Kurt Eisner
| Kurt Eisner | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Minister President of Bavaria | |
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In office 1918–1919 |
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| Preceded by | Otto Ritter von Dandl |
| Succeeded by | Johannes Hoffmann |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
14 May 1867 Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia |
| Died | 21 February 1919 (aged 51) Munich, Free State of Bavaria |
| Nationality | German |
| Political party | Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany |
| Religion | Judaism |
Kurt Eisner [kʊʁt ˈaɪ̯snɐ] (14 May 1867 – 21 February 1919) was a Jewish journalist and theatre critic. As a socialist journalist, he organised the Socialist Revolution that overthrew the Wittelsbach monarchy in Bavaria in November 1918. He is used as an example of charismatic authority by Max Weber. He proclaimed the Free State of Bavaria. His followers, who included Rosa Luxemburg, were known as "Eisenachers".
Kurt Eisner was born in Berlin at 10:15 p.m. on 14 May 1867, to Emanuel Eisner and Hedwig Levenstein, both Jewish. He was married to painter Elisabeth Hendrich from 1892, with whom he had five children, but the couple eventually 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. From 1890 to 1895, he was contributing editor of the Frankfurter Zeitung, during which time he wrote an article attacking Kaiser Wilhelm II, and for which he spent nine months in prison. Eisner was always an open republican as well as a Social-Democrat, joining the SPD in 1898, although 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 the position in 1905. After that, 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 Nuremberg from 1907 to 1910, and afterwards became a freelance journalist in Munich.
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