The Assassination That Started Germany's Communist Revolution

Описание: Join my Discord community The Trenches to follow the development of my free to play World War 1 game, chat about history, and play video games! Be a part of the journey here:   / discord  

It was February 21st, 1919, and two gunshots rung out on a Munich street corner, killing Kurt Eisner and unleashing Germany's first communist revolution which would change European history forever. While most people know about the Russian Revolution, the story of Bavaria 1919 remains hidden despite being far more important for understanding modern Germany.

In Bavaria, this produced an unprecedented experiment when a pacifist journalist overthrew a thousand-year monarchy, only to be assassinated months later while walking to parliament with his resignation speech.

What followed was a funeral procession, along with a dramatic political crisis. Red flags flew over Munich as communist militias battled government forces in the streets. Revolutionary tribunals replaced courts while the middle class fled the city. For six weeks, Bavaria became Europe's second Soviet republic until Freikorps paramilitaries crushed it in a bloodbath that left over six hundred dead.

This revolution gave Germans their first taste of communist rule and created the template for political violence that would define the Weimar Republic. The fear it generated would fuel support for any movement promising order through strength, while the paramilitary tactics used to crush it became the foundation for future extremist movements.

Today in this doku, we discuss how Bavaria 1919 was the dress rehearsal for everything that followed in German politics.

Source:

Allan Mitchell, Revolution in Bavaria, 1918–1919: The Eisner Regime and the Soviet Republic, Princeton University Press, 1965.

Music: Filmstro | Music is for everyone | https://filmstro.com/royalty-free-music/

© 2025 Maya Ventures, LLC. All rights reserved.