Pacelli reports on the tumultuous political situation in Bavaria, as the head of the majority Social Democratics is unable to form a governing coalition, and Communist elements are vying for power - March 28, 1919
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Mar. 28, 1919 Pacelli reports on the tumultuous political situation in Bavaria, as the head of the majority Social Democratics is unable to form a governing coalition, and Communist elements are vying for power.
Italian original at www.Pacelli-Edition.de and English translation
March 28, 1919 Pacelli to Gasparri:
Re: Political Situation
Most Reverend Eminence,
The domestic political situation in Germany, and particularly in Bavaria, is becoming ever more grim and threatening. The Majority Socialists are losing more ground every day, while their former followers are swelling the ranks of the Independents and the Spartacists. For this reason it is thought that the Bavarian Minister-Presidency of the Socialist Hoffman will not be able to survive long. Above all, the Spartacists are conducting an extremely extensive and active propaganda campaign. In crowded assemblies right in the public streets, Communist orators are preaching the new word with fervid, captivating language and are winning over very large numbers of followers. Thus the thought is spread in the minds of all that new and terrible upheavals are being prepared, which will lead to the triumph of Bolshevism. On the other hand, if I am to believe a report that came to me quite recently from Minister Erzberger, it is thought in Berlin that the Russian Government may be considering an invasion of Germany through southern Latvia, simultaneously with a domestic uprising of the German Bolsheviks to cooperate thereby in the Soviet victory.
The progress of the extreme parties is fed and favored by a sense of desperation into which the population has fallen because of the prospect of adamant peace conditions that will be imposed, it is said, by the Entente. A distinguished and habitually moderate German diplomat expressed openly to me yesterday that in the event that the imposed conditions are intolerable and reduce Germany to slavery, he himself would prefer Bolshevism. Then Germany, united to Russia, and with the support of Hungary, would become invincible. Russia has inexhausible natural resources, and Germany has the culture and technology to use them. France and Italy would be running a formidable risk, all the more since their armies, which indeed fought valiantly against the former autocratic states, would be difficult to deploy now against their proletarian brethren in Russia and Germany. May God inspire the men of State meeting now in the Paris Peace Conference with sentiments of moderation and thus spare Europe from a new scourge more horrible than the past war!
Source: www.Pacelli-Edition.de, Document No. 3064.