by the Nazis, and he was arrested on February 28, 1933, immediately following the Reichstag Fire. After endless mistreatment and humiliation, the SS murdered him at the Oranienburg Concentration Camp on July 10, 1934.