The first comprehensive biography in English of the leader of the Bavarian Revolution and Republic of 1918/19, the first Jewish head of a European state and a man who embraced and embodied modernity. At the end of the First World War, German Jewish journalist, theater critic, and political activist Kurt Eisner (1867-1919), just released from prison, led a nonviolent revolution in Munich that deposed the monarchy and established the Bavarian Republic. Local head of the Independent Socialists, Eisner had been jailed for treason after organizing a munitions workers' strike to force an armistice. For a hundred days, as Germany spiraled into civil war, Eisner fought as head of state to preserve calm while implementing a peaceful transition to democracy and reforging international relations. He rejected another central German government dominated by Prussia in favor of a confederation of autonomous equals, a "United States of Germany." A Francophile, he sought ties with Paris in hope of containing Prussia. In February 1919, on the way to submit his government's resignation to the newly elected constitutionalassembly, Eisner was shot by a protofascist aristocrat, plunging Bavaria into political chaos from which Adolf Hitler would emerge. At the centenary of the Bavarian Revolution and Republic of 1918/19, this is the first comprehensive biography of Eisner written for an English-language audience. Albert Earle Gurganus is Professor Emeritus of Modern Languages at The Citadel. He is the author of The Art of Revolution: Kurt Eisner's Agitprop (Camden House, 1986).
Reviews
The author has seemingly mined every extant primary source in reconstructing his subject's 'modern life', from its beginnings in 1867 as the son of a Berlin purveyor of military-aristocratic finery to its tragic end on the streets of Munich... In its meticulous detail, Gurganus' biography is likely to be unsurpassed for many years. * JOURNAL OF MODERN JEWISH STUDIES *
Gurganus provides a detailed biography of the socialist intellectual Eisner, appreciating him not only in his role as minister-president of the Free State of Bavaria, which he himself proclaimed in 1918. The presentation of Eisner's life shows him in chronological fashion as a thinking, feeling, acting person of his time. Gurganus falls back on his research, which he began as far back as the 1970s, and provides a comprehensive evaluation of the archival sources. On hand of especially thorough reference to Eisner's numerous newspaper articles, Gurganus teases out his intellectual development and his political ideas. * GERMANISTIK *
It is important that an English-language study of the first Bavarian Minister-President is now available. * FRANCIA-RECENSIO *
[O]ne real strength of this book is that it confers a set of deeper strands to Eisner the public figure-what drove his politics, his journalism, and his relationships with others. . . . [A]n exemplary biography that takes us deep into the mind and context of its enigmatic subject. Gurganus's account is exhaustively researched without being overdetailed, and written with a captivating dramatic verve. . . . [T]he author more than meets his objective to cast his work for 'the broad band of English speakers' with a more general interest in early twentieth-century German history. * GERMAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY *
Compelling. * QUARTERLY REVIEW *
[A]n exhaustive biography of Eisner [that] provides detailed insight into the SPD's party life in late nineteenth-century Germany. . . . [S]hows the breadth of Eisner's erudition. . . . [W]e are offered a beautiful picture of [Eisner's] versatility as an intellectual . . . . * H-SOCIALISMS *
[T]his book is a tour de force. It provides a treasure trove of information on one of the early twentieth-century German left's seminal and all too often forgotten figures. * JOURNAL OF MODERN HISTORY *



Book Information
ISBN 9781640140158
Author Professor Albert Earle Gurganus
Format Hardback
Page Count 610
Imprint Camden House Inc
Publisher Boydell & Brewer Ltd
Weight(grams) 1g