Born May 14, 1867, in Berlin; died Feb. 21, 1919, in Munich. Figure in the German workers’ movement; journalist.
Eisner joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1898. From 1898 to 1905 he was editor in chief of the newspaper Vorwärts, a party organ, and was closely associated with revisionists. During World War I he assumed an anti-imperialist stance. Eisner became a member of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1917. After leading a strike at military plants in Munich in January 1918, he was imprisoned. During the November Revolution of 1918, Eisner was the chairman of the Munich council of workers, soldiers, and peasants; he subsequently became prime minister of the republican government of Bavaria.