After the successful ‘October Revolution’ of the Russian Bolsheviks in 1917 and the founding of the Soviet Republic (soviet is Russian for ‘councils’), the soviet model became popular in radical left circles. According to their vision, the soviets (or councils) elected by the working class would assume power and establish the dictatorship of the proletariat after the revolution. Most soviet models can be traced back to the model of the Paris Commune (1871). In contrast to the (bourgeois) parliamentary democracy, soviet members should be elected directly and with an imperative mandate from their work or residential district, and each worker should be entitled to vote. Soviets were envisioned at different levels with a ‘Central Council’ at the top. The soviets should be both legislators and executives and occupy the courts – there were no provisions for a division of power.
Following the model in the Soviet Union, councils of workers and soldiers were founded everywhere in Germany during the November Revolution. However, they were typically dominated by Majority Social Democrats, who were staunch opponents of the Soviet model and advocates of parliamentary democracy. Only the radical left (Spartacus League or the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), Independent Social Democratic Party (USPD), and anarchists) strove for a soviet republic. At the ‘First General Congress of the Councils of Workers and Soldiers’ in Berlin on December 16, 1918, the course was set by a large majority in the direction of a parliamentary system and the election date for the National Assembly was fixed for January 19, 1919. In some industrialized regions of the Reich, proponents of the soviet system quickly gained ground due to the growing dissatisfaction with the social-democratic government, its collaboration with the bourgeois parties and imperial generals, and discontent due to the lack of economic socialization, which was considered self-evident. Concurrently to the ‘Spartacist uprising’ in Berlin (that ended with the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht) in January 1919, supporters of the soviet system seized power in a few places or even proclaimed a soviet republic, such as in Bremen. However, such attempts were quickly stopped by government troops.
The number of soviet system supporters in Munich also continuously grew among the working class. The murder of Kurt Eisner on February 21, 1919, resulted in an unprecedented mobilization and radicalization of the working class in Munich. Following the uncompromising actions of the government troops in Berlin under the authority of the Social Democrats, Friedrich Ebert and Gustav Noske, the assassination by the monarchist and antisemite Anton Graf Arco auf Valley seemed like an attack on the entire revolution. Eisner’s rival and an opponent of the soviet republic, Erhard Auer (Majority Social Democratic Party of Germany, MSPD), was blamed by the radical left as being one of the intellectual perpetrators of the assassination. The long-smoldering, seemingly irresolvable conflict over the government’s future form – State Parliament or soviet republic – increasingly escalated in the coming weeks. The obvious radicalization was not just limited to Bavaria: It festered in the industrial centers of the German Reich. At the beginning of March, serious unrest broke out in the working-class districts in Berlin and was bloodily crushed by government troops; over 1,000 people lost their lives. In Hungary, a soviet republic was proclaimed on March 21, 1919, a civil war raged in the Baltics, and German Free Corps fought fierce battles against the Red Army: the revolution appeared to be spreading from Soviet Russia to the West.
The Proclamation of the First Soviet Republic
Before the Bavarian Parliament could assemble as planned on April 7, 1919, supporters of the USPD, MSPD, and anarchists proclaimed the ‘Munich Soviet Republic’ during the night of April 6-7, 1919. The Communists were against the proclamation since they considered it premature and did not trust the Majority Social Democrats. In fact, they withdrew their previously given approval. The state government under Johannes Hoffmann declared itself the sole lawful authority but fled to Bamberg. From there it sought military support from the Reich government. Reichswehr units and Free Corps from Prussia and southern German states quickly advanced on Munich. The Soviet government ruled the city under the leadership of Ernst Niekisch (MSPD), who was shortly thereafter replaced by Ernst Toller (USPD). Intellectuals and writers such as Erich Mühsam, Gustav Landauer, and Silvio Gesell took leading positions in the soviet government. Consequently, the first Munich Soviet Republic was disparagingly referred to as the ‘literati republic’ by contemporaries. However, this should not obscure the fact that there were also many activists from Munich’s working class, which formed the social basis in the first place on which the ‘Soviet experiment’ was risked. The numerous decrees and ordinances of the soviet government took aim at overthrowing the established order and creating an egalitarian, anti-authoritarian society. Nonetheless, the state apparatus remained mostly untouched. Within Bavaria, the Munich Soviet Republic remained mostly isolated, and its authority and effectiveness remained low.
The Second (Communist) Soviet Republic
On April 13, 1919, the Republican Protection Force, which was loyal to the Hoffmann government, attempted an uprising that was crushed with the help of the Red Army, still in the process of being developed and under the leadership of Rudolf Egelhofer (KPD), claiming a total of 21 victims. The councils of workers and soldiers then deposed the previously ruling revolutionary ‘Central Council’ and transferred power to the newly founded Action Committee under the leadership of the KPD. This formed the Executive Council as the highest body of the second Soviet Republic with Eugen Leviné and Max Levien appointed its chairmen. The second Soviet Republic pursued the Executive Council’s goal of a socialist soviet republic much more resolutely than its predecessor: It organized the disarmament of the bourgeoisie and the armament of the working class and had food stores and motor vehicles seized. It also prepared the nationalization of banks and suppressed the bourgeoisie press. The Red Army comprising roughly 10,000 people skirmished with the government troops surrounding the city and initially repelled the attackers on April 16, 1919, near Dachau. The encirclement of Munich by government troops and Free Corps led to a vote of no confidence by the councils of workers and soldiers against the soviet government, which subsequently resigned on April 27, 1919. Despite this, the Red Army called for armed resistance; however, this collapsed within days in light of the futile discrepancy in power.
‘Red Terror’ and ‘Hostage Murder’
Except for during the end phase, there were only individual cases of serious violence against people during the rule of the soviets – this was even attested to by a police report not intended for the public from May 1919, which took stock of the ‘soviet rule’. However, the aforementioned ordinances of the soviet government, the often high-handed behavior of the revolutionaries, and the arbitrariness emanating from them were perceived as terrorization: Goods were seized on a large scale and a ‘Commission for Combating the Counter-Revolution’ followed the Russian model in its search for ‘counter-revolutionaries’ and ‘saboteurs’, who were sent to the ‘revolutionary tribunal’, but de facto this tribunal hardly met. Widely circulating rumors, wild threats from the revolutionary authorities, a lack of legal security, and uncertainty about the future spread confusion and fear, which were fed by the chilling example of the Russian Civil War. Shortly before the end of the Munich Soviet Republic, members of the Red Army shot ten prisoners in the Luitpoldgymnasium secondary school after receiving news about alleged atrocities by the advancing government troops. In propaganda, this ‘hostage murder’ was elevated to a symbol of ‘Red Terror’ by opponents of soviet rule, partly due to reports about the alleged mutilation of the victims, thereby serving as a pretext for the extremely violent behavior of the government troops.
Self-Image – Public-Image
Among the leading revolutionaries of the Munich Soviet Republic, there were a considerable number of activists from outside the greater Munich area, whose names are hardly known today. They viewed themselves first and foremost as activists of a both national and international conflict that, after the battles in Berlin or in the Ruhr area, were now being continued in Munich. By contrast, opponents of the Munich Soviet Republic labeled them as ‘Russians’ and ‘foreigners’, who had led the Bavarian working class astray. On the other hand, many of the activists hailed from Bavaria, such as Egelhofer, Commander of the Red Army, the Chief of Police Ferdinand Mayrgünther, or Max Strobl, head of the ‘Commission for Combating the Counter-Revolution’. Another prejudice of the revolution’s opponents was that its rule was supported by the ‘rabble’ and ‘criminals’. Besides actual gangs operating on their own and who used the confusing situation for their own purposes, the actions of the revolutionaries themselves also contributed to such judgments: As in most cities in the German Reich, the prisons were stormed after the revolution and hundreds of political and military inmates were released. The authority of the ‘old elites’ was destroyed; soviets elected by the soldiers themselves ruled the city. To many observers, the new ‘undisciplined’ appearance of the soldiers and poorly clothed, armed workers patrolling the streets were just as intimidating as the fact that many revolutionaries displayed their power with obviously great self-confidence.
