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Gustav Ritter von Kahr

German politician (1862-1934)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 9, 2026
Entity authorityQ58860 ↗
Source-derived summary

Gustav Ritter von Kahr (German: [ˈɡʊstaf ˈʁɪtɐ fɔn ˈkaːɐ̯]; born Gustav Kahr; 29 November 1862 – 30 June 1934) was a German jurist and right-wing politician. During his career, he was district president of Upper Bavaria, Bavarian minister president and, from September 1923 to February 1924, Bavarian state commissioner general with dictatorial powers. In that role, he openly opposed the government of the Weimar Republic in several instances, including by ceasing to enforce the Law for the Protection of the Republic. He was also making plans with General Otto von Lossow and Bavarian police commander Hans von Seisser to topple the Reich government in Berlin. In November 1923, before they could act, Adolf Hitler instigated the Beer Hall Putsch. The three turned against Hitler and helped stop the attempted coup. After being forced to resign as state commissioner general in 1924, Kahr served as president of the Bavarian Administrative Court until 1930. Because of his actions during the Beer Hall Putsch, he was murdered during the Nazi purge known as the Night of the Long Knives in June 1934.

Early years

Legal education and work as a cultural preservationist

Kahr was born in 1862 in Weissenburg in Bayern, the son of Gustav von Kahr, President of the Bavarian Administrative Court, and his wife Emilie, née Rüttel. After completing school in 1881, he became a member of the 2nd Bavarian Infantry Regiment Kronprinz as a one-year volunteer.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Gustav Ritter von Kahr” is german politician (1862-1934). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Gustav, Ritter and Kahr, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1862, 1934, 1923, 1924—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1862-11-29. For this dossier, Gustav, Ritter and Kahr is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “german politician (1862-1934)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q58860. VIAF identifies the subject as 44230392. The Library of Congress control number is nr2001041595. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1862, 1934, 1923 and 1924.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Gustav Ritter von Kahr”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Gustav Ritter von Kahr primary sources, Gustav Ritter von Kahr archive and Gustav research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Gustav Ritter von Kahr”?
  2. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Gustav Ritter von Kahr” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.