Government Troops after the Suppression of the Soviet Republic in Munich, early May 1919

While there was still fighting in some parts of Munich, some government troops held victory parades on the larger streets and squares. They were accompanied and cheered on by opponents of the Soviet Republic from the population. Even after the complete suppression of the Soviet Republic, the troops demonstrated their effectiveness and the change of power in the state capital with such marches. In many cases, they still carried out security measures after 2/3 May: sentries and barricades were erected, soldiers patrolled the streets with machine guns or with armoured cars.

Several photographers documented this event for the press and especially for the publication of postcards. The focus was on propagandistic purposes, often the scenes were staged. The soldiers were turned into heroic liberators who had brought back order and discipline. Best known were the motifs by Heinrich Hoffmann (1885-1957), the later "personal photographer" of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945). Two of them are shown here.

A particularly martial picture is the photograph of a manned military vehicle of the Freikorps Görlitz in Goethestraße, whose radiator bonnet is decorated with a skull. With the armoured car, Hoffmann took up a frequent motif from WWI, which enjoyed great popularity among soldiers. The photo was published as a postcard with the caption "armoured car, which successfully intervened in the fighting" in May 1919.

However, Hoffmann mainly photographed Bavarian and Southern German troops. Thereby he attemped to give the world the impression that Prussian units were less involved in the fighting – even though the opposite was true. The "Freikorps Werdenfels" played a special role; its members marched through Munich on 8 May, partly in flower-bedecked costumes. Photos of the Freikorps were to convey the message that peace-loving, down-to-earth farmers and citizens had liberated the state capital. However, the military significance of these units was actually rather small. The National Socialists later instrumentalised the Freikorps for propaganda purposes and contrasted it with the "Jewish-Bolshevik" protagonists of the Soviet Republics.

To the digitised copy of the photo of the Freikorps Görlitz

To the digitised copy of the photo of the Freikorps Werdenfels