Rudolf Egelhofer

Rudolf Egelhofer , in some sources also Eglhofer (born April 13, 1896 in Munich-Schwabing ; † May 3, 1919 in Munich ) was a member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) in April 1919 city ​​commander of Munich and leader of the " Red Army " the Munich Soviet Republic .

Life

Rudolf Egelhofer was born the son of the sign painter Friedrich Egelhofer and his wife Maria. The family apparently lived in meager circumstances. Egelhofer joined the Imperial Navy , but apparently tried early on to oppose the military drill. As early as 1913, as a 17-year-old cabin boy , he left his training ship Victoria Louise in Swinoujscie Victoria Louise class for the first time without permission , according to police files. The attempt to escape failed. 1914 served Egelhofer in the First World War as a Marine infantryman on the Western Front in Flanders . Judging by a poem in his notebook (see Hitzer), he took part in the Battle of Ypres and condemned the cowardly behavior of officers.

In 1918 Egelhofer was involved in the Kiel sailors' uprising, which triggered the November Revolution . He was apparently arrested and allegedly sentenced to death . On February 15, 1919, he returned to his hometown with 600 other armed sailors from Wilhelmshaven . There, under the leadership of Kurt Eisner ( USPD ), the Wittelsbach monarchy was overthrown on November 7, 1918 and the Free State of Bavaria was proclaimed a republic with Eisner as prime minister of an SPD / USPD government.

On January 10, 1919, Egelhofer entered the building of the Bavarian Foreign Ministry at a protest meeting of the Spartakusbund , explained to the Council of Ministers that a gathering of 5000 workers would promote the proclamation of the Soviet Republic, the deposition of the city commander Oskar Dürr (1877-1959, Tsarist Vice-Consul , SPD ), diplomatic relations with the councilors in Russia and the establishment of a Red Army.

After Eisner's murder on February 21, 1919 by Anton Graf von Arco auf Valley , the situation came to a head. Egelhofer immediately became involved in the revolutionary soldiers' council movement and joined the KPD . He was seen as brave, energetic and apparently also had a certain talent for speech. The writer Oskar Maria Graf wrote in his book We are prisoners about the first parade of the Red Army in Munich's Ludwigstrasse : “E (n) gelhofer, the army commander, spoke from the open window. He stood there determined and unadorned, in a sailor's uniform, sometimes raising his fist. Anyone who heard him had to believe him. "

Public order for the handover of arms of April 14, 1919, signed by the city commandant Rudolf Egelhofer; one of the first measures of the new communist leadership of the Soviet Republic after the thwarted Palm Sunday coup

Military leader was actively Egelhofer first time in the successful defense of the under the name Palm Sunday coup became known coup attempt against the seventh since April until a week existing Munich Soviet Republic on 13 April 1919. Under his leadership, revolutionary troops stormed the Munich Central Station , which of Supporters of the SPD government in exile that fled to Bamberg was held. The coup failed, and on the same day Egelhofer was appointed Munich city commander of the council government, which was now dominated by KPD members such as Eugen Leviné and Max Levien , and a little later became the leader of Munich's “Red Army”, which consisted of soldiers and workers. The pacifist and writer Ernst Toller was placed at his side . The task of defending Munich against the advancing superiority of the "white" troops with the estimated 20,000 barely trained, poorly armed and highly differently motivated soldiers and workers within a few days  - the Reichswehr associations and called for help by the Bamberg SPD leadership under Johannes Hoffmann  Organizing right-wing nationalist Freikorps - was not solvable for the young sailor.

In the first days of May 1919, government troops overran the city. There was sustained resistance at only a few points. The idea of ​​rounding up members of the " bourgeoisie " on Theresienwiese and shooting them when the "whites" marched in was not something that Egelhofer was able to implement in the city command. However, he probably gave written consent to the shooting of ten hostages mainly from the Thule Society in Munich's Luitpold Gymnasium ; the "Munich hostage murder" became famous as the only evidence of the later alleged "red terror" of the soviet rule.

In the period that followed, however, the victorious “white” troops in Munich waged massive terror. Hundreds were summarily shot and killed. In total, more than 2,200 supporters of the Soviet republic were sentenced to death or imprisonment by standing courts . The 23-year-old Egelhofer, one of the most prominent representatives of communist council rule, was discovered and arrested on May 1, 1919, in his hiding place in the apartment of the doctor Dr Hildegard Menzi at Maximilianstrasse 22. After being severely mistreated, he was shot without trial on May 3rd in the Munich residence where he was being held .

Egelhofer awards

In the GDR one were missile speedboat OSA I class (1964), a missile boat of Tarantul class (1985, today USNS Hiddensee ) and the NCO School  I, later Education Center 6 of the land forces of the NVA in Haide at White Water named after Rudolf Egelhofer. There was a Rudolf-Egelhofer-Oberschule in Rostock , a Rudolf-Egelhofer-Straße still exists in Strausberg, Brandenburg . Apparently nothing in Munich is named after Egelhofer. Since October 29, 2016, there has been a memorial plaque on grave no. 6 in section 105, row 5 of the Munich North Cemetery , which was erected by the "Plenum-R".

The songwriter Prinz Chaos II dedicated a song to Egelhofer on the CD Väter & Söhne .

literature

• Friedrich Hitzer: The murder in the Hofbräuhaus. Unknown and forgotten from the Bavarian Soviet Republic. Roederberg. Frankfurt am Main 1981. ISBN 3-87682-731-0 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Rudolf Egelhofer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Bernhard Grau: Red Army, 1919. In: Historisches Lexikon Bayerns . December 23, 2009. Retrieved July 25, 2012 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Freya Eisner: Kurt Eisner, the politics of libertarian socialism . Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1979, ISBN 3-518-10422-5 , p. 189.
2. ↑ Name from 1990 "Hiddensee"; Delivered to the USA in 1991 for test purposes, where it was listed as "USNS Hiddensee".
3. ^ School development plan of the Hanseatic City of Rostock, 2015/16 - 2025/26, p. 63
4. ^ Rudolf Stumberger : The forgotten revolution. The Munich Soviet Republic was proclaimed 95 years ago - there is little to remember on site . In: Neues Deutschland , April 7, 2014, p. 14.
5. ^ Rudolf Stumberger: The fairy tale king and the red city commander. While the CSU wants a royal monument, the revolutionary Rudolf Egelhofer now has a tomb. In: Neues Deutschland from 5./6. November 2016, p. 15.