Rudolf Egelhofer, in some sources also Eglhofer was a German sailor, member of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) and in April 1919 the City Commandant and "Red Army" commander of the Munich Council Republic.

The Bavarian Soviet Republic, also known as the Munich Soviet Republic, was a short-lived unrecognised socialist state in Bavaria during the German Revolution of 1918–1919. It took the form of a workers' council republic. Its name is also sometimes rendered in English as the Bavarian Council Republic; the German term Räterepublik means a republic of councils or committees, and council or committee is also the meaning of the Russian word soviet. It was established in April 1919 after the demise of Kurt Eisner's government and sought to establish a socialist republic in Bavaria. It was overthrown less than a month later by elements of the German Army and the paramilitary Freikorps. Several individuals involved in its overthrow later joined the Nazi Party, even though Adolf Hitler himself had been, at least publicly, a supporter of the Bavarian Soviet Republic.