The Coming of the Third Reich

Kurt Eisner was a theater critic from a middle-class Jewish background who founded an offshoot of the Social Democrats party, the Independent Social Democrats, and advocated for peace during World War I. He led a revolt to establish an independent republic of Bavaria. “Eisner was everything the radical right in Bavaria hated” (157) and was assassinated by a right-wing nobleman. In retaliation, a socialist murdered one of Eisner’s political rivals.

Eisner’s assassination sparked riots in Bavaria. Amidst the chaos, Johannes Hoffman, a Social Democrat who had been elected to head the Bavarian government, was forced out. Some tried to establish a Communist government, but it came under the control of poet and anarchist Ernst Toller. He was promptly overthrown by Communists backed by a paramilitary force, the Red Army. Hoffman organized his own army of Free Corps soldiers to take back the Bavarian capital of Munich. With the collapse of the Communist government, the Red Army executed a number of hostages in revenge. Among them were members of the Thule Society, a far-right, antisemitic group who adopted the swastika as a symbol and named themselves after “Thule,” a name for Iceland, which was “the supposed location of ‘Aryan’ purity” (159). Several members of the Thule Society would later become prominent Nazis, and one of the Bavarian soldiers who had been involved in the violent political struggles was

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