Flyer of the Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Council in Burglengenfeld, 14 November 1918

Burglengenfeld was one of the few notable socialist strongholds in the Upper Palatinate. The revolution reached the town in the immediate vicinity of the Maxhütte (steel works called after King Maximilian II Joseph) on 10 November 1918 and led to the election of a workers’, soldiers’ and peasants’ council.

Its chairman was the painter Josef Schmid (born 1885, murdered 1945 in the Dachau concentration camp) of the USPD. Schmid regarded the revolution in Bavaria as the beginning of the coming world revolution, which would lead to the complete socialisation of the existing societal and economic system. Not without glee, Schmid announced the imminent establishment of the socialist state together with the arming of the proletariat in a leaflet of 14 November 1918, which was addressed to the members of the bourgeoisie. Meanwhile, the Workers’, Soldiers’ and Peasants’ Council guaranteed the maintenance of peace, protection and order.

The announcements made in this leaflet should not be fulfilled: The Soviet Republic proclaimed for Burglengenfeld on 8 April 1919 only lasted a short time; moreover, the revolution at Burglengenfeld, which initially proceeded peacefully, became increasingly violent in 1919.

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