bavarikon4UKarl Liebknecht (1871-1919) in Berlin, January 1919
In Berlin, after conditions similar to civil war at Christmas 1918, serious armed fighting broke out once again on 8 January 1919. The USPD and the KPD, which had emerged from the Spartakusbund, under the leadership of Georg Ledebour (1850-1947) and Karl Liebknecht (1871-1919) dismissed the Rat der Volksbeauftragten (Council of People's Representatives) on 5 January 1919. This was intended to prevent the elections to a National Assembly and thus ultimately the transition to a representative parliamentary democracy. Instead, the insurgents demanded the establishment of a soviet system based on the Russian model.
By 12 January 1919, the uprising was defeated under the supreme command of Reichswehrminister Gustav Noske (1868-1946). 165 people died. A few days later Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919) and Karl Liebknecht were killed by Freikorps members.
The members of the Bavarian revolutionary government regarded conditions in Berlin as a deterrent example. A similar loss of control of the conditions had to be prevented in any case. However, the security situation in Munich deteriorated noticeably during the course of January. Attempts by MSPD members to recruit new security forces by means of a popular defence initiative failed because of Eisner's resistance and that of radical council representatives. Therefore, in the run-up to the meeting of the first democratically elected State Parliament on 21 February 1919, the situation in Munich escalated further and further.