La república de los soñadores

by Volker Weidermann, Arnau Figueras Deulofeu (Translator)

Una república gobernada por poetas, literatos, periodistas e intelectuales. Como presidente, un crítico teatral melenudo y místico. Sus principios: el pacifismo radical, la democracia directa, la justicia social y el poder de la fantasía. ¿Es una utopía? No: es historia. En noviembre de 1918 se proclamó en Múnich la República Libre de Baviera. Thomas y Heinrich Mann, Hermann Hesse, Rainer Maria Rilke y otras muchas personalidades de la cultura alemana simpatizaron con el movimiento que derrocó la monarquía y se hizo con el poder. Sin embargo, la república terminó, a los pocos meses de nacer, con el presidio, el exilio o la muerte de la mayoría de sus líderes. El campo quedaba abonado: pocos años después el nacionalsocialismo se adueñaría de la sociedad alemana. Weidermann transforma las verdades subjetivas de los testigos y protagonistas en una ágil narración que nos conduce por los días convulsos y efervescentes en los que un grupo de idealistas pudo haber cambiado el rumbo del siglo XX. La república de los soñadores es un palpitante reportaje, casi un thriller histórico, sobre un episodio único y poético por sí mismo en el que sutilmente resuenan algunas evocaciones de nuestro momento presente.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Germany, German Literature, Politics, World War I, European History

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 9, 2017

About the author

He studied political science and German language and literature studies. He works as literary critic for the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

Reviews

[Liam Ostermann · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Corrected but not changed in May 2024)

The collapse of the German empire in the aftermath of the defeat and surrender of its armies in 1918 gave birth to the 20th century in all its horror and also its optimism. Nothing encapsulates that story better then the events in Munich in 1918 where the 900 year old Wittelsbach dynasty disappeared along with all government ministers and authority and power was lying in the gutter waiting to be picked.

But it was neither a Napoleon nor a Lenin who seized this opportune moment by Kurt Eisner, a socialist and peace campaigner, who declared the Bavarian Republic and set about creating a new world. In January 1919 elections were held which Johannes Hoffmann of the established SDP won and Eisner's party came last. On his way to resign as prime minister Eisner was assassinated*. After struggling to rule for a few months Hoffmann's government had to flee Munich and power was seized by another a group of pacifist writers and idealists under Ernest Toller who within barely two weeks lost power to the communists lead by Eugen Levine. He in turn lost power to the Hoffmann's SDP who returned to power on the coat tails of the regular army and Freikorps. In response to the slaying of ten hostages (seven members of the Thule society with fancy 'von' type names and three captured Freikorps soldiers) by the communists resulted in a wave of violent retribution with at least 400 killed without trial and 1,000 to 1,200 killed after some sort of trial. The truth is that no one knows and those killed were often indiscriminately chosen.

That is the short and bleak history of this forgotten revolution but what Volker Weidermann gives us is a wonderful, and inspiring, portrait of the sheer crazy wonderfulness of these writers, poets, theatre critics, artists who thought they had seized power as well as the believers in theosophy, vegetarianism, nudism, and thousand other eccentric beliefs and philosophies which surrounded them. It was unbelievable and treated as a joke by foreign correspondents like Ben Hecht, attracted the sympathy of literary grandees like Thomas Mann and Rainier Rilke (their enthusiasm was variable, contradictory and short lived) before its violent bloody denouement made most people dismiss and then forget it.

Yet within those few months and amongst those eccentrics all the cults, beliefs, mysticism and claptrap that was to emerge in the 1960's and go on to establish themselves in milliard 'New Age' forms were present fully formed. That this should surprise so many is only due to our lack of knowledge of the extent of dissent already present in German society before WWI (to get a fascinating insight into Germany before WWI I encourage you to read Florian Illies '1913'). Although the collapse of the Hohenzollern, Hapsburg and Romanov monarchies is attributed to World War I it is amazing how utterly irrelevant they were to the extraordinary cultural and economic efflorescence that was changing all those empires.

This is a splendid look at an episode that speaks to any one who is a romanticand although they failed you can't help admiring and sympathizing with the men (and at this stage in history it was still only men) who dreamed so brightly of a 'good and better' world. Their belief in the basic goodness, decency and potential of ordinary working men and women and their right to the very best, not simply in economic terms but in things of the mind, education, access to the best writing, theatre and music performances. It may sound naïve but their determination to believe in the best in humankind is something I prefer to today's politicians who not only appeal to but only believe in the most but only wish to appeal to the most basic of human motives.

*A fascinating insight into Hitler's mindset in 1918 and of the history of his antisemitism is that he attended the funeral of Eisner, a Jew, socialist and peace campaigner who believed passionately that Germans should accept responsibility for WWI, wearing a black armband of mourning and a red one for revolution (there are still and film footage in existence which shows him).

[Jeff Clay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mad, inspired, comic but not funny, self-destructive, creative and in end, horrendously tragic, the Bavarian Revolution of 1918-1919 was all of this and more. It is also all but forgotten — except to perhaps a few historians and some aging leftists. It remains however, a fascinating chapter in 20th century politics and history.

As with most events in the past one can endlessly speculate about the what if‘s. However this book is not about that. It is about humanizing the protagonists of this short, sharp struggle: the friends, the enemies, the opponents and proponents, the writers and soldiers, the professors and poets, the politicians and the dreamers that make up this strange and radical interlude that appeared ever so briefly in the long history of staid Bavarian conservativism.

Players major and minor are well-drawn in this brilliant narrative history. Weidermann has done his homework and is masterful at creating the passion, foibles, and pathos of Eisner, Mann, Toller, Rilke, Landauer and others. Even a young and nascent Nazi Hitler comes out as something human.

This is a gripping bit of history and though a scholarly accounting could certainly have worked, the author instead weaves a colorful and truthful tapestry of narratives; threading diaries, journals, poems and polemics, dissertations and justifications, as well as eye witness statements and historical ruminations, seemingly disparate but always coherent and compelling.

Though the revolution was a failure — and what followed was arguably even more of a disaster — one can’t help but be caught up in the hopes and aspirations of those lost dreamers. And though it may feel very distant from the dawning of the 3rd decade of the 21st century, I can’t help but feel that echoes of those times still reverberate today.

[Cindy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Volker Weidemann lässt in diesem Buch ein Stück Zeitgeschichte, die Münchner Räterepublik, aus ganz unterschiedlichen Perspektiven lebendig werden. Eine Zeit, die nicht nur in Bayern Folgen hatte.
Ich musste mir das Buch erarbeiten, anfangs habe ich mich mit Weidermanns sperrigen Schreibstil sehr schwer getan. Nur das interessante Thema des Buches, hat es mich nicht abbrechen lassen. Als ich mich daran gewöhnt hatte, hat mich auch die Erzählweise gepackt. Ich konnte das Buch nur noch schwer aus der Hand legen und fand es nicht nur interessant, sondern auch spannend.
Ich habe eine Menge gelernt und die anfängliche Mühe mit dem Text hat sich für mich wirklich gelohnt.
Ganz besonders gut hat mir auch das Nachwort des Autors gefallen, dessen Fazit ich teile.

[Georgekapa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ιστορική περίοδος: από Νοέμβριο 1918 έως Απρίλιο 1919 με τη Δημοκρατία των Συμβουλίων του Μονάχου και κάπου στο βάθος κι ο Αδόλφος ....

[Sabine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Entstehen und Scheitern der Münchner Räterepublik 1919, exzellent recherchiert und spannend erzählt von Volker Weidermann.
Wem die Druckausgabe eventuell zu trocken erscheinen mag, dem sei das Hörbuch empfohlen. Dieses greift hervorragend die Spannung des Buches auf und gibt die verschiedenen Erzählperspektiven durch wechselnde Sprecher wieder. Als Narrator fungiert dabei Axel Milberg; ihm zuzuhören ist dabei einfach nur ein Genuss.
Prädikat: sehr empfehlenswert!

[Dan Galloway · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful account of an utterly chaotic, yet hopeful, communal and exhilarating time. Excerpts of poetry, song and story interweave to create a truly personal account of mass political change. It is one to inspire, and reveal that change is possible, as despite its fragility, there is always the possibility to do better.

[Jimmy Jansson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Historia när som bäst skriven! Tänk om poeterna kunde fått genomfört alla sina idéer! Många idéer och färgstarka personer i München 1918! Som Rilke, Mann, Eisner, Toller, Gesell och även dessvärre Hitler! Lättläst och oerhört smittande skriven av en mycket beläst författare!

[Marvin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unfassbar gut recherchiert und zusammengetragen!

[Dropbear123 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5/5 rounding down for Goodsreads but that is me being a bit harsh.

It says Germany 1918 but really its just about Munich and Bavaria after the end of WWI until the SPD and Freikorps took it back in 1919. Short at 250 pages paperback.

It just wasn't really what I was expecting. I picked it up randomly in a shop rather than online and was hoping for a bit more of a traditional history book - policies, analysis, statistics etc. Instead it mainly focused on the individuals (writers and politicians mainly plus Hitler), their stories and feelings. It felt a bit too storylike for my taste.

It had some good parts - the aftermath of Kurt Eisner's assassination and anything to do Ersnt Toller and the Bavarian Soviet Republic was pretty good imo.

I wouldn't say its a bad book just not my style.

[Ioannis Korovesis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Όμορφα δομημένο χρονογράφημα που αφορά στην βραχύβια Δημοκρατία των Σοβιετ του Μονάχου, με μάρτυρες τους ίδιους τους πρωταγωνιστές των γεγονότων, τον Μανν, τον Γκραφ, τον Άισνερ, τον Μύζαμ, ακόμη και τον Χίτλερ.

Ένα φιάσκο όπως απεδείχθη, που στοίχισε τη ζωή σε τόσους ανθρώπους, το οποίο όμως απεικνυεται άκρως διδακτικό, ποικιλοτροπως.

[René · Rating 2 out of 5]

Eine ziemlich charmante Idee, eine mögliche literarische Marktlücke auch: Zu Babylon Berlin gesellt sich Mekka München. Der vielleicht einzige angedacht utopische Anflug in unserer weitgehend grimmigen Geschichte des letzten Jahrhunderts. Es ist 1918/1919, die alte Ordnung hinüber nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg, das taumelnde Reich in politischer Konfusion und sozialem Aufruhr. Und dann wagt das post-wittelsbachersche Alpen-Florenz beinahe unfallartig ein ganz untypisches Experiment: Eine rüstige Räterepublik soll aus dem Freistaat werden nach dem Kaisersturz, doch statt blutroten Bajuwaren-Sowjetkitsch aufzutischen, serviert Volker Weidermanns Melange aus "Spiegel"-Reportage und flotter Florian-Illies-Prosa den Stoff als fragilen historischen Moment des Idealismus an der Macht. Schließlich versuchen es gleich drei Schriftsteller, nämlich Ernst Toller, Gustav Landauer und Erich Mühsam, mit der Errichtung eines Himmels auf Erden mit den Mitteln des Aktionsausschusses. Es liegt in der müden, alten, deprimierenden Natur des Menschen, dass dieses ganz kurze Aufjauchzen nach Phantasie, Pazifismus, Gleichheit und Gnädigkeit kippen muss: Erst in heilloses Chaos und hektisches Herumrudern der strauchelnden Künstler an der Staatsspitze, dann in den üblichen Griff nach der Macht durch entschlossene Reaktionäre. Die haben halt weit weniger moralische Probleme mit den gewaltsamen Eskalationen auf der Straße, die politische Turbulenzen solcher Größenordnung mit sich bringen. Und so ist Weidermanns Buch von Anfang an die Geschichte eines krachenden Abstürzens des Utopischen, wie sonst soll er auch erzählen, was zwangsläufig mit einem München als Hitlers finsterer Brutstätte enden muss. Aber die beschleunigte Atemlosigkeit als Erzählprinzip, die sicher rasant und packend wirken sollte, stößt an ihre Grenzen, wenn der Lesende kaum noch dazu kommt, durchzudenken, was da eigentlich wirklich geschieht in diesen wenigen, kaum glaublichen Monaten: Bald sortiert man nur noch hektisch Amtsinhaber, Gegenrevolutionäre, Würdenträger, Perspektivwechsel, Filmschnitte auseinander in diesem höchst kaleidoskopischen Narrativ. Thomas und Klaus Mann tauchen auf und treten wieder ab, klar, auch Rainer Maria Rilke, Viktor Klemperer oder Oskar Maria Graf, der spätere Diktator linst ebenfalls zwischen den Seiten hervor, aber damit fängt Weidermann erst an. Am Ende bleibt das Gefühl, ebenso überfordert, geblendet und betäubt durch diesen schwindelerregenden Umsturzversuch der Ästheten gesaust zu sein, wie es wohl den Akteuren selbst ergangen sein muss. Vielleicht muss man das etwas anders machen, um den Blick auf diese seltsam ur- und zugleich so herrlich undeutsche Episode wirklich zu weiten, und ich meine nicht in Form einer ZDF-Sonntagsfilm-Trilogie, bitte.

[Turtelina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solide 3 Sterne. Ein Stern davon für die megalange Literaturliste am Ende. Auch Volker Weidermann lese ich extrem gerne, weil er unglaublich gut recherchiert und sehr viel historisches zu einem spannenden fiktiven Werk zusammenbauen kann.

Leider ein großes aber: vielzuviel Information, mir kam das Buch megageballt vor, man hatte kaum Zeit irgendwann mal zu verschnaufen, es ging einfach wirklich wie eine Reportage ununterbrochen mit Berichten, Geschehnissen usw dahin. Man musste immer schwer konzentriert bleiben um ja nichts zu verpassen und dann womöglich den Anschluss zu verpassen.

Genau deswegen habe ich das Buch dazwischen Monate lang weggelegt. Es war zu intensiv!

Natürlich ist es toll Menschen die man aus dem Studium und aus Antologien kennt im geschichtlichen Zusammenhang besser kennenzulernen und leider ging es ja für viele nicht so gut aus. Aber es war einfach zu geballt und zu anstrengend zu lesen. Leider,

[Ryan]

A stunning work of political history that you feel is actually living and breathing in your hands as you read it.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

When it comes to somewhat forgotten episodes in modern German history the short-lived independent Socialist regimes that came into being in Bavaria from November 1918 through to April 1919 surely must rank in the top three or so. Arguably serving as both a stimulus for and as a counterpoint to the right wing violence that culminated in the 1923 Nazi putsch in Munich, the chaotic and perhaps misguided revolts of Bavaria’s literary cadre, military detachments and industrial workers created the spectre of Communist terror whilst failing to realise the utopian dreams of its advocates. In ‘Dreamers’ Volker Wiedermann maps this relatively neglected period and gives the proponents of the failed revolution a new presence for today’s audience.

The author has created a text that is part political history but also, in part a literary history. This is a book that is not purely about the vagaries of political turmoil and popular unrest in Bavaria in the immediate aftermath of World War I. This is also a story about the most important and dare one say interesting authors who emerged out of Wilhelmine Germany. Whilst there is plenty of information about the constant flux in the regional governments that held sway in Bavaria for six months, where ‘Dreamers’ truly excels is in its capturing of the cultural and literary zeitgeist of the period.

It might be suggested that when one considers the history of uprisings and revolutions in the 20th century no other rebellion in a nation’s history could compare to that in Bavaria in late 1918 and early 1919 (with the possible exception of the Easter 1916 uprising in Ireland). This was a revolt led by authors and other literary figures, not politicians or military provocateurs. In fact one can definitely see in this text that the quixotic nature of the relevant leaders of the Bavarian socialist republic in this period led to their own downfall. The books title is exceedingly relevant; the rebellions of this period were led by dreamers.

The author gives the reader some intriguing and engaging insights into the lives of many of the key figures of this historical episode. Kurt Eisner, Thomas Mann, Rainer Maria Rilke, Heinrich Hesse, Ernst Toller, Ben Hecht and even Adolf Hitler are given due recognition for their contributions to the events of 1918–1919. It is obvious that the author holds much sympathy for the leftist dreamers who failed in their utopian vision, and the reader is encouraged to feel this way as well. This doesn’t mean that the author lets figures like Eisner and Toller off the hook in terms of their ability to actually realise their goals. Wiedermann chronicles their multiple failures and for the most part the reader can see how farcical the regimes were.

Where the book takes a more tragic turn is in the closing 50 or so pages where Wiedermann chronicles the counter revolution against the utopian leftist litterateurs. Let down on one side by the Soviet inspired German Communists and then assailed on another by the more right wing elements of Bavarian society, it takes the bloody and vengeful intervention of the Freikorps and the Reichswehr to kill off the dreamers’ Socialist Republic. As one reads about how the right wing forces killed and imprisoned those who had once been in power the obvious conclusion that can be drawn is that what was seen in Munich in 1918-1919 was a precursor to the crimes of Nazi Germany.

So who will read this book and hopefully enjoy it? Students of German history and literature will of course find plenty to engage with. If one has an understanding, deep or not, about the end of World War I, the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich then Wiedermann’s text will be a worthy read. There is also the potential for wider reception; cultural historians with an interest in the role of the author in society and the value of literature will find ‘Dreamers’ good value. There are even echoes for those who have an interest in more radical social movements such as the hippies of Haight Ashbury & Woodstock in the late 1960s.

A relatively short book, ‘Dreamers’ is a text that never loses its pace nor its ability to engage the reader. Wiedermann has written a great book and this reviewer has every reason to recommend it to the relevant audiences. This was a most rewarding and enjoyable read.

[Carles · Rating 3 out of 5]

M'ha agradat molt la premisa de l'autor: descriure un periode històric mitjançant les biografies i diaris de multitud dels seus protagonistes. El llibre s'ha guanyat el meu interés per dos motius. Per una banda descriu un periode històric breu, però políticament molt intens. Un d'aquests períodes habitualment ignorats al trobar-se encastat entre dos gegants de la història europea i mundial com són la Gran Guerra i la Segona Guerra Mundial. D'altra banda, les fonts utilitzades permeten, a diferència d'una anàlisi historiogràfic clàssic, una escriptura més propera als sentiments.

A priori pot semblar una senyal de perill, doncs no llegim una història racionalitzada pel temps i per les forces que perduren. I malgrat aquesta sensació, tant viva quan començava la lectura; al final m'ha convençut la necessitat dels sentiments. L'autor, mitjançant les seves fonts, aconsegueix plasmar l'evolució de la frustració al fervor, del fervor a l'exultació, de l'exultació a la esperança, de la esperança a resignació, i de la resignació a l'odi.

Un camí emocional que m'ha semblat igual d'important d'entendre que les raons subjacents de qualsevol revolució humana. Si no entenem els moviments emocionals, no podem entendre com la humanitat acaba sent capaç del millor i del pitjor en espais curts. Per a mi el llibre acaba en un advertiment necessari, no només per la vida sinó també pels temps actuals.

[hauke.e · Rating 4 out of 5]

Das war ein überraschend gutes, intensives Leseerlebnis. Über ein Ereignis in der Geschichte, wo ich Genaueres dazu nicht kannte: Münchner Revolution 1918 und die folgende Räterepublik. Hinzu kommen Schilderungen von Dichtern und Schriftsteller, die das Damalige miterlebt hatten; unter anderem Oskar Maria Graf, Thomas Mann oder Rainer Maria Rilke.
Insgesamt war es eine spannende, sprunghafte Geschichte, im Stile einer Reportage.

[Twig · Rating 3 out of 5]

more a 3,5

[Sabina · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb account of the short-lived revolutionary State of Bavaria following the First World War

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great, amazing and crazy true history of the Red Republic in Bavaria. I can't wait until the world opens again so I can visit Munich and re-visit many of these sites.

[Sean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you heard about the People’s State of Bavaria (Volksstaat Bayern), the left-wing regime that attempted to govern the south German region between November 1918 and the spring of 1919? You can be forgiven if you haven’t. It’s existence is rarely mentioned today. Perhaps it’s chaotic run has been considered too complicated a chain of events for abridgment, and thus folded silently into more tidy narratives of Germany’s post-war history? Volker Weidermann’s Dreamers is an anecdotal, sardonic, and sometimes confusing attempt to fill us in on this unusual chapter in 20th Century history. I highly recommend it. It is not a straightforward historical narrative, but it will give you a powerful dose of post-WWI zeitgeist, and an impressionistic familiarity with the strange and violent six months in Munich, which helped light the fuse that was to become Germany’s inter-war ticking time bomb.

Dreamers is an oblique prequel to Weidermann’s 2016 book Ostend: Stefan Zweig, Joseph Roth, and the Summer before the Dark. The earlier book is a poignant non-fiction portrayal of a circle of exiled German and Austrian writers holed-up in the Belgian resort in 1936, just as the inter-war period began to play out its final grim act. Set 17 years earlier, Dreamers references a few of the same writers who are mentioned in Ostend, notably the playwright Ernst Toller. Weidermann’s style was well-suited to the earlier book. I have read Ostend three times. He was trained as a literary scholar, and as such he has a deep knowledge of early-20th Century German-speaking literati. He draws upon that knowledge to great effect in Ostend, bringing to bear a novelist’s attention to narrative, weaving together multiple plot lines into a poignant tale of shared woe and individual experience. He wears his knowledge lightly in short sardonic sentences, which I read as a pleasant homage to the “New Objectivity” (Neue Sachlichkeit) of the 1920s.

Weidermann uses a similar approach in Dreamers. The story of the left-wing Bavarian Free State is presented through the eyes of a collection of willing participants and unwilling witnesses. The primary stage is Munich, the cosmopolitan capital of otherwise rural Bavaria. Munich is a place where those of the left and right coexisted, often very uneasily, surviving on food imported from the surrounding farming regions. Each group claimed to speak for the peasants in the hinterland. The primary characters of Dreamers are literary figures, appropriately so. Writers, many Jewish, dominated the doomed People’s Republic. The central protagonist of the opening section is Kurt Eisner, the socialist journalist who, almost by chance, came to lead the peaceful overthrow of the Wittlesbach monarchy in November 1918. This unforeseen event began Bavaria’s regional version of the larger post-war German revolution. Eisner was a charismatic, sympathetic figure, and an unlikely leader. He had no administrative experience prior to seizing power in 1918, becoming an improbable Jewish left-wing leader of a predominantly conservative Catholic state. As Weidermann presents the history, Eisner rules the doomed regime with admirable if futile compassion. In one of Dreamers many ironies, Eisner is assassinated as he is on his way to resign in February, 1919, shot down by a right-wing aristocrat who had been anathematized by his fellow right-wingers, due to his maternal-Jewish heritage.

The protagonist of the book’s second half is the socialist-pacifist playwright Ernst Toller. He takes up the baton after Eisner’s assassination, assuming presidency of the hastily established Bavarian Council Republic, the chimeric concatenation of workers’ organizations that tried and failed to restore order in the wake of the demise of the People’s State and Eisner’s assassination. Toller’s week-long reign ends in violence, leading ultimately to the occupation of Munich by troops representing a coalition of rival counter-revolutionary groups. I am abridging even more than Weidermann condenses in his account, which is largely drawn from memoirs, letters and journalism, much of which I gather are highly subjective reminiscences. I don’t fault Weidermann for this. In his approach it is obvious he is presenting not an objective grand narrative, but rather a collage of memories and statements by those who were there. In its best moments Dreamers draws upon its sources to great effect, inviting the reader to infer what they will about what might be missing.

A few of the writers he relies upon will be familiar to many readers. Watching from his mini-mansion in Herzgopark, an elite Munich suburb, is the titanic figure of Thomas Mann. He watches the ongoing revolution with caution. Is he a bourgeois voyeur, a conservative literary figure? Yes, but he also seems to want to stay relevant as times change, at least that is how I read him. As the story commences Mann has just published an essay called “Reflections of an Unpolitical Man”, a text justifying totalitarian rule, which he suddenly realizes will be vastly out of step with direction things are going down town. Does he care? If I am reading correctly Weidermann wants you to ponder this and draw your own conclusions. My reading is that Mann did care about his reputation among the fashionable set, but not as much as he did about the potential loss of his personal property. (It should be noted that as the leader of the “free-thinking writers republic”, Kurt Eisner rejected the collectivization of private property, drawing rebuke from communists taking their queue from the new state in Moscow.)

Weidermann’s invitation for the reader to fill certain spaces in the narrative are for the most part compelling, although to some extent this method was better suited to his previous book. In Ostend, the consequences of political developments are remote from that book’s immediate present, leaving the interrelationships of the writers he portrays to take center stage against the backdrop of the era. By contrast, most of the writers profiled in Dreamers are helping to shape the events of the day. As such, there are a few confusing moments when a bit more chronology and some political context would have helped tell the tale. No doubt Weidermann wants this to read as he has written it, focused on subjective personal experiences, not a historical text. But I feel I would have understood what motivated his chosen figures better with a little bit more historical information. That said—those histories are available—and Weidermann has inspired me to seek them out.

I have failed to mention the other writers whose voices sing out in Dreamers. I cherish how effectively Weidermann selects from what these men (alas few women) wrote in his patchwork tale. One voice that stands out for me is Oskar Maria Graf, the poet and dramaturg (and subsequently memoirist) who was drawn into the events of the revolution. Graf is to be one of the survivors, and you get the sense that he was subsequently haunted by those who were executed in the brutal weeks after the counter-revolutionaries marched into Munich. In between quotations from Graf and others, Weidermann’s narration treats this violent dénouement a bit too lightly in my view. The sardonic touch feels whimsical, lacking in emotional weight. Perhaps something got lost in translation? This strikes a nerve for me. I am on a bit of a soap box these days over the presentation of inter-war violence. This is best exemplified in the seductive but misleading television series “Babylon Berlin”, an adaptation of Volker Kutcher’s recent novels. The show is enjoyable on a superficial level, but in my personal opinion it is a trivialization of a historical period that is worthy of more a more thoughtful treatment.

Stepping off my soap box, and to be fair to Weidermann, he does connect the dots for us in one very important respect, establishing what was born from the tumult of Bavaria’s radical experiment. Signs of a dark future loom. The violence of trench warfare has been brought home, leading to internecine violence. The demagoguery of wartime nationalism is being merged with the long-standing hatred of Jews. Little more than a bystander in Dreamers is an inconsequential corporal born in Austria, living only a couple blocks away from his future deputy, Rudolph Hess. Less than four years later they will run amok on the same Munich streets as leaders of the Beer Hall Putsch.

Americans know very little about anything that happened outside their country between November 11, 1918 and December 7, 1941. The steady barrage of books, documentaries, and public events concerning the centenary of the First World War in the past few years has done little to challenge this lack of knowledge. The tonic note in the chord of most discourse about the WWI and its aftermath has been sentimental hagiography, accompanied by a dominant tone of dangerous revisionism—a powerful chord of false history. Largely missed has been a serious assessment of those who spoke out against the war at the time, and an acknowledgement that the 1918 Armistice was only the beginning of many local and regional conflicts, some of which have never ended. Volker Weidermann's Dreamers gives English readers a chance to redress this void. Along with Adam Hochschild's 2012 book on the British peace movement during WWI (To End All Wars), and Robert Gerwarth's 2016 book on the post-WWI era (The Vanquished), Weidermann's Dreamers offers us a chance to see the Great War and it’s aftermath in a deeper way than the books which unfortunately take center stage, the accounts of battles and failed diplomacy. I urge you to read Hochschild, Gerwarth and Weidermann.

[Andrew Garvey · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fast-paced (sometimes too fast-paced as the large cast of characters tends to blur a bit) narrative account of the short-lived and often bizarre Munich revolution of late 2018 and early '19, there's some fascinating detail in here about the ideas and the personalities, and a real sense of hope for genuine transformation before brutal, barbaric, armed reality reasserted itself. A strange, often sad story of a city at the ruination and humiliation of the empire around it.

[Richard Moss · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an account of a fascinating and relatively unexplored episode in history.

As the First World War comes to a close an uprising in Bavaria sweeps away the monarchy and institutes a short-lived Free Republic.

Its initial instigator is idealistic theatre critic Kurt Eisner but as Weidermann tells it, it also involves a number of other artists and writers.

In fact Eisner soon loses control of the revolution as elections marginalise his own political party and he meets an untimely end.

Others though take up the baton in an era that combines both chaos and idealism. As you might expect, a regime run by writers doesn't run smoothly, but it does give the glimpse of a more benign and tolerant Germany than would emerge later.

Indeed the comparative innocence of this brief republic soon ends in slaughter and recrimination, and although not directly involved, Adolf Hitler does feature in the dramatis personae of Weidermann's account.

There is a lot to like here, and there is plenty of pace and wit. Weidermann is a journalist rather than an academic and that shows in his style.

For me though, the novelistic, present tense style grated. I would have preferred a more conventional account. This is a tale that deserves the attention of a good writer, but also perhaps a little more academic rigour.

As a historian by training and inclination, I was taken aback by the lack of footnotes. There is no short of detail in this account, which suggests extensive research. But as there is no reference to any sources, it did make me wonder how much I could rely on the account. The narrative sometimes becomes rather confused and convoluted as well.

Dreamers has received extensive praise and good reviews, but though I am glad I read it, it did not quite gel for me.

[La Central · Rating 4 out of 5]

"¡Imaginad un pueblo gobernado por literatos, donde la base del gobierno fuera el arte dramático como herramienta educativa!
¿Un sueño? Sin duda lo fue para un grupo de revolucionarios formado por artistas de todo tipo que, a tan solo cuatro días de finalizar la Primera Guerra Mundial, dieron un golpe que consiguió derrocar la monarquía de los Wittelsbach y proclamar la República Libre de Baviera.
Su idea, una revolución pacífica, liderada por Kurt Eisner, que los llevaría a un gobierno prácticamente utópico; pero los sueños no siempre se hacen realidad, y tras el asesinato de Eisner, lo que empezó como tal, desencadenó rápidamente en violencia, detenciones y ejecuciones.

Nada le falta a este intenso ensayo de Volker Weidermann, el relato de un breve episodio de la historia en el que la cultura se alzó para conseguir un gobierno basado en sus ideales.
Una narración fluida contada a través de sus propios protagonistas. Voces como las de Rainer Maria Rilke o Thomas Mann, entre muchas otras, se unen para dar testimonio de los diferentes puntos de vista de aquellos que se involucraron en el movimiento: anarquistas, comunistas, antidemócratas y, entre todos ellos, en palabras del propio autor, aquel hombre delgado y pálido del bigote". Ànnia Paredes

[Clara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written so eloquently that I often forgot this book was non-fiction. Weidermann's poetic, dreamy writing style has the strange power of evoking a lively vision of Germany immediately after WWI. People woke up from the nationalistic dream to immediately tumble into another dream: de social revolution of 1918 in Munich, led by Kurt Eisner.
Weidermann follows the path of several important writers, poets and politicians who played a role in this ephemeral period of Munich's history, and brings its strangeness and magic to life. Eventually, you really do start realizing how surreal this time was for the German people: Thomas Mann, who had been a strong supporter of the nationalistic movement and the war, wakes up one day to the terrible and completely unexpected defeat his beloved country has suffered. From that point, he doesn't know what to make of the times; one moment he hates the socialists, the other moment he is a fervent supporter. I imagine this uncertainty must have been very common at the time, when the world was changing every day.
This book is well researched, yet reads as a novel. It makes you breathe the air of Munich in 1918, smell the victory of a utopy and helpelssly watch it's quick, violent and unavoidable death. I recommend it to anyone who feels intrigued by Germany's modern history.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

La fascinant història dels idealistes que, des del socialisme i el pacifisme radical, van donar lloc a la República Soviètica de Baviera (1918). De com el cop de mà es va fer amb flors, va atraure idealistes de tot el món i va afegir les simpaties de personatges com Rilke i Mann. També de com l’SPD primer i els espartaquistes (comunistes) després la van aïllar, menystenir i finalment matar. Aquí vindria el cop final de Leviné que apartaria a Toller. Els russos hi ajudarien i la revolució, a la russa ara, agafaria el camí sagnant de la de Sant Petersburg. Ara ja seran els conservadors, els socialistes, els militars i els Freikorps protonazis els que propulsaran una sed de venjança que tenyirà els carrers de Múnic de vermell. En la retina quedarà una nova flor d’esperança efímera, sorprenentment pacífica aquest cop, com les de 1789, 1871 i, potser (la història ho dirà d’aquí a mil anys) la de 1917. Una obra fonamental, per altra banda, per comprendre la història del socialisme europeu i particularment alemany des de la primera Guerra mundial fins als nostres dies.

[Mandy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t really get on with this one. I found the narrative quite hard to follow at times, and I felt that I needed to know a lot about the subject before even embarking on the book. It’s a detailed account of the build up to and the events of the short-lived Bavarian Republic of 1918-1919, a day-by-day chronicle of the turbulent time and the people involved. It’s an impressionistic account rather than a straight historical narrative, and it just didn’t sit easily with me. Useful reading for anyone particularly interested in the period but quite hard-going for the rest of us.

[Thomas Widrich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dieses Buch hat mir eine neue Perspektive auf die Münchner Räterepublik eröffnet. Bekannte und nicht so bekannte Literaten, kommen zu Wort, wobei Volker Weidermann die Erzählung sehr gekonnt mit den Originalzitaten verknüpft. Alles in allem ein inhaltlich wie stilistisch gelungenes Werk. Ein paar Fotos der Protagonisten wären allerdings hilfreich gewesen.

[Vuk Trifkovic · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don't have the problem with writing, but the plot line is weird and the approach is very weird. Too much literary celebrity and too little understanding - particularly for anything that is not a centrist position. It is all in stark contrast to Mieville's "October"...

[Jill · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title is intriguing, but the story is a confusing mess of facts and personalities and winding narratives. The six months after the end of WWI in Munich were a mix of idealists grabbing power and then leading the city into despair, violence, and confusion, but believing in redemption.

[Theodene · Rating 3 out of 5]

History is one of the more recent genres I love. Dreamers by Volker Weidermann takes readers into a glimpse in time during the German revolution back in 1918 when the writers took power. It’s interesting how writers became so powerful because of the way they could swing their words.

The dreamers are the writers who dream of a people’s nation. A country where the people are free. Yet the different armies in Germany feel otherwise, including young Adolf Hitler.

Typically, I read two or three books at a time, switching every chapter or two. But Dreamers has no chapters! This totally threw me off. It’s the second book I’ve read this year without chapters. Instead, there’s a space between paragraphs, sometimes three dashes. I am not a fan of this type of writing as I cherish my chapter breaks!

This book takes readers through the city streets when revolution is declared in 1918. It seems chaotic in Germany, particularly in Munich. The many mentioned are quickly described with political views and enemies indicated as well.

There’s so much death and useless murdering in this time. It’s a horrific thought that everything was so unstable that you could be shot dead because you look slightly like the description of someone being sought after. The book also mentioned a young woman who was brutally abused by many men, it breaks my heart that such brutality exists still today.

A digital complimentary copy of Dreamers by Volker Weidermann through Pushkin Press via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I give this book 3 out of 5 tiaras because the formatting threw me off and I found myself lost and confused about what was going on. It’s a view of history that I’ve never encountered before. This book is one that should be read without distractions because there’s so many people involved that I felt I should have outlined it’s characters to keep track of all the people.