Riccardo Altieri

In the 19th century, German nobles, if they couldn’t supply themselves with income from their own land and forestry or had a considerable family capacity, had search for dependent employment, particularly in the aftermath of the German mediatization (1803/1806). In many cases, the state service in its numerous facets (military, administration, jurisprudence, etc.) often was the most appropriate option. Philipp Graf von Lerchenfeld-Brennberg (1785-1854) is a representative of this disempowered aristocracy, whose members – like himself – first had to explore where their place in the new form of government would be.

For this purpose, Lerchenfeld visited a Bavarian university for studying law, after he graduated from an Elite school in Munich – of course some privileges were preserved. After five years as a judge’s and later magistrate’s assistant in the service of the Kingdom of Bavaria, he began his occupation as a district judge at the Franconian periphery in 1814. The nobleman, whose family had lost influence some decades ago, had to remain in this rather low rank for some 18 years – eventually serving in Erding. However, this low rank service was followed by a rapid career breakthrough in the state capital, which was crowned by a promotion to chief administrator of Lower Franconia in 1837. At the beginning of the year 1838, Lerchenfeld assumed this highest position at the level of a district authority, but it should only be held for less than three years, before he was recalled as the president of the Court of Appeal in Upper Bavaria.

In his German monograph, Riccardo Altieri on the one hand presents a comprehensive study on the life and work of a Bavarian chief administrator of the 19th century. On the other hand he has written the first comprehensive book of a main line of this once-important lineage. In addition, Altieris work includes a family tree of more than 800 years of the counts of Lerchenfeld-Brennberg.

In its unknown dimension, the First World War (1914-1918) brought strategic innovations, that only destination was to kill more people than ever before: gas, great armies, machine-guns, tanks – all of them completely changed the situation on the battlefield. The enormous deaths and the real existing cruelty of war produced countless pacifists, peace movements and anti-war organizations. In bourgeois and left-wing socialist environment the resistance against the Great War was the strongest. Kurt Eisner, Social democrat from Berlin, who lived to see the war in Munich as a journalist changed his view extremely after the so called “Julikrise” in summer 1914. He started to fight against the warmongers in his own country and the international supporters of war. His biggest triumph was to get elected as the Bavarian Prime minister, shortly after the end of war. After round about 100 days of reign many people begrudged him for his success. A to date unknown right-wing extremist assassinated Kurt Eisner on his way to the parliament in February 1919. Between his entire government Eisner had to realize that most of his people hated him because of his socialist, pacifist and Jewish background. This hatred came from parts of the social democracy until the extreme right-wing camp, those people which followed Adolf Hitler into the Nazi Era. Anti-Semitism was the method to malign Eisner in these days. Hundreds of letters and post cards full of hate reached him. Some of these pamphlets were manufactured in the study “Der Pazifist Kurt Eisner” from Riccardo Altieri. He examined the social conditions, the contemporary history, and the peace movement in its totality.

Der Erste Weltkrieg forderte Millionen Opfer unter Zivilisten und Solda­ten. Gegen diesen Mahlstrom der Vernichtung wandten sich Sozialis­tinnen und Sozialisten, die nicht gewillt waren, zu Erfüllungsgehilfen der imperialistischen Nutznießer des Krieges zu werden. Ihre Kritik und Rolle innerhalb dieser vier Schreckensjahre beleuchtet der vorliegende Band. Dieser Aufsatz beleuchtet hingegen speziell die Rolle der britischen Parteien links des Labour-Lagers und deren Auswirkungen auf den Adel.

Der Aufsatz beleuchtet die Ereignisse der Oktoberrevolution im Russland des Jahres 1917. Dabei wird ein besonderer Schwerpunkt auf die Perspektive der verschiedenen Gesellschaftsschichten gelegt, um die unterschiedliche Wahrnehmung auf das Ereignis herauszustellen.