After the assassination of Kurt Eisner and the subsequent outbreaks of violence, political chaos reigned in Bavaria. Here too, a conflict flared up between the advocates of a parliamentary republic on the one side and those of a socialist councils’ republic on the other. Initially, the Social Democrats around Prime Minister Johannes Hoffmann, who carried the majority, seemed to gain the upper hand, but they too were unable to stabilize the political and economic situation. The radical left now saw their chances and proclaimed the “Bavarian Councils’ Republic” on April 7, 1919. Supporters of the Prime Minister attempted to violently suppress the supporters of the councils’ republic on 13 April, which led to further radicalization and the loss of many lives. A second, communist councils’ republic was proclaimed by the workers’ and soldiers’ councils in the Hofbräuhaus. A “Red Army” was set up, the bourgeoisie disarmed, and political opponents arrested. Civil war-like conditions ensued in May, when the Reichswehr and Freikorps besieged the city and, after days of bloody fighting, overthrew the councils’ republic and took control of Munich. There were also bloody battles in other Bavarian cities between government and Freikorps troops and the revolutionary republicans. This photo from April 1919 shows soldiers with machine guns fighting in the industrial city of Augsburg. Although the councils’ republic in Augsburg was dismissed after just five days, after Prime Minister Hoffmann’s government threatened to cut off the city’s food supply, bloody fighting between the Reichswehr and workers’ and soldiers’ councils also broke out there on April 20 and lasted for two days.