It is a delightful stroke of luck for research when a small contribution about a historical figure finds a large chorus of contemporary voices.
In this person's case, it is none other than Heinrich Mann and Kurt Tucholsky who gave him their literary farewell.
Mann wrote that Kurt Eisner's government had „brought more ideas, more joys of reason, more invigoration of spirits than the fifty years prior.“ And Tucholsky, in poetic condensation, paid him the briefest, perhaps most fitting tribute imaginable: „There was a man who still believed in ideals // and was capable of action. // In Germany, that is fatal.“
A week ago today and 107 years ago, Kurt Eisner, the first Prime Minister of Bavaria and founder of the Free State („Bavaria is henceforth a Free State“), was shot in today's Kardinal-Faulhaber-Straße.
Eisner achieved the indeed remarkable feat of winning over large parts of the Munich population – as an intellectual, a Berliner, and a Jew in staunchly Catholic Bavaria – to a pacifist, democratic, and humanitarian policy („Every human life shall be sacred“).
Besides the Schwabing Bohemia, authors such as Oskar Maria Graf, the early years of the magazine 'Jugend' (incidentally, giving its name to Jugendstil, or Art Nouveau), and the Blue Rider circle, Eisner is the figurehead for a Munich that saw itself as a laboratory for progressive and social ideas. A Munich that doesn't seek its salvation in "Law & Order" (More police! More cameras! Smaller social budget! Please, please, more repression!), but in progressiveness and social balance.
Perhaps one should also remember this Munich in the current race for the town hall. A campaign in which spectacles and interesting substantivisations stare at me from every corner („Spectacle wearers.“ is actually missing there), in which a faction leader states regarding an „improvement“ of the security situation in Munich: „It won't work without repression.“.
New York City has Mamdani, the world city Munich: Well, we shall see.
Anyone taking advantage of the sunshine at the weekend and strolling along Cardinal-Faulhaber-Straße can at least let their gaze wander over the ground for a moment. Perhaps, in that moment, one or the other illuminating thought for the upcoming election will find its way from history into the present.
And for anyone who would like unsolicited legal tips, event information or an occasional glimpse into my working world, feel free to follow me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/kanzleifueralle/
Your „contributor.“