Munich 1919 is a vivid portrayal of the chaos that followed World War I and the collapse of the Munich Council Republic by one of the most perceptive chroniclers of German history. Victor Klemperer provides a moving and thrilling account of what turned out to be a decisive turning point in the fate of a nation, for the revolution of 1918-9 not only produced the first German democracy, it also heralded the horrors to come. With the directness of an educated and independent young man, Klemperer turned his hand to political journalism, writing astute, clever and linguistically brilliant reports in the beleaguered Munich of 1919. He sketched intimate portraits of the people of the hour, including Erich Mühsam, Max Levien and Kurt Eisner, and took the measure of the events around him with a keen eye. These observations are made ever more poignant by the inclusion of passages from his later memoirs. In the midst of increasing persecution under the Nazis he reflected on the fateful year 1919, the growing threat of antisemitism, and the acquaintances he made in the period, some of whom would later abandon him, while others remained loyal. Klemperer's account once again reveals him to be a fearless and deeply humane recorder of German history. Munich 1919 will be essential reading for all those interested in 20th century history, constituting a unique witness to events of the period.

The first study to reveal the key relationship between violence and fears of violence during the German Revolution of 1918-1919.

"In 1935, Adolf Hitler declared Munich the "Capital of the Movement." It was here that he developed his anti-Semitic beliefs and founded the Nazi party. Though Hitler's immediate milieu during the 1910s and 1920s has received ample attention, this book argues that the Munich of this period is worthy of study in its own right and that the changes the city underwent between 1918 and 1923 are absolutely crucial for understanding the rise of antisemitism and eventually Nazism in Germany. Before 1918, Munich had a decidedly cosmopolitan flavor, but its open atmosphere was shattered by the November Revolution of 1918-19. Jews were prominently represented among many of the European revolutions of the late 1910s and early 1920s, but nowhere did Jewish revolutionaries and government representatives appear in such high numbers as in Munich. The link between Jews and communist revolutionaries was especially strong in the minds of the city's residents. In the aftermath of the revolution and the short-lived Socialist regime that followed, the Jews of Munich experienced a massive backlash. The book unearths the story of Munich as ground zero for the racist and reactionary German Right, revealing how this came about and what it meant for those who lived through it"--

Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject History of Germany - World War I, Weimar Republic, grade: 1,0, University of Heidelberg (ZEGK – Historisches Seminar), course: Proseminar: Die Anfänge der Weimarer Republik, language: English, abstract: This term paper is dedicated to the question of how the contemporary representations of the 'Geiselmord' by official bodies and in the press took place, and to what extent these corresponded to the actual events. Furthermore, it is of historical relevance to examine whether the public portrayal of this crime was deliberately instrumentalized, especially in connection with the strengthening of conservative-nationalist and right-wing radical groups and politics in Bavaria between May 1919 and March 1920. In the research literature, a more detailed treatment of the Geiselmord, usually in the context of the Munich soviet republics, their suppression and the strengthening of conservative- nationalist and radical right-wing groups and politics at the beginning of the Weimar Republic in Bavaria, has taken place especially since the 1960s. In the broader context, this increase in interest can be explained by a general shift in the focus of historiographical study at that time from the end of the Weimar Republic to its formative phase and the accompanying more critical examination of the dichotomous thesis, which had previously hardly been questioned, that the Reich and Länder (federal state) governments had no alternative, especially in their action against radical left-wing uprisings in defence of the parliamentary system against a soviet republic, also in terms of cooperation with the 'old elites' and right-wing groups, which had been prominently advocated by Karl D. Erdmann, among others. Early on, Marxist-Leninist historiography in the GDR also dealt with the Geiselmord in connection with the Munich soviet republics, but this either remained with regret about the inconsistent implementation of a revolutionary terror and relativizing comparisons of the number of victims with the subsequent 'white terror'. In contrast, Heinrich Hillmayr critically discussed the concrete events of the Geiselmord, the deeds of government troops and Freikorps, the question of responsibility for them and noted distortions in the public representation of the Geiselmord and their causes. Most recently, Eliza Ablovatski's comparison of the Munich and Hungarian soviet republics in 1919 is probably the most detailed examination of the consequences of the Geiselmord, which, according to her, played a key role in anti-Semitic and anti-Bolshevik propaganda based on a detailed analysis of contemporary media representation and social reception. Thus, in modern research on the political and social conditions in Bavaria in the early Weimar Republic, a significant role is attributed to the Geiselmord, even if the concrete evaluations sometimes diverge. In order to answer the question, the political development of the strengthening of conservative nationalist and radical right-wing groups and politics in Bavaria is first outlined. Then the actual historical event, the execution of ten prisoners in the Luitpoldgymnasium, will be reconstructed and this will then be contrasted with a selection of contemporary accounts of the Geiselmord by official bodies and in the press, whereupon the question of the political and social significance of this narrative will be examined. Finally, the results of this investigation and an outlook are summarized in the conclusion.

Examines how narratives of the 1919 Central European revolutions promoted a violent counterrevolutionary culture in interwar Germany and Hungary.

The tangled affairs in Bavaria at the close of World War I constitute a unique and important part of the early Weimar Republic. This study of the 1918 revolution, based on archival sources such as cabinet protocols and bureaucratic records, traces in detail the overthrow of the Wittelsbach dynasty and the foundation of the Bavarian Republic under Kurt Eisner. It also broadens and balances current understanding of the first Communist attempts to penetrate the heartland of Europe. Originally published in 1965. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

History that reads like a novel: the story of the writers and intellectuals behind the failed Bavarian Revolution of 1918, by the author of the acclaimed Summer Before the Dark The bloody war has lasted more than four years. They aren't just going to let it burn out... Something bright and new has to—has to—come out of the darkness. Munich, November 1918: in the final days of the First World War, revolutionaries open the doors of military prisons, occupy official buildings and overthrow the monarchy. At the head of the newly declared Free State of Bavaria is journalist and theatre critic Kurt Eisner, and around him rally luminaries of German cultural history: Thomas Mann, Ernst Toller and Rainer Maria Rilke. Yet the dream cannot last: in February 1919, Eisner is assassinated and the revolution fails. But while it survived, it was the writers, the poets. the playwrights and the intellectuals who led the way, imagining new ways of shaping the world. In his characteristically vivid, sharp prose, Volker Weidermann hones in on a short moment in history, revealing an extraordinary flourishing of revolutionary potential that could have altered the course of the twentieth century. The award-winning writer and literary critic Volker Weidermann was born in Germany in 1969, and studied political science and German language and literature in Heidelberg and Berlin. He is the cultural editor of the Der Spiegel, and the author of Summer Before the Dark, which is also published by Pushkin Press.

An acclaimed historian of twentieth century Germany provides a vivid account of Hitler’s rise to power and its intimate connection to the Bavarian capital. The immediate aftermath of the Great War and the Versailles Treaty created a perfect storm of economic, social, political and cultural factors which facilitated the rapid rise of Adolf Hitler’s political career and the birth of the National Socialist German Worker’s Party. The breeding ground for this world-changing evolution was the city of Munich. In Hitler’s Munich, renowned historian David Ian Hall examines the origins and growth of Hitler’s National Socialism through the lens of this unique city. By connecting the sites where Hitler and his accomplices built the movement, Hall offers a clear and concrete understanding of the causes, background, motivation, and structures of the Party. Hitler’s Munich is a cultural and political portrait of the city, a biography of the Fuhrer, and a history of National Socialism. All three interacted in this expertly rendered exploration of their interconnections and significance.

An exploration of the career of Franz Radziwill, investigating the question of art in a Nazi context

This is a print on demand publication. Contents: Introduction: Bavaria in the Era of Revolution, 1918-1919; Part One: The "Einwohnerwehr" Movement in Bavaria: (I) The Organizational Development of the "Einwohnerwehr" State or Private Control?; (II) The Political Evolution of the Bavarian "Einwonerwehr"; Part Two: The Bavarian "Einwohnerwehr"; Part Two: The Bavarian "Einwohnerwehr" in National and International Policy: (III) The Orgesch and the Orka: (A) The Orgesch in Germany; (B) The Orka in Austria; (IV) The Allied Response: "Einwohnerwehr" Dissolution and the Crisis in Bavarian-Reich Relations; Conclusion; Bibliography.