Pacelli to Gasparri, from Munich: The Nunciature and the Soviets-Councils Republic of Bavaria - Apr. 18, 1919
Source: Timeline
Apr. 6-13, 1919 Soviets-Councils Republic of Bavaria is formed in Munich, and Social Democratic State Government flees from Munich to Bamberg in northern Bavaria.
A week later, Pacelli reports about outrages of the new Bavarian government and comments negatively about its Jewish participants, including Max Levien, who was not in fact a Jew. Italian original at www.Pacelli-Edition.de and English translation
Apr. 18, 1919 Pacelli to Gasparri, from Munich:
Re: The Nunciature and the Soviets-Councils Republic of Bavaria
Most Reverend Eminence:
As I had the honor to report to Your Most Reverend Eminence in my encrypted cable No. 319, at the beginning of this week two Foreign Legations in Munich were invaded by the red guard of the Councils Republic. Afterward, the automobile of the Prussian Legation came to be requisitioned, and the Consul General of Austria-Hungary was then arbitrarily arrested, and was not released until strong protests from the Austro-Hungarian Chargé d’Affaires.
As a result of such deplorable events, it was deemed opportune to call a meeting of the Diplomatic Corps to deliberate about them. After a long discussion, it was decided to speak about the matter directly with Levien, head of the Munich Councils Republic, to make him state unequivocally whether and how the current Communist Government intends to recognize and protect the immunities of the Diplomatic Representations. The negotiations were entrusted to the Nunciature and the Prussian Legation. Since it would have been absolutely indecorous for me to present myself to the aforesaid gentleman, the task was given to Monsignor Auditor, who went to him this morning together with the Prussian Chargé d’Affaires, Count von Zech, as the Ambassador was away from Munich in view of the current circumstances.
Levien was installed along with his General Staff, or if you please, with the Council of Representatives of the people, in the former royal palace of the Wittelsbachs. The spectacle that said palace now presents is indescribable. The most chaotic confusion, the most nauseating filth, the continual coming and going of soldiers and armed workers, the shouting, the obscene language, the blasphemies that resound there, are turning what was the favorite residence of the King of Bavaria into a real hell-hole. An army of office workers who come and go, who transmit orders and pass along news, among them a crowd of young women, of a hardly reassuring appearance, Jews like the first ones, who are in all the offices, with provocative airs and equivocal smiles. The leader of this group of women there is Levien’s lover: a young Russian woman, Jewish, divorced, who gives orders like the mistress of the house. And to her the Nunciature unfortunately had to bow down to have a ticket for entry!
Levien is a young man, also Russian and a Jew, of about thirty or thirty-five years. Pallid, dirty, with dull eyes, with a gruff, vulgar voice: a truly repulsive type, yet with an intelligent and sly face. He barely deigned to receive Monsignor Auditor in a corridor, surrounded by an armed security detail, among them an armed hunchback who is his faithful bodyguard. With a hat on his head and smoking, he listened to what Monsignor Schioppa expressed to him, protesting repeatedly and rudely that he was in a hurry for more urgent matters. In a contemptuous tone, he said the Councils Republic recognizes the extraterritoriality of the Foreign Legations, if and so long as the representatives of the Powers, friendly or hostile (it doesn’t matter to him), take no actions against the Councils Republic.
When the Auditor made him consider that the position of the Pontifical Representative deserves special regard for his Mission, Levien stressed with a certain ironic tone: “Right, it’s about protecting the Center Party!” To which Monsignor Schioppa added energetically that it is about protecting the religious interests of Catholics, not only of Bavaria but of all Germany!
At the conclusion of the discussion he sent the Auditor to his comrade Dietrich, the People’s Representative for Foreign Affairs; there was another crowd of damsels, soldiers and workers; more disorderly conduct, more chaos. This improvisational Foreign Minister was a little less rude, but more sharp in his responses. Essentially he repeated what Levien had said, adding, in a way that admitted no discussion, that if the Nuncio did anything against the Councils Republic or the interests of the proletariat, he would be “thrown out” (weggeworfen), and he repeated the phrase, already spoken by Levien, that they had no need of the Nunciature, all the more since separation of State and Church would be coming. Monsignor Schioppa made them aware that, if the Republic were to hurt Catholic interests, the Nuncio would betray his Mission by remaining silent, but that naturally, otherwise, the Pontifical Representative would not get involved in political matters of the province. Dietrich insisted that extraterritoriality will be respected, so long as the security of the Councils Republic is not threatened. In any case documents are conceded to the Nunciature just as to the other Legations, in which the same extraterritoriality is recognized. It is clear that these documents only possess a rather relative value. Similar documents had already been issued to Diplomatic and Consular Representatives in Bavaria, and yet that did not prevent the invasion of the two Legations described above, nor the arrest of the Austrian Consul. The interpretation of these documents, given the complete anarchy that reigns, is left to the soldiers, who can go wherever they want with impunity and can do whatever best pleases them. There may be some soldiers who have the good sense and capacity to understand that extraterritoriality* is an important matter, but it is clear that the majority do not understand one iota, insisting on searching and arresting, and only after this is done is it possible to invoke the protection of the commissars of the people.
This is the unprecedented situation created for the Apostolic Nuncio, who then for possible further negotiations is obliged to submit to the indecorous humiliation of going back again to these Authorities in such offices.
In reporting the above to Your Eminence, as in duty bound, and in discharging my responsibilities, humbly bowing and kissing the Sacred Purple, and with sentiments of most profound veneration, I have the honor to remain,
Your Most Reverend Eminence’s
Most Humble, Most Devoted, Most Obliged Servant,
Eugenio, Archbishop of Sardis
Apostolic Nuncio
*Note: Extraterritoriality of the Nunciature, under the circumstances, was confusing for international lawyers as well as Red Army soldiers: The Nunciature’s diplomatic immunity flowed from its status as an extraterritorial property of a sovereign nation. But the Pope’s temporal sovereignty over the Papal States had been lost during the period 1859-1870, and the Pope did not again rule a sovereign nation until Mussolini’s recognition of the Vatican City State in the Lateran Accords of 1929.
Source: www.Pacelli-Edition.de, Document No. 257.