In this narrated article – published in issue 34 of In Defence of Marxism, the quarterly theoretical journal of the International Marxist Tendency – Florian Keller explains how the events surrounding the Bavarian Soviet Republic represent one of the most inspiring episodes in the German Revolution of 1918-1923.
In November 1918, Germany exploded into revolution. In the Spring of 1919, the working class succeeded in seizing power and declaring a Bavarian Soviet Republic. In its short, heroic lifetime, the republic had to fight not only against open counter-revolution, but also against the results of its own inexperience. The lessons to be gleaned from these events are priceless for revolutionaries today.