Martin Antonenko
A Fixture
- Joined
- Jul 11, 2008
- Messages
- 8,995
A Coup Attempt at Munich Fails!
No, this is not about the failed putsch by the Ludendorff-Hitler clique in 1923!
There was another violent attempted coup that is almost forgotten today - the so-called "Lotter Putsch"!
Since November 8, 1918, after the fall of the last Bavarian king, Ludwig III.
... Bavaria is a "free state" and a republic - and a rather left-leaning one at that, since the Bavarian government is essentially based on the power of the workers' and soldiers' councils, which were set up everywhere after the November 1918 revolution!
Prime Minister is the no less leftist Kurt Eisner...
...a former SPD member of the Reichstag, who took a strictly pacifist position and left the SPD in 1917 to protest against his party's wartime support and joined the left-wing USPD.
Chief Maat Konrad Lotter, member of the Bavarian State Soldiers' Council and the Provisional National Council (Parliament)...
...this left-wing government is not yet left-wing enough and on February 19, 1919, together with 600 mostly Bavarian sailors, he tries to arrest and oust Kurt Eisner!
The sailors first occupy the Munich telegraph office...
...um die bayerische Hauptstadt so von der Außenwelt zu isolieren.
Dann verhaften sie den Polizeipräsidenten Josef Staimer...
... und den Stadtkommandanten Oberst Oskar Dürr...
...in his office at the Hofgarten (today the Bavarian Army Museum)...:
The attempt to occupy the state parliament building and get hold of the Eisners fails due to the security guards of the Workers' and Soldiers' Council in front of the state parliament building on Prannerstrasse...
...which opens fire, whereupon the putschists retreat to the main station.
In a subsequent exchange of fire at the main train station with troops loyal to the government, there was a lot of shooting, but only one person was fatally injured.
After that, the riot collapses, Lotter and his people throw down their weapons and raise their hands!
Well, Bavarian sailors - that could only go wrong...!
Only one putschist is arrested and imprisoned in Stadelheim...
... Konrad Lotter!
The sailor ringleader will be held there until May, when he will be released without a fuss! The attempted coup was never prosecuted.
Just two days after the failed "Lotter Putsch", on February 21, 1919, Prime Minister Eisner was shot dead on the street in Munich - exactly at this point...:
Eisner was - cruel irony of history! - just on the way to a session of the newly elected state parliament, where he wanted to announce his resignation due to a bitter election defeat of his USPD.
And - the story really has a cruel humor at times! - his killer belonged to the reactionary far right, but he didn't kill for political reasons!
It was the noble officer Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley...
...who, because of his Jewish origins, had previously been excluded from the ethnic-anti-Semitic "Thule Society" - and wanted to redeem himself through the murder, so to speak, or show his genuine national sentiment.
Eisner is buried on February 26 - several hundred thousand people attend the public funeral...:
The funeral procession passing by - accidentally photographed! - also a demobilized corporal, who also belongs to the - left-wing - workers' and soldiers' council and therefore still walks around in uniform. He will later become all too well known: Adolf Hitler...:
No, this is not about the failed putsch by the Ludendorff-Hitler clique in 1923!
There was another violent attempted coup that is almost forgotten today - the so-called "Lotter Putsch"!
Since November 8, 1918, after the fall of the last Bavarian king, Ludwig III.
... Bavaria is a "free state" and a republic - and a rather left-leaning one at that, since the Bavarian government is essentially based on the power of the workers' and soldiers' councils, which were set up everywhere after the November 1918 revolution!
Prime Minister is the no less leftist Kurt Eisner...
...a former SPD member of the Reichstag, who took a strictly pacifist position and left the SPD in 1917 to protest against his party's wartime support and joined the left-wing USPD.
Chief Maat Konrad Lotter, member of the Bavarian State Soldiers' Council and the Provisional National Council (Parliament)...
...this left-wing government is not yet left-wing enough and on February 19, 1919, together with 600 mostly Bavarian sailors, he tries to arrest and oust Kurt Eisner!
The sailors first occupy the Munich telegraph office...
...um die bayerische Hauptstadt so von der Außenwelt zu isolieren.
Dann verhaften sie den Polizeipräsidenten Josef Staimer...
... und den Stadtkommandanten Oberst Oskar Dürr...
...in his office at the Hofgarten (today the Bavarian Army Museum)...:
The attempt to occupy the state parliament building and get hold of the Eisners fails due to the security guards of the Workers' and Soldiers' Council in front of the state parliament building on Prannerstrasse...
...which opens fire, whereupon the putschists retreat to the main station.
In a subsequent exchange of fire at the main train station with troops loyal to the government, there was a lot of shooting, but only one person was fatally injured.
After that, the riot collapses, Lotter and his people throw down their weapons and raise their hands!
Well, Bavarian sailors - that could only go wrong...!
Only one putschist is arrested and imprisoned in Stadelheim...
... Konrad Lotter!
The sailor ringleader will be held there until May, when he will be released without a fuss! The attempted coup was never prosecuted.
Just two days after the failed "Lotter Putsch", on February 21, 1919, Prime Minister Eisner was shot dead on the street in Munich - exactly at this point...:
Eisner was - cruel irony of history! - just on the way to a session of the newly elected state parliament, where he wanted to announce his resignation due to a bitter election defeat of his USPD.
And - the story really has a cruel humor at times! - his killer belonged to the reactionary far right, but he didn't kill for political reasons!
It was the noble officer Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley...
...who, because of his Jewish origins, had previously been excluded from the ethnic-anti-Semitic "Thule Society" - and wanted to redeem himself through the murder, so to speak, or show his genuine national sentiment.
Eisner is buried on February 26 - several hundred thousand people attend the public funeral...:
The funeral procession passing by - accidentally photographed! - also a demobilized corporal, who also belongs to the - left-wing - workers' and soldiers' council and therefore still walks around in uniform. He will later become all too well known: Adolf Hitler...:
