Kurt Eisner

Infobox Politician
name = Kurt Eisner


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office = Minister President of Bavaria
term_start = 1918
term_end = 1919
predecessor = Otto Ritter von Dandl
successor = Johannes Hoffmann
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birth_date = Birth date|1867|5|14
birth_place = Berlin, Germany
nationality = German
death_date = Death date|1919|2|21
death_place = München
party = Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany
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Kurt Eisner (May 14 1867 in Berlin – February 21, 1919 in München)"Kurt Eisner - Encyclopaedia Britannica" (biography), "Encyclopædia Britannica", 2006, Britannica.com webpage: [http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9032168/Kurt-Eisner Britannica-KurtEisner] .] was a Bavarian politician and journalist. As a German socialist journalist and statesman, he organized the Socialist Revolution that achieved the overthrow of the monarchy in Bavaria in 1918.He is used as an example of "charismatic authority" by Max Weber.

Biography

Kurt Eisner was born in Berlin at 10:15 p.m. on May 14, 1867 to Emanuel Eisner and Hedwig Levenstein. He was married to painter Elisabeth Hendrich from 1892, who he had five children with, but the two divorced in 1917 and Eisner then married Elise Belli, an editor. With her, he had two daughters.

Eisner studied philosophy but then became a journalist in Marburg. Kurt Eisner was always an open Republican as well as a Social-Democrat, joining the SPD in 1898, whereas for tactical reasons German Social-Democracy, particularly in its later stages, rather cold-shouldered anything in the shape of Republican propaganda as being unnecessary and included in general Social-Democratic aims. Consequently he fought actively for political democracy as well as Social-Democracy. He became editor of "Vorwärts" after the death of Wilhelm Liebknecht in 1900, but was subsequently called upon to resign from that position. After his withdrawal from "Vorwärts," his activities were confined in the main to Bavaria, though he toured other parts of Germany. He was chief editor for the "Fränkische Tagespost" in Nueremberg from 1907 to 1910 and afterwards became a free lance journalist in Munich.

He joined the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1917, at the height of World War I, and was convicted of treason in 1918 for his role in inciting a strike of munitions workers. He spent 9 months in Cell 70 of Stadelheim Prison.

After his release from prison, he organized the revolution that overthrew the monarchy in Bavaria ("see German Revolution"). He declared Bavaria to be a free state and republic on November 8, 1918, becoming the first republican premier of Bavaria.

He was defeated in the February 1919 election, and was assassinated in Munich when Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley shot at him on his way to present his resignation to the Bavarian parliament.

His assassination resulted in the establishment of the Bavarian Soviet Republic and parliament and government fleeing Munich.

In 1989 a monument at the site of his assassination was built. It reads, "Kurt Eisner, der am 8. November 1918 die Bayerische Republik ausrief, nachmaliger Ministerpräsident des Volksstaates Bayern, wurde an dieser Stelle am 21. Februar 1919 ermordet."

References

* [http://rzblx2.bibliothek.uni-regensburg.de/blo/boslview/boslview.php?seite=188&band=1 Universitätsbibliothek Regensburg - Bosls bayrische Biographie - Kurt Eisner] (in German), author: Karl Bosl, publisher: Pustet, page 172
* [http://www.dhm.de/lemo/html/biografien/EisnerKurt/index.html Biography Kurt Eisner] (in German)

External links

* [http://www.historisches-lexikon-bayerns.de/document/artikel_44329_bilder_value_1_kabinett-eisner1.jpgPicture of Kurt Eisner, taken in early 1918] Historisches Lexikon Bayerns