People's State of Bavaria
The People's State of Bavaria was a socialist republic in Bavaria which existed from November 1918 to April 1919. It was established during the German revolution as an attempt at a socialist state to replace the Kingdom of Bavaria, which had been a constituent state of the German Empire. The government of the People's State, led by Kurt Eisner, promised a non-revolutionary transition to socialism. It delayed discussions on nationalization of industry but enacted reforms such as the eight-hour workday. Shortly after Eisner's party placed last among the major parties in the election for a state constitutional assembly, he was assassinated by a right-wing extremist. A new government under the moderate socialist Johannes Hoffmann lasted only a few weeks before it was forced to flee to Bamberg in northern Bavaria due to a communist-led coup which established the Bavarian Soviet Republic on 6 April 1919. The coup marked the end of the People's State of Bavaria.
The Bavarian Soviet Republic was suppressed by the German Army with the assistance of paramilitary Freikorps troops in early May 1920. The Hoffmann government resumed power and enacted a republican constitution which made the Free State of Bavaria a member state of the Weimar Republic.
The German revolution in Bavaria
The roots of the People's State lay in the German Empire's defeat in the First World War and the ensuing German revolution of 1918–1919. At the end of October 1918, German sailors mutinied off the North Sea coast. After setting up a revolutionary workers' and soldiers' council at Kiel in early November, they quickly spread the councils across Germany and with little bloodshed took power from the existing military, royal and civil authorities.In Bavaria, protests initiated by the radical left Independent [Social Democratic Party of Germany] began in Munich on 3 November 1918, the first anniversary of the Russian revolution. The demonstrators called for an immediate peace and demanded the release of detained leaders. On the afternoon of 7 November 1918, the moderate left Social Democratic Party, USPD and Free Trade Unions sponsored a mass rally on Munich's Theresienwiese estimated to have been attended by from 40,000 to 60,000 people. One of the speakers, Kurt Eisner of the USPD, demanded the abdications of King Ludwig III of Bavaria and German emperor Wilhelm II, the democratization of Germany, comprehensive social welfare and an eight-hour workday. After the speeches, the SPD led a march through the city, then had its supporters disperse. Eisner, along with Felix Fechenbach and of the Bavarian Peasants' League used the opportunity to lead a band of about 1,000 to the army barracks in the north of Munich. There they were able to convince the majority of the soldiers to join them. The strengthened group returned to the center of the city where they occupied key locations such as the railway station, telegraph office and the Bavarian Landtag building.
That evening, the revolutionary soldiers and workers met in the Mathäserbräu beer hall. As was being done all across Germany in the aftermath of the Kiel mutiny, they formed a soviet-style workers' and soldiers' council. After electing Eisner its chairman, they went to the Landtag building where shortly before midnight he declared the end of the Wittlesbach monarchy and the formation of the Free State of Bavaria. On the 8th, the newspaper Münchner Neueste Nachrichten printed a statement by Eisner which announced the new Free State of Bavaria and the ouster of the monarchy. It promised to maintain order, hold an election to a Bavarian constituent assembly, guarantee property and retain civil servants.
On the evening of the seventh, King Ludwig became the first of the monarchs in the German Empire to lose his throne when he fled Munich with his family. They went first to his private castle on the Chiemsee and then, after learning of Eisner's proclamation, to the Anif Palace in nearby Salzburg, Austria, for what he hoped would be a temporary stay. On 12 November he signed the Anif declaration in which he released all Bavarian civil servants and military personnel from their oath of loyalty to him. Although he did not use the word "abdication", the Eisner government interpreted his statement as such. The 738-year dynasty of the House of Wittelsbach thus effectively came to an end.
In Munich, Erhard Auer at the head of the SPD leadership met with representatives of the unions on the morning of 8 November and decided that the best way to moderate the revolutionary forces under Eisner was to take part in his new government. Eisner agreed to work with the SPD and the middle-class parties as long as they accepted the new form of government and that the workers', soldiers' and peasants' councils were the holders of state power. After they reached an agreement, they filled out a list of ministers. It was completed the same afternoon and presented to the provisional National Council, which was made up of members of the pre-revolutionary Landtag and of the workers', soldiers' and peasants' councils. The National Council had little function other than to give the new government a veneer of legitimacy.
Eisner government
Kurt Eisner was a middle-class Jew who had been a drama critic in Berlin before he left his wife and family to go to Munich, where he took up with a female journalist, frequented the cafés of the Schwabing district, and wrote reviews for the Münchener Post. He later lost his job because he was part of the "revisionist right-wing" of the Social Democratic Party, which wanted the party to drop its attachment to Marxist ideology.Eisner helped found the Munich branch of the Independent Social Democratic Party and became known for his anti-war stance, which had earned him eight months in jail after he organized a number of peace strikes in January 1918. He was released under a general amnesty in October 1918. Despite his gift for rhetoric and oratory, Eisner had no political or administrative experience when he became minister-president.
The Eisner government consisted of:
After the assassination
Despite the assassination, the Landtag convened as scheduled, and Erhard Auer, the leader of the Social Democrats and the Minister of the Interior in Eisner's government, began to eulogize Eisner, but rumours had already begun to spread that Auer was behind the assassination. Acting on the false allegations, Alois Lindner, a butcher, waiter and member of the Revolutionary Workers' Council who was a fervent supporter of Eisner, shot Auer twice with a rifle, seriously wounding him. It prompted other armed Eisner supporters to open fire, killing one delegate from the Centre Party and provoking nervous breakdowns in at least two ministers. For the next month, there was effectively no government in Bavaria.The events caused unrest and lawlessness in Bavaria, and a general strike was proclaimed by the workers' and soldiers' councils, which distributed guns and ammunition. The assassination of Eisner created a martyr for the leftist cause and prompted demonstrations, the closing of the University of Munich, the kidnapping of aristocrats and the forced pealing of church bells. "Revenge for Eisner" rang through bullhorns in the streets. The support for the Left was greater than ever before, even greater than Eisner himself had been able to win.
Hoffmann government and end of the People's State
A general meeting of Munich councils on 22 February elected a Bavarian Central Council under the leadership of Ernst Niekisch with representatives from the SPD, USPD, Communist Party of Germany and peasants' councils. On 28 February, the Central Council called a congress of Bavarian councils at which the SPD refused to take part in a proposed provisional government. It insisted that a government could be legitimate only if backed by elected representatives of the people. The members of the constituent assembly were then called back into session and met for just the second time on 17 March. They chose Johannes Hoffmann of the SPD, an anti-militarist and former schoolteacher, to be minister-president. He then formed a minority cabinet consisting of four members from the SPD, two from the USPD, two independents and one from the Peasants' League.The government consisted of: