Erich Mühsam (1878-1934)

Erich Mühsam (6 April 1878 in Berlin, Germany – 10 July 1934 Oranienburg Concentration Camp) (also spelled Muehsam or Muhsam) was an German-Jewish anarchist, writer, poet, dramatist and cabaret performer. April 6 is the 96th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (97th in leap years). ... Events January - April January – Cleopatras Needle arrives in London January 9 - Humbert I becomes King of Italy January 23 – Disraeli orders British fleet to Dardanelles January 28 - The Yale News becomes the first daily, college newspaper in the United States. ... July 10 is the 191st day (192nd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 174 days remaining. ... Oranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. ... A concentration camp is a large detention center created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ...

Both a Bohemian intellectual and a prolific poet and dramatist, Mühsam emerged at the end of World War I as one of the leading agitators for a federated Soviet Republic in Bavaria. However, Mühsam achieved international prominence during the years of the Weimar Republic (1919-1933) for works which bitterly satirized Adolf Hitler and condemned Nazism before Hitler came to power in 1933. Though a Bohemian is a native of the Czech province of Bohemia, a secondary meaning for Bohemian emerged in 19th_century France. ... Poetry (ancient Greek: poieo = create) is an art form in which human language is used for its aesthetic qualities in addition to, or instead of, its notional and semantic content. ... Drama is a term generally used to refer to a literary form involving parts written for actors to perform. ... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ... Federalism can refer to either: The form of government, or constitutional structure, found in a federation. ... In its final decades of its existence, the Soviet Union consisted of 15 Soviet Socialist Republics (SSR), often called simply Soviet republics. ... With an area of 70,553 km² and 12. ... The period of German history from 1919 to 1933 is known as the Weimar Republic (Pronounced Vye-Mar, and in German it is known as the Weimarer Republik). It is named after the city of Weimar, where a national assembly convened to produce a new constitution after the German monarchy... 1933 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Satire is a literary technique of writing or art which principally ridicules its subject (individuals, organizations, states) often as an intended means of provoking or preventing change. ... The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... 1933 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...

Biography

Early life: 1878-1900

The third child born to Siegfried Seligmann Mühsam, a middle-class Jewish pharmacist, Erich Mühsam was born in Berlin on 6 April 1878. Soon after, the family would move to the city of Lübeck. The middle class (or middle classes) comprises a social group once defined by exception as an intermediate social class between the nobility and the peasantry. ... The word Jew (Hebrew: יהודי) is used in a wide number of ways, but generally refers to a follower of the Jewish faith, a child of a Jewish mother, or a member of the Jewish culture or ethnicity and often a combination of these attributes. ... Pharmacy (from the Greek φάρμακον = drug) is the profession of compounding and dispensing medication. ... April 6 is the 96th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (97th in leap years). ... Events January - April January – Cleopatras Needle arrives in London January 9 - Humbert I becomes King of Italy January 23 – Disraeli orders British fleet to Dardanelles January 28 - The Yale News becomes the first daily, college newspaper in the United States. ... Statistics State: Schleswig-Holstein District: Independent city Area: 214. ...

Mühsam was educated at the Katharineum-Gymnasium in Lübeck, a school known for its authoritarian discipline and corporal punishment which served as the model for several of the settings in Thomas Mann's novel Buddenbrooks (1901). The young student Erich, who was by his nature rebellious and resisted the school's regimented programme, was often physically punished. It was in the spirit of this resistence that in January 1896, Mühsam authored an anonymous submission to the Lübecker Volksboten denouncing one of the school's more unpleasant teachers, causing a scandal. When his identity became known, Mühsam was expelled from the Katharineum-Gymnasium for sympathizing and participating in socialist activities. He would later complete his education in Parchim. The term authoritarian is used to describe an organization or a state which enforces strong and sometimes oppressive measures against the population, generally without attempts at gaining the consent of the population. ... Corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain intended as correction or punishment. ... Thomas Mann (June 6, 1875–August 12, 1955) was a German novelist and essayist, lauded principally for a series of highly symbolic and often ironic epic novels and mid-length stories, noted for their insight into the psychology of the artist and intellectual and an underlying eroticism informed by Mann... Buddenbrooks was Thomas Manns first novel, published in 1901, when he was 26 years old. ... 1901 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... The color red and particularly the red flag are traditional symbols of Socialism. ...

From an early age, Erich Mühsam displayed a remarkable talent for writing, and desired to become a poet—a career aspiration his father sought to beat out of him. His juvenilia consisted of animal fables, and he was first published at the age of 16, earning small amounts of money for satirical poems based on local news and political happenings. However, at the insistence of his father, young Erich sought out to study pharmacy, a profession which he quickly abandoned to return to his poetic and literary ambitions. Mühsam would leave Lübeck for Berlin to pursue a literary career, later writing of his youth that "[My] hatred grows when I look back on it and visualise the unspeakable flailings which were supposed to beat out of me all my innate feelings."⁽¹⁾

Poet, Writer, Anarchist: 1900-1918

Mühsam moved to Berlin in 1900, where he soon became involved in a group called Neue Gemeinschaft (New Society) under the direction of Julius and Heinrich Hart which combined socialist philosophy with theology and communal living in the hopes of becoming "a forerunner of a socially united great working commune of humanity." Within this group, Mühsam became acquainted with Gustav Landauer who encouraged his artistic growth and compelled the young Mühsam to develop his own activism based on a combination of communist and anarchist political philosophy that Landauer introduced to him. Desiring more political involvement, in 1904, Mühsam withdrew from Neue Gemeinschaft and relocated temporarily to an artists commune in Ascona, Switzerland where vegetarianism was mixed with communism and socialism. It was here that he began writing plays, the first Die Hochstapler (The Con Men), juxtaposing new modern political theory within traditional dramatical forms, which became a typical trademark of his dramatical work. During these years, Mühsam began contributing to and editing several anarchist journals. These writings made Mühsam the target of constant police surveillance and arrests as he was considered among the most dangerous anarchist agitators in Germany. The press seized the opportunity to portray him as a villian accused of anarchist conspiracies and petty crimes. Gustav Landauer ( 7 April 1870 in Karlsruhe, Germany — 2 May 1919 in Munich, Germany) was a German Jewish anarchist and revolutionary who was involved in establishing the short-lived Bayerische Räterepublik (Bavarian Soviet Republic) and serving as its Commissioner of Enlightenment and Public Instruction in April of 1919. ... Communism is a term that can refer to one of several things: a social and economic system, an ideology which supports that system, or a political movement that wishes to implement that system. ... 1904 is a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... Ascona is a town of some 5,000 people in southern Switzerland, on the shore of Lake Maggiore. ... The Swiss Confederation or Switzerland is a landlocked federal state in Europe, with neighbours Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. ... Vegetarianism - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Communism is a term that can refer to one of several things: a social and economic system, an ideology which supports that system, or a political movement that wishes to implement that system. ... The color red and particularly the red flag are traditional symbols of Socialism. ... This article focuses on the cultural movement labeled modernism or the modern movement. See also: Modernism (Roman Catholicism) or Modernist Christianity; Modernismo for specific art movement(s) in Spain and Catalonia. ...

In 1908, Mühsam relocated to Munich, where he became heavily involved in cabaret. While Mühsam did not particularly care for his work in writing cabaret songs, it would become among his most famous works. Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: München pronunciation) is the state capital of the German Bundesland of Bavaria. ... Cabaret is a form of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue - a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting around the tables (often dining or drinking) watching the performance. ...

In 1911, Mühsam founded the newspaper, Kain (Cain), as a forum for communist-anarchist ideologies, stating that it would "be a personal organ for whatever the editor, as a poet, as a citizen of the world, and as a fellow man had on his mind." Mühsam used Kain to ridicule the German state and what he perceived as excesses and abuses of authority, standing out in favour of abolishing capital punishment, and opposing the government's attempt at censoring theatre, and offering prophetic and perceptive analysis of international affairs. For the duration of World War I, publication was suspended to avoid government-imposed censorship often enforced against private newspapers that disagreed with the imperial government and the war. Death Penalty World Map Color Key: Blue: Abolished for all crimes Green: Abolished for crimes not committed in exceptional circumstances (such as crimes committed in time of war) Orange: Abolitionist in Practice Red: Legal Form of Punishment Capital punishment, also referred to as the death penalty, is the judicially ordered... Ypres, 1917, in the vicinity of the Battle of Passchendaele. ...

Mühsam married Kreszentia Elfinger neé Zenzl, the widowed daughter of a Bavarian farmer, in 1915. 1915 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ...

World War I would see the international anarchist community starkly divided into pro-war and anti-war positions, some hypernationalistically supporting Germany, others desiring that Germany's enemies (United Kingdom, France, and later the United States of America) would be victorious. Mühsam became extremely nationalistic and militant in his support of Germany in the war, writing in his diaries: "And I the anarchist, the anti-militarist, the enemy of national slogans, the anti-patriot and implacable critic of the armament furies, I discovered myself somehow possessed by the common intoxication, fired by an irate passion."⁽²⁾ His public support of the war was seized upon by the state-controlled press for the purposes of propaganda, and by fellow anarchists who felt betrayed. However by the end of 1914, Mühsam, pressured by his anarchist acquaintances renounced his support of the war effort, stating that "I will probably have to bear the sin of betraying my ideals for the rest of my life"⁽³⁾ and appealing, "Those who comfortably acquiesce and say 'we cannot change things' shamefully desecrate human dignity and all the gifts of their own hearts and brain. For they renounce without a struggle every use of their ability to overthrow man-made institutions and governments and to replace them with new ones."⁽⁴⁾ For the rest of the war, Mühsam opposed the war through increased involvement in many direct action projects, including workers strikes, often collaborating with figures from other leftist political parties. As the strikes became increasingly successful and violent, the Bavarian state government began mass arrests of anti-war agitators. Mühsam was among those arrested and incarcerated in April 1918. He would be detained until just before the war's end in November 1918. For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ... 1914 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... With an area of 70,553 km² and 12. ... 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ...

The Weimar Years: 1918-1933

When Erich Mühsam was released on 3 November 1918 and returned to Munich. Within days, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicated as did King Ludwig III who had semi-autonomous rule in Bavaria, and Munich was in the throws of revolt. Kurt Eisner of the Independent Socialist Party declared Bavaria a socialist republic during the Red Bavaria Revolution. Eisner, in an gesture designed to bring the anarchists into the new government, offered a ministry position to Mühsam, who refused, preferring to fight along with Gustav Landauer, Ernst Toller, Ret Marut and other anarchists for the development of Worker's Councils (Soviets) and communes. November 3 is the 307th day of the year (308th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 58 days remaining. ... 1918 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Munich: Frauenkirche and Town Hall steeple Munich (German: München pronunciation) is the state capital of the German Bundesland of Bavaria. ... Wilhelm II German Emperor and King of Prussia Wilhelm II of Prussia and Germany, Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert von Hohenzollern ( January 27, 1859– June 4, 1941) was the last German Emperor ( Kaiser) and the last King (König) of Prussia, ruling from 1888 to 1918. ... Ludwig III (7 January 1845 - 18 October 1921) was briefly Prince Regent of Bavaria and was the last King of Bavaria from 1913 to 1918. ... With an area of 70,553 km² and 12. ... Kurt Eisner (14 May 1867–21 February 1919) was a Bavarian political figure. ... USPD election poster, 1919 The Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (Unabhängige Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, or USPD) was a short-lived political party in Germany during the Second Reich and the Weimar Republic. ... Gustav Landauer ( 7 April 1870 in Karlsruhe, Germany — 2 May 1919 in Munich, Germany) was a German Jewish anarchist and revolutionary who was involved in establishing the short-lived Bayerische Räterepublik (Bavarian Soviet Republic) and serving as its Commissioner of Enlightenment and Public Instruction in April of 1919. ... Soviet redirects here. ...

However, after Eisner's assassination in 1919, the Bayerische Räterepublik (Bavarian Soviet Republic) was proclaimed, ruled by independent socialists Ernst Toller and Gustav Landauer and anarchist Erich Mühsam. This government was shortlived, lasting six days, being overthrown by communists led by Eugen Levine. However, during this time, the Bavarian Soviet Republic declared war on Switzerland, resulting from the inexplicable mascinations of a mentally-ill Foreign Affairs deputy who became irate at Switzerland's refuse to lend the new Republic's government 60 locomotive engines. When the Weimar Republic's Freikorps, a right-wing army commanded by Gustav Noske, crushed the rebellion and took possession of Munich, Gustav Landauer had been killed, and Mühsam arrested and sentenced to fifteen years in jail. Jack Ruby murdered the assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, in a very public manner. ... Münchner Räterepublik, known as the Munich Soviet Republic or Bavarian Soviet Republic (Bayerische Räterepublik), was a short-lived communist country, organized in Bavaria in the year 1919. ... Gustav Landauer ( 7 April 1870 in Karlsruhe, Germany — 2 May 1919 in Munich, Germany) was a German Jewish anarchist and revolutionary who was involved in establishing the short-lived Bayerische Räterepublik (Bavarian Soviet Republic) and serving as its Commissioner of Enlightenment and Public Instruction in April of 1919. ... The Swiss Confederation or Switzerland is a landlocked federal state in Europe, with neighbours Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. ... Great Western Railway No. ... The period of German history from 1919 to 1933 is known as the Weimar Republic (Pronounced Vye-Mar, and in German it is known as the Weimarer Republik). It is named after the city of Weimar, where a national assembly convened to produce a new constitution after the German monarchy... The designation of Freikorps (German for Free Corps) was originally applied to voluntary armies. ... Gustav Noske (1868 - 1946) was a German administrator. ... Gustav Landauer ( 7 April 1870 in Karlsruhe, Germany — 2 May 1919 in Munich, Germany) was a German Jewish anarchist and revolutionary who was involved in establishing the short-lived Bayerische Räterepublik (Bavarian Soviet Republic) and serving as its Commissioner of Enlightenment and Public Instruction in April of 1919. ...

While in jail, Mühsam was very prolific with his writing, completing the play Judas (1920), and a large number of poems. In 1924, he was released from jail as the Weimar Republic granted a general amnesty for political prisoners. Also released in this amnesty was Adolf Hitler, then a failed artist and minor political activist, who had served eight months of a five year sentence for leading the Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. The Hitler Putsch (also commonly referred to in English as the Beer Hall Putsch) occurred in the evening of Thursday, November 8 to early afternoon of Friday, November 9, 1923 when the nascent Nazi partys Führer Adolf Hitler, the popular World War I General Erich Ludendorff, and other leaders...

The Munich to which Mühsam returned was very different from the one he left after his arrest. The people were largely apathetic, in part because of the economic collapse of Germany under the pressure of reparations for World War I and hyperinflation. He had attempted to restart the journal Kain which failed after a few issues. In 1926, Mühsam founded a new journal which he called Fanal (The Torch), in which he openly and precariously criticized the communists and the far Right-wing Conservative elements within the Weimar Republic. During these years, his writings and speeches took on a violent, revolutionary tone, and his active attempts to organized a united front to oppose the radical Right provoked intense hatred from conservatives and nationalists within the Republic. A 500,000,000,000 (500 billion) Serbian dinar banknote circa 1993, the largest nominal value ever officially printed in Serbia, the final result of hyperinflation. ... In politics, right-wing, the political right, or simply the right, are terms which refer, with no particular precision, to the segment of the political spectrum in opposition to left-wing politics. ... Conservatism or political conservatism is any of several historically related political philosophies or political ideologies. ... Nationalism is an ideology that creates and sustains a nation as a concept of a common identity for groups of humans. ...

Mühsam specifically targeted his writings to satirize the growing phenomenon of Nazism, which later raised the ire of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels. Die Affenschande (1923), a short story, ridiculed the racial doctrines of the Nazi party, while the poem Republikanische Nationalhymne (1924) attacked the German judiciary for its disproportionate punishment of leftists while barely punishing the right wing participants in the Putsch. The Nazi party used a right-facing swastika as their symbol and the red and black colors were said to represent Blut und Boden (blood and soil). ... Joseph Goebbels Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) was Adolf Hitlers Propaganda Minister (see Propagandaministerium) in Nazi Germany. ...

In 1928, Erwin Piscator produced Mühsam's third play, Staatsräson (For reasons of State), based upon the controversial conviction and execution of Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti in the United States—an unjust prosecution sought only because they were anarchists and Italian immigrants. Execution is a synonym for the actioning of something, of putting something into effect. ... Sacco (right) and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (1891 - August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888 - August 23, 1927) were two Italian anarchists, who were arrested, tried, and executed in Massachusetts in the 1920s on charges of murder of a shoe factory paymaster named Frederick Parmenter and a security guard named Alesandro... Sacco (right) and Vanzetti Nicola Sacco (1891 - August 23, 1927) and Bartolomeo Vanzetti (1888 - August 23, 1927) were two Italian anarchists, who were arrested, tried, and executed in Massachusetts in the 1920s on charges of murder of a shoe factory paymaster named Frederick Parmenter and a security guard named Alesandro... Immigration is the act of moving to or settling in another country or region, temporarily or permanently. ...

In 1930, Mühsam completed his last play Alle Wetter (All Hang), which sought mass revolution as the only way to prevent a radical Right-wing seizure of power. This play, never performed in public, was directed exclusively at criticizing the Nazis who were on the rise politically in Germany. 1930 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

Arrest and Death

Mühsam was arrested on charges unknown in the early morning hours of 28 February 1933, within a few hours after the Reichstag fire in Berlin. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, labelled him as one of "those Jewish subversives." It is alleged that Mühsam was planning to flee to Switzerland within the next day. Over the next seventeen months, he would be imprisioned in the concentrations camps at Sonnenburg, Brandenburg and finally, Oranienburg. February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1933 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Reichstag fire The Reichstag fire, a pivotal event in the establishment of Nazi Germany, began at 9. ... Joseph Goebbels Dr. Paul Joseph Goebbels (October 29, 1897 – May 1, 1945) was Adolf Hitlers Propaganda Minister (see Propagandaministerium) in Nazi Germany. ... The Swiss Confederation or Switzerland is a landlocked federal state in Europe, with neighbours Germany, France, Italy, Austria and Liechtenstein. ... For other uses, see Brandenburg (disambiguation). ... Oranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. ...

Marinus van der Lubbe, an alleged Communist agitator, was arrested and blamed for the fire, and his association with Communist organizations led Adolf Hitler to declare a state of emergency, encouraging aging president Paul von Hindenburg to sign the Reichstag Fire Decree, abolishing most of the human rights provisions of the Weimar Republic's constitution (1919). Hitler used the state of emergency to justify the arrests of large numbers of German intellectuals labelled as communists, socialists, and anarchists in both retaliation for the attack and to silence opposition for his increasing suppression of civil liberties. Marinus van der Lubbe (January 13, 1909 - January 10, 1934 Leipzig) was a Dutch communist accused of setting fire to the German Reichstag building on February 27, 1933, an event known as the Reichstag fire. ... Paul von Hindenburg President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg (full name Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg) ( October 2, 1847– August 2, 1934) was a German Field Marshal and statesman. ... The Reichstag Fire Decree (in German, Reichstagsbrandverordnung) is the commonly used abbreviation for the law that was passed by the Nazi government in direct response to the Reichstag fire of February 27, 1933. ... Human rights are rights which some hold to be inalienable and belonging to all humans. ... The period of German history from 1919 to 1933 is known as the Weimar Republic (Pronounced Vye-Mar, and in German it is known as the Weimarer Republik). It is named after the city of Weimar, where a national assembly convened to produce a new constitution after the German monarchy... For the entry on the naval ship U.S.S. Constitution, see: USS Constitution. ... Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945, standard German pronunciation in the IPA) was the Führer (leader) of the National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party) and of Nazi Germany from 1933 to 1945. ... Communism is a term that can refer to one of several things: a social and economic system, an ideology which supports that system, or a political movement that wishes to implement that system. ... The color red and particularly the red flag are traditional symbols of Socialism. ... Anarchy ( New Latin anarchia) is a term that has a number of different but related usages. ...

Communist, Socialist, and Anarchist publications decried the arrests of these Intellectuals, several of which led an international effort demanding the release of Mühsam, conveying reports of his treatment and enumerating the various barbarous acts of torture and repeated beatings at the hands of prison guards and officers. Several accounts compared his sufferings to that of Jesus Christ, and the anarchist journal MAN! described his ordeal as "the most terrible Via Crucis." This article is about the figure known by both Jesus of Nazareth and Jesus Christ. For other usages, see Jesus (disambiguation). ...

At Sonnenburg, the first Concentration Camp where Mühsam was held, it was reported:

"After breaking his teeth with musket blows; stamping a swastika on his scalp with a red-hot brand; subjecting him to tortures which caused him to be taken into a hospital, even now the fascist hyenas of the Sonninburg concentration camp continue their beastly attacks upon this defenseless man. The last news are really atrocious: the Nazi forced our comrade to dig his own grave and then with a simulated execution made him go thru the agony of a doomed man. Although his body has been reduced to a mass of bleeding and tumefied flesh, his spirit is still very high: when his traducers tried to force him to sing the Horst Wessel Lied (the Nazi's anthem) he defied their anger by singing the International." ⁽⁵⁾

It was even alleged that the camp's guards had even ripped out pieces of Mühsam's beard in order to make him look more like the caricatures of orthodox Jews seen in anti-semitic newspapers and tracts. The swastika is a cross with its arms 90° to either right or left. ... The Horst Wessel Lied was the anthem of the Nazi Party of Germany, chosen to glorify Horst Wessel as a Nazi martyr. ... The Internationale (LInternationale in French) is the most famous socialist song and one of the most widely recognized songs in the world. ...

On 2 February 1934, Mühsam was transferred to the Concentration Camp at Oranienburg. The beatings and torture continued, until finally on the night of 9 July 1934, Mühsam was tortured and murdered by the guards, his battered corpse found handing in a latrine the next morning. February 2 is the 33rd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... A concentration camp is a large detention center created for political opponents, aliens, specific ethnic or religious groups, civilians of a critical war-zone, or other groups of people, often during a war. ... Oranienburg is a town in Brandenburg, Germany. ... July 9 is the 190th day of the year (191st in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 175 days remaining. ...

An official Nazi report dated 11 July stated that Erich Mühsam committed suicide, hanging himself while in "protective custody" at Oranienburg. However, a report from Prague on 20 July 1934 in the New York Times stated otherwise July 11 is the 192nd day (193rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar, with 173 days remaining. ... Prague (Praha in Czech) is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ...

"His widow declared this evening that, when she was first allowed to visit her husband after his arrest, his face was so swollen by beating that she could not recognise him. He was assigned to the task of cleaning toilets and staircases and Storm Troopers amused themselves by spitting in his face, she added. On July 8th, last, she saw him for the last time alive. Despite the tortures he had undergone for fifteen months, she declared, he was cheerful, and she knew at once when his "suicide" was reported to her three days later that it was untrue. When she told the police that they had "murdered" him, she asserted they shrugged their shoulders and laughed. A post mortem examination was refused, according to Frau Mühsam, but Storm Troopers, incensed with their new commanders, showed her the body which bore unmistakable signs of strangulation, with the back of the skull shattered as if Herr Mühsam had been dragged across the parade ground." ⁽⁶⁾

After the death, publications would accuse Theodor Eicke, the former commander of the concentration camp at Dachau, was the murderer, aided by two Sturmabteilung (SA) officers identified as Ehrath and Konstantin Werner. It was alleged that he was tortured and beaten until he lost consciousness, followed by an injection that killed him, and that Mühsam's body was taken to a latrine in the rear of the building and hung on a rafter so as to create the impression that Mühsam had committed suicide.⁽⁷⁾ Theodor Eicke (October 17, 1892 - February 26, 1943) was a Nazi official, SS-Obergruppenführer, commander of the Totenkopfdivision of the SS and one of the key figures in the establishment of concentration camps in Nazi Germany. ... SS Chief Heinrich Himmler inspects the Dachau concentration camp ( 1936) The Dachau concentration camp was a Nazi German concentration camp near the city of Dachau, north of Munich, in southern Germany. ... Hitler addressing SA members in the late 1920s The Sturmabteilung (SA, German for Storm Division and is usually translated as stormtroops or stormtroopers) functioned as a paramilitary organisation of the NSDAP – the German Nazi party. ...

The body of Erich Mühsam was interred at Friedhof Pankow IV (Pankow Cemetery No. 4) in Berlin.

Works

Books

• Die Eigenen (1903)
• Räterepublik (1929)
• Die Befeiung der Gesellschaft vom Staat (1932)
• Unpolitische Erinnerungen (trans. Unpolitical Remembrances) (1931) – an autobiography

Plays

• Die Hochstapler (The Con Men) (1904)
• Die Freivermählten (1914)
• Judas (1920)
• Staatsräson (Reasons of State) (1927)
• Alle Wetter (All Hang) (1930)

Poetry

• Der wahre Jacob (1901)
• Die Wüste (1904)
• Der Revoluzzer (1908)
• Der Krater (1909)
• Wüste-Krater-Wolken (1914)
• Brennende Erde (1920)
• Republikanische Nationalhymne (1924)
• Revolution. Kampf-, Marsch- und Spottlieder (1925)

Journals and Periodicals

• Kain: Zeitschrift für Menschlichkeit (Cain: Magazine for Humanity) 1911-1914, 1918-1919, 1924 (brief)
• Fanal (The Torch) 1926-1933
• Contributed to anarchist journals Der Freie Arbeiter (The Free Worker), Der Weckruf (The Alarm Call), Der Anarchist (The Anarchist), Neue Gemeinschaft (New Community) and Kampf (Struggle) and edited Der Arme Tufel (The Poor Devil) under the pseudonym "Nolo."

See Also

• Anarchism
• Holocaust
• List of anarchists
• Nazi Germany
• Weimar Culture

This article deals with the Nazi Holocaust. ... The following is a list of notable anarchists, ordered by surname. ... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... This article needs cleanup. ...

References

Footnotes

1. Erich Mühsam, Tagebücher: 1910-1924 (trans. Diaries) (Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, 1994) ISBN 3423190302
2. ibid.
3. ibid.
4. ibid.
5. "The Nazi Regime at Work: Erich Mühsam" in MAN! A Journal of the Anarchist Ideal and Movement. Vol. 2, No. 3 (March 1934).
6. The New York Times, 20 July 1934, quoted in "Erich Mühsam (1868-1934)" in MAN! A Journal of the Anarchist Ideal and Movement. Vol. 2, No. 8 (August 1934).
7. "The Nazi Beasts" in MAN! A Journal of the Anarchist Ideal and Movement. Vol. 3, No. 1 (January 1935).

Background Information

• Lawrence Baron, The eclectic anarchism of Erich Muhsam. (New York: Revisionist Press, 1976). (Part of the series: Men and Movements in the History and Philosophy of Anarchism) ISBN 0877002282
• David Shepard, From Bohemia to the Barricades: Erich Muhsam and the Development of Revolutionary Drama. (New York: P. Lang, 1993). ISBN 0820421227
• Diana Köhnen, Das literarische Werk Erich Mühsams: Kritik und utopische Antizipation (trans. The Literary Works of Erich Mühsam: Critique and Utopian Anticipation) (Berlin: Königshausen & Neumann, 1988) ISBN: 3884794140
• Rolf Kauffeldt, Erich Mühsam: Literatur und Anarchie (trans. Erich Mühsam: Literature and Anarchy) (Munich: W. Fink, 1983) ISBN 3770521390

Related Links

• Die Erich Mühsam Seite (http://www.mela.de/Mela/muehsam.shtml) (trans. The Erich Mühsam Site) — a selection of poems by Mühsam