Mounted Troops Enter Munich after the Defeat of the Councils' Republic [Räterepublik] (May 1919)

After Kurt Eisner’s murder and the violence that followed, political chaos predominated in Bavaria. Here, too, a conflict flared up between supporters of a parliamentary republic and those who wanted a socialist soviet republic (aka councils’ republic or Räterepublik). Initially the Majority Social Democrats around Minister-President Johannes Hoffmann seemed to have gained the upper hand, but they were unable to stabilize the political and economic situation. The radical left saw an opportunity and proclaimed the Bavarian Soviet Republic on April 7, 1919. Supporters of the minister-president attempted to violently suppress adherents of the soviet republic, which radicalized things further and cost many lives. Soldiers’ and workers’ councils declared a second, communist soviet republic in the Hofbräuhaus. A Red Army was established, the citizenry was disarmed, and political opponents were arrested. The situation resembled a civil war in May, when Reichswehr and free corps troops besieged Munich, toppled the communist government after days of deadly conflict, and took control of Munich. This photograph from May 1919 shows Reichswehr soldiers marching through Munich after the overthrow of the councils’ republic. That same month, a constitution was proclaimed in Bavaria, but parliamentary democracy did not develop a stronghold there. On the contrary, the region became a bastion of antidemocratic, national-conservative, and völkisch groups in the period following.

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© Bildarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz/ Heinrich Hoffmann