He then drew a Browning rifle, steadied himself on the railing and blasted Auer from his chair
The propagandist's view of a German soldier returning home. In reality, most men arrived from the trenches to face poverty, unemployment and hunger.
'I have declared war on Württemberg and
not at once loaned me sixty locomotives'
'What does it matter if for a few weeks less milk reaches
Back to Bavaria
Apart from Eisner handing the Allies state secrets,
The SPD returned 1,124,000 votes as opposed to Eisner and his USDP clique's 86,000. Another party that did well was the centralist Bayerische Volkspartei (BVP): they had run a campaign tapping into Catholic fears of Eisner as a Soviet stooge.
His position now untenable, Eisner clung on to power for a few more weeks until it became apparent, even to an idealist like him, that there was no choice left but to resign. The day he chose to deliver his resignation to the Landtag, 21 February, was his last.
The Thule Society's sister organisation was the Schutz und Trutz Bund (League for Protection and Resistance). The symbol they chose to reflect their Aryan credentials was the Hakenkreuz, the Swastika (a symbol that had also been adopted by a number of Freikorps units). Unsurprisingly, they loathed Eisner and many Thule Society members openly called for his assassination.
Arco's application to the Thule Society had been rejected because his mother was of Jewish descent. Seething with shame and rage he decided to perform a task to prove his mettle. And so Eisner's death was not brought about by a cloak and dagger conspiracy, but from the desperation of a young man indoctrinated by the anti-Semitism and class hatred.
As a postscript, Arco was convicted of murder, but released in 1924 on the grounds of 'ill health'. He was to die ignominiously just after the
Rumours, lies and murder
With hindsight it is clear that Eisner's death was the result of Arco's actions alone, but at the time most in the working classes believed the assassination was a right wing conspiracy. They also believed that it was a murder implemented with a nod and a wink from the SPD (had not events in
One young man, an apprentice butcher named Alois Linder, was quick to come to this conclusion and decided to take immediate revenge against the SPD.
Within an hour of assassination, the Landtag sat in stunned silence listening to Eisner's nemesis, Erhard Auer, delivering a eulogy for the dead Prime Minister. He had just finished when the unnoticed Linder walked calmly into the assembly, down one of the aisles and up to a banister. He then drew a Browning rifle, steadied himself on the railing and blasted Auer from his chair.
Auer, although not dead, was seriously wounded. In the meantime, Linder calmly strolled back up the aisle, took a few pot shots at the BVP benches and then approached the exit. As he did so a brave officer, Major von Jahreiss, attempted to halt him. Linder killed him with a single shot and walked out into the swirling crowds outside.
Unlike Arco, Linder was not acting alone. A second gunman opened fire from the visitor's galleries, aiming again at the BVP, with the party's leader fatally wounded in the head. Linder fled to
Auer was taken to hospital and was operated on by the same surgeon who, just moments beforehand, had saved Arco’s life. Later on, Auer sent Arco a bunch of red roses. So much for eulogies.
From sinner to saint
Church bells across the city tolled for the dead Prime Minister (the bell ringers in some cases being forced to perform their task under the wrathful eyes of the pro-Eisner/USDP 'security' forces).
The assassination spot was quickly covered in floral tributes and red flags. Framed portraits of Eisner were set up in the streets and those who passed were forced to remove their hats by ‘security’ patrols.
Members of the Thule Society managed to desecrate this shrine to Eisner by soaking sacks of flour with the scent of bitches on heat, which they then dumped over the site: street dogs soon gathered and fouled the area.
Eisner's funeral took place on 26 February and a day of mourning was declared throughout
In the crowds a number of protest banners were held aloft, many carried the words: "Vengeance for Eisner!" Eulogies were delivered, including one from Gustav Landauer, who compared the dead Prime Minister to Goethe, Jan Hus, a number of Old Testament prophets and, for good measure, Jesus Christ.
In the fallout of Eisner's funeral, a new government was hobbled together and called the Zentralrat (Central Council), while the Landtag was temporarily dissolved. The SPD demanded, as the winner of the largest vote in the elections, to take the dominant role.
As Auer was still convalescing, the man at the helm of the SPD, and now the Zentralrat, was now Johannes Hoffmann.
SPD ousted
Hoffmann came under immediate pressure from all sides. He needed the assistance of the national government in order to gain economic support – Eisner's 'print more money' policies without national government support had shown how damaging the pursuit of an isolationist line could be economically.
Unfortunately for Hoffmann, a draft constitution for the
On 22 March news arrived that
Hoffmann decided to curtail their increasing power and announced the Landtag would reconvene on 8 April, which was earlier than had been agreed.
Knowing the anger this would create within radical circles, Hoffmann travelled to
On 5 April
The radicals made the decision for them: their supporters came out in droves yelling the Bolshevik rallying cry "All power to the Soviets!" Sensing a chance to seize power, the radicals proclaimed the creation of the new Soviet Republic of Bavaria on 6 April.
The SPD leaders, realising that
The far left of the Zentralrat met to form a new cabinet for the new soviet republic. The Independent Socialists - the main leaders being Ernst Toller and Erich Mühsam and Gustav Landauer – took over the reins of power (their stock was at high due to their close association with Eisner).
But the new regime was instantly criticised by the Communists for failing to set up what they deemed to be a true soviet. This early split did not bode well.
Another problem they faced was their sheer eccentricity. To their enemies they were simply coffee house intellectuals, with one or two of them lacking a firm grasp on reality, let alone matters of state. Indeed, the new Foreign Minister, Dr Lipp (whom Toller had brought along to the meeting and seconded) was straight from an insane asylum.
Sporting a vast unkempt beard, Lipp would decorate his offices with bundles of red carnations. He also had a penchant for firing off bizarre telegrams to important people. To Lenin he complained that Hoffmann had run off with the keys to the ministerial toilet. He also added details about Noske having the hands of a gorilla that dripped blood.
Lenin did not reply, so Lipp had the same telegram sent off to his 'good friend' the Pope.
Later on, Lipp announced to his astounded colleagues: "I have declared war on Württemberg and
Lipp was too much even for the coffee house intellectuals and the good doctor was sent back to the asylum.
But bizarre decrees and declaration kept on coming. The Commissar for Finance, for example, believed money should be free. The Commissar of Public Instruction declared that the
Red rising
On 12 April the Republican Guards, a right wing militia in the pay of Hoffmann, mutinied against Toller's rule. They seized the Landtag, other major government buildings and arrested Erich Mühsam and Dr Lipp. Toller was quick to react and rallied his Red Guard militia. Numerically superior, and Toller personally leading them into battle, the Red Guard swiftly defeated their opponents.
Unfortunately for Toller, the workers and Red Guards decided that Toller and the coffee house intellectuals were no longer needed. After being arrested, freed, re-arrested and freed again, the Communists eventually decided to give Toller a say in the of organising Munich's defences.
The Communists secured power, with the ‘Russians’, Axelrod, Levien and Leviné, at the helm. It is worth noting that all three had Jewish backgrounds, a point the far right leapt upon and never tired of emphasising.
Of the three, Levien was probably the most radical and the most dominant. He had become a Spartacist during the war and, after being conscripted, lectured soldiers on the need for an Allied victory. "It is necessary," he said, "that
In charge of the Communists' defence force was Rudolf Egelhofer, a 26-year-old ex-sailor who had taken part in the Kiel Mutiny. Egelhofer immediately set about bolstering the numbers by offering free food and, on the face of it, good money: privates were paid 25 Marks a day, NCOs 130 Marks and officers 500 Marks. Prostitutes, it is said, were also 'supplied'.
To pay for this new army, the Communists simply printed off more notes. Indeed, the finance minister was forced to keep the presses running day and night just to keep up with the rate of inflation.
Weaponry was a problem as the considerable arsenals that had been stockpiled in
The clampdown on 'reactionaries' began almost immediately. One person the Communists deemed worthy of arrest was Adolf Hitler, had just returned from a stint as a prison guard of a Russian POW camp at Traunstien.
Interestingly, during the days of Eisner’s doomed tenure when Hitler first returned to
When the
According to Hitler’s memoirs, three communists arrived to arrest him on 27 April. "Faced with my levelled carbine," claimed Hitler, "the three scoundrels lacked the necessary courage and marched off as they had come."
Back in
Outside of the state, however, the number of Freikorps had mushroomed: over 400,000 men were estimated to have joined, or were affiliated with Freikorps units by spring 1919. Not surprisingly, Hoffman asked the national government for help in ridding
In return for their support, Hoffman was told - again - that
Unwilling, or unable, to accept these terms, Hoffman decided to raise his own counter-revolutionary army. Hastily arranged and poorly supplied, Hoffman's small force reached
After a brief skirmish, the outnumbered SPD forces cracked and fled. The Red Army netted five enemy officers and 36 troops. Egelhofer ordered Toller to shoot them; Toller refused.
With his forces smashed, Hoffman travelled to
The Communists were well aware that Hoffman would seek national government support. They were also well aware of the kind of threat the Freikorps posed. The Red Army was put on high alert and
Supplies, however, were becoming a serious problem as the peasantry withheld produce from their farms. It was not long into the Communist's reign that Red Army soldiers were sent to scour the city for supplies. The shortage of milk was a particularly serious problem: only children suffering from malnutrition (with a doctor's certificate to confirm this) were allowed to draw on the city's milk ration.
Leviné was undisturbed by the thought of starving babies. "What does it matter," he said, "if for a few weeks less milk reaches