One notable supporter of the Soviet Republic was the artist Georg Schrimpf, then aged 30, who was arrested when the movement was crushed. His friend, the writer Oskar Maria Graf, who was also arrested, wrote about the events in his autobiographical novel, Wir sind Gefangene (1927). Hitler's longstanding chauffeur and first leader of the Schutzstaffel (SS) Julius Schreck signed up and served as a member of the Red Army in late April 1919. Balthasar Brandmayer, one of Hitler's closest wartime friends, remarked "how he at first welcomed the end of the monarchies" and the establishment of the republic in Bavaria. All the National Socialist officers subsequently became disillusioned after the demise of the socialist republic.

Hitler himself acted as a liaison between his army battalion – he had been elected "deputy battalion representative" – and the Department of Propaganda of the soviet. Film footage and a still photograph appear to show Hitler marching in Eisner's funeral procession, although this evidence is not incontrovertible. He wore both a black mourning band, and a red band showing support for the socialist government.