Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 A Novel's Suffering Hero: A Youth in Berlin (1867–1889)
- 2 Aristocratize the Masses: From Berlin to Frankfurt to Marburg (1890–1893)
- 3 Refuge of All Idealists: Through Cohen to Kant toward Marx (1893–1896)
- 4 Dictatorial Megalomania: Lèse Majesté and Plötzensee Prison (1896–1898)
- 5 Making the Leap: Back to Berlin as a Social Democrat (1898–1900)
- 6 No Idle Dreamer: At the Helm of Vorwärts (1900–1902)
- 7 My Life's Purpose: Molding the Readership (1902–1903)
- 8 Never ... a Less Fruitful Scholastic Debate: Intramural Strife—Evolution vs. Revolution (1903–1905)
- 9 Revolutionizing Minds: The Scorched Middle Ground (1905)
- 10 The Complete Parity of My Experiences: From Exile to Nuremberg (1905–1907)
- 11 The Most Genuine and Fruitful Radicalism: Taking the Lead at the Fränkische Tagespost (1907–1908)
- 12 So Suspect a Heretic, as Surely I Am: New Bearings in North Bavaria (1908)
- 13 Dear Little Whore: Personal and Professional Turmoil (1909)
- 14 To Find a Lost Life: From Nuremberg to Munich (1909–1910)
- 15 Something of a Party Offiziosus in Bavaria: Political Editor at the Münchener Post (1910–1911)
- 16 At Peace with Myself: Resettling into Family Life (1912–1913)
- 17 The Powerlessness of Reason: The World War Erupts (1914)
- 18 Wretched Superfluity: Divided Loyalties (1915–1916)
- 19 War for War's Sake: Political Alienation and Realignment (1916–1917)
- 20 The Most Beautiful Days of My Life: Leading the Opposition (1917–1918)
- 21 Our Power to Act Now Grows: From Prisoner to Premier (1918)
- 22 The Terror of Truth: Forging the Republic, Combatting Reaction (1918)
- 23 The Fantasies of a Visionary: Martyr of the Revolution (1918–1919)
- 24 Now Dead, as It Stands: Outcomes and Legacy (1919–2017)
- Abbreviations
- Notes
- Sources and References
- Index
21 - Our Power to Act Now Grows: From Prisoner to Premier (1918)
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 August 2018
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 A Novel's Suffering Hero: A Youth in Berlin (1867–1889)
- 2 Aristocratize the Masses: From Berlin to Frankfurt to Marburg (1890–1893)
- 3 Refuge of All Idealists: Through Cohen to Kant toward Marx (1893–1896)
- 4 Dictatorial Megalomania: Lèse Majesté and Plötzensee Prison (1896–1898)
- 5 Making the Leap: Back to Berlin as a Social Democrat (1898–1900)
- 6 No Idle Dreamer: At the Helm of Vorwärts (1900–1902)
- 7 My Life's Purpose: Molding the Readership (1902–1903)
- 8 Never ... a Less Fruitful Scholastic Debate: Intramural Strife—Evolution vs. Revolution (1903–1905)
- 9 Revolutionizing Minds: The Scorched Middle Ground (1905)
- 10 The Complete Parity of My Experiences: From Exile to Nuremberg (1905–1907)
- 11 The Most Genuine and Fruitful Radicalism: Taking the Lead at the Fränkische Tagespost (1907–1908)
- 12 So Suspect a Heretic, as Surely I Am: New Bearings in North Bavaria (1908)
- 13 Dear Little Whore: Personal and Professional Turmoil (1909)
- 14 To Find a Lost Life: From Nuremberg to Munich (1909–1910)
- 15 Something of a Party Offiziosus in Bavaria: Political Editor at the Münchener Post (1910–1911)
- 16 At Peace with Myself: Resettling into Family Life (1912–1913)
- 17 The Powerlessness of Reason: The World War Erupts (1914)
- 18 Wretched Superfluity: Divided Loyalties (1915–1916)
- 19 War for War's Sake: Political Alienation and Realignment (1916–1917)
- 20 The Most Beautiful Days of My Life: Leading the Opposition (1917–1918)
- 21 Our Power to Act Now Grows: From Prisoner to Premier (1918)
- 22 The Terror of Truth: Forging the Republic, Combatting Reaction (1918)
- 23 The Fantasies of a Visionary: Martyr of the Revolution (1918–1919)
- 24 Now Dead, as It Stands: Outcomes and Legacy (1919–2017)
- Abbreviations
- Notes
- Sources and References
- Index
Summary
ERNST TOLLER ELUDED ARREST until Monday, 4 February 1918, when the strike ended after repeated appeals from the Majority Socialist leadership. At noon he was taken from his room at gunpoint and held until trial at a military prison on Leonrodstraße. Upon reporting back to his garrison, Felix Fechenbach was interrogated at length by officers who had been apprised of his involvement with the strike. He was transferred to Passau on the Austrian border, where he was kept under close surveillance. Eisner was already resigned to a lengthy stay behind bars. On Tuesday he wrote to Else from Neudeck with detailed directives. His daughter Ilse was to bring him an array of a dozen prominent German, French, and Swiss newspapers every other day, taking care that no issue was skipped. In addition he asked for a number of books from his desk, including Marx and Engels's political works and correspondence, English and French dictionaries, and the manuscript of the play he had begun while incarcerated at Plötzensee in Berlin. Stationery, pens and ink, marking pencils, a soft shirt, vest, slippers, and teaspoon rounded out the list. He urged that she procure a ticket to the Court Theater's upcoming production of Beethoven's Fidelio, “the work for our days now.” The last directive signaled undiminished optimism. It must have been of no small consolation that Wilhelm Herzog had authorized payment of 250 marks a few days earlier for Eisner's work on Weltweg des Geistes, income that continued for the duration of his incarceration.
In response to Eisner's urgent request Hugo Haase sent word on Wednesday from Berlin that he would join Dr. Bernheim as counsel. Representation was being arranged for Eisner's codefendants as well. A week later the court rejected motions for release on bail. In his cell Eisner immersed himself in writing. Else's appeal to send him the requested items was granted on the twelfth. The next day she wrote that she would bring additional archival materials on her next visit and confessed that she was concerned about his wretched appearance. For solace she intended to read in the New Testament of “the struggle for truth by one who refuses to keep it to himself but rather speaks out against the world's lies….
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- Kurt EisnerA Modern Life, pp. 360 - 379Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2018