Munich Christmas rumors
In 1830, violent riots broke out in Munich during the Christmas season , known as the Munich Christmas Tumults or December Riots .
In an already tense social situation after the July riots of 1830, there were several clashes between students and craftspeople on the one hand and soldiers of the Munich garrison and civil armed forces on the other from December 24th to December 29th, 1830 . The reason for the conflict was the temporary arrest of two students. As a result of the unrest, Ludwig I closed the Ludwig Maximilians University (LMU) and banned the “Germania” fraternity .
December 24th and 25th
On Christmas Eve 1830, a few dozen students - including many members of Germania, which later played a role - marched noisily across Neuhauser Strasse to Karlstor . The purpose of this action could not be clarified, assumptions range from a serenade for a sick fellow student to a targeted provocation against the LMU rector and fraternity opponent Allioli to the statement that it could have simply been a student Christmas custom that was imported from Würzburg was.
Regardless of this, the students aroused displeasure among the Munich citizens, so that a gendarmerie patrol intervened. She arrested two or four students who refused to show their papers. The other students demanded the immediate release of the arrested, but unsuccessfully. They then began to riot in front of the guard house and tried to recruit supporters in surrounding pubs . The gendarmes were then armed and the Angerpikett at Heumarkt (since 1886 St.-Jakobs-Platz) ordered cuirassiers . After the police director and city commander showed up in person and the students were eventually released, the situation eased and the students withdrew.
On the evening of December 25th it remained quiet in the city; the real tumult began in the night of December 26th to 27th.
December 26th and 27th
On the night of December 26th , a military patrol from the Infantry Leib Regiment encountered a fight between students and craftspeople near today's hunting museum . Such arguments, which the students referred to as "knots", were not uncommon at this time. However, when the military patrol tried to intervene in the dispute between the 30 or so students and craftsmen, the situation escalated. The two parties joined forces against the soldiers, who then withdrew to the main guard on Schrannenplatz .
There the situation finally escalated completely. The guard on duty had gendarmes, line infantry and cuirassiers crack down on the crowd, injuring numerous civilians and arresting two. On December 27th the teams of the Hauptwache, the Residenzwache and the Angerpiketts were reinforced; In addition, a train of cuirassiers was kept on alert in the New Isar Barracks.
The population criticized the military operation as disproportionate, but the exact circumstances of the escalation are unknown. The provocation of the soldiers by the students is also considered possible.
27./28. December
On the night of 27./28. In December 1830 the last serious clashes of the Christmas tumult took place. According to estimates by the commandant of the Hauptwache, between 200 and 300 students gathered on Schrannenplatz in front of the Hauptwache. The entire Hauptwache crew (more than 40 men) were armed and put on alert. 6 cuirassiers were requested from the ambulance. Mounted gendarmes tried to keep the crowd under control, but were trapped and mocked by them. The watch commander then gave the order to ride down the crowd, whereupon a violent scuffle broke out. After the rumor arose that the students were armed, the alarm train was also called from the new Isar barracks. The crowd was finally broken up and 15 people were arrested.
December 28th and 29th
On December 28, the rumor had come, the citizens that first the armory and then wanted to storm the main police station. Thereupon all troops were kept in the barracks and the Landwehr mobilized. However, the big storm did not materialize, only on Perusa-Gasse there was a small dispute between around 16 students and craftsmen and the military, in which 5 or 6 people were slightly injured. Due to the visible presence of the Landwehr and the regular military , things remained quiet in Munich after December 28th.
consequences
The police administration and the city command of Munich and, last but not least, King Ludwig I himself viewed the riots as politically motivated riots. On December 29th, Friedrich Thiersch and Friedrich von Schelling had a moderating effect on the student body. Regardless of this, the king reacted harshly: the Ludwig Maximilians University was to be closed by March 1, 1831, the ringleaders of Germania were banned from studying throughout Bavaria, and all non-Munich students were also to leave the royal seat by March 1, 1831 .
At the instigation of the LMU Senate and the city council, the decision was reversed a day later because of the expected serious economic consequences. Only the leaders of the riots remained in custody and members of the Germania fraternity were not allowed to stay.
This in turn defended itself against the collective guilt that had been assigned to it. The fraternity students owed the lifting of the residence ban on January 10, 1831 to Thiersch's commitment. Even after the Landsberg appellate court had acquitted the leaders of the charge of revolutionary conspiracy on August 11, 1831, Ludwig I remained mistrustful of the fraternity.
In retrospect, the riots are also classified as not politically motivated. Most authors criticize the military's approach as being too harsh.
See also
literature
- Josef Jakob: The student associations and their relationship to the state and society at the Ludwigs-Maximilians-Universität Landshut / Munich from 1800 to 1833 , dissertation at the Fernuniversität Hagen, 2002 ( available online )
- Wilhelm Heinloth: The December unrest in Munich, 1830 , dissertation, Neumarkt / Oberpfalz, 1930
- Christian Lankes (Ed.): Munich as a garrison in the 19th century , Berlin; Bonn; Herford: Mittler, 1993; Pp. 406-411.
Remarks
- ↑ The bibliography differs, with Lankes four, with Jakob two