Ruhr uprising

LocationResult Government victoryBelligerents

Weimar Republic

• Reichswehr
• Security Police

Freikorps

Red Ruhr Army

• KPD
• KAPD
• USPD
• FAUD

Commanders and leaders Oskar von Watter Workers' councilsStrength Unknown 50,000–80,000Casualties and losses

645 killed and missing

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Reichswehr:
208 killed
123 missing
Police: 41 killed
Freikorps: 273 killed 1,000+ rebels killed

The Ruhr uprising (German: Ruhraufstand), or March uprising (Märzaufstand), was a left-wing workers' revolt in the Ruhr region of Germany in March and April 1920. It was triggered by the call for a general strike in response to the right-wing Kapp Putsch of 13 March 1920 and became an armed rebellion when radical left workers used the strike as an opportunity to attempt the establishment of a soviet-style council republic.^[1]

During the strike, spontaneously formed workers' councils sprang up across the Ruhr and took control of the region with the support of 50,000 – 80,000 armed workers who quickly formed the Red Ruhr Army.^[2] After the German government's attempts to negotiate a peaceful settlement failed, it sent in both Reichswehr and paramilitary Freikorps troops to put down the rebellion. They acted with considerable brutality, including summary executions of prisoners and the killing of wounded fighters. The government victory cost the lives of over 1,000 workers and about 600 Reichswehr and Freikorps soldiers.^[3]

The government's military response to the Ruhr uprising led to a brief French occupation of some cities in the region, including Frankfurt and Darmstadt.^[4] In addition, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which had led the governments of the Weimar Republic until then, lost 61 seats in the June 1920 Reichstag election, in large part because of the way it had handled the uprising.^[5]

The immediate trigger for the Ruhr uprising was the general strike that was called in response to the Kapp Putsch, a right-wing attempt to overthrow the elected government of the Weimar Republic. On 13 March 1920, the Freikorps unit Marinebrigade Ehrhardt marched into Berlin, occupied the government buildings and installed Wolfgang Kapp as the new chancellor and Walther von Lüttwitz as minister of defence. Lacking support from the military, the legitimate government fled Berlin.^[6]

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) members of Chancellor Gustav Bauer's government called for a general strike to topple the putschists. The Communist Party of Germany (KPD), the Independent Social Democrats (USPD) and major union associations all supported the SPD's call. The general strike drew around 12 million workers and was crucial in bringing about the putsch's collapse on 17 March 1920.^[6][7]

A more fundamental cause of the violent uprising in the Ruhr after the end of the strike was the schism in the parties of the Left that had become evident in the early days of the German revolution of 1918–1919. The moderate SPD, which was quickly able to dominate the course of events, wanted to establish a parliamentary republic, but a substantial number of workers, mostly supporters of the USPD and KPD, fought for a council republic on the revolutionary Russian model.^[8] Both the Spartacist uprising of January 1919 and the Berlin March Battles, also in 1919, were the result of the continuing anger among many leftist workers that the revolution had not achieved the goals they had hoped for in November 1918: nationalisation of key industries, recognition of the workers' and soldiers' councils and establishment of a council republic.^[1]

The split in the leftist parties was visible in the goals they supported in the general strike against the Kapp Putsch. The SPD wanted to restore the elected government that it led, while the USPD's aim was to replace it with a socialist-only government. The KPD at first refused to do anything that would help the SPD, but since many of its members had joined the strike, it later said that it saw the strike as an opening of a battle against "military dictatorship".^[9]

in the Ruhr region, the first demonstrations against the Kapp Putsch took place on 14 March 1920. In Bochum 20,000 people turned out.^[10] In Elberfeld on 15 March, a meeting was held attended by representatives of the SPD, USPD, KPD and free unions. They issued a call for all parties of the Left to work together against the "reaction".^[11]

Across the Ruhr area, spontaneously formed executive councils (Vollzugsräte) took power after disarming the local security police and regular army (Reichswehr) forces. The councils were dominated mostly by the KPD and USPD, with only limited participation by the SPD .^[10][12][13] The anarcho-syndicalist Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD) was also represented.^[14] The councils used local workers' defence (Arbeiterwehr) units during armed action. Their weapons came from citizens' defence (Einwohnerwehr) groups and, after their first successful engagements, from defeated Freikorps units. It was from the workers' defence groups that the Red Ruhr Army was formed.^[13]

At its peak the Red Ruhr Army's strength is estimated to have been 50,000 to 80,000 members.^[2] Of those who belonged to union-based organizations, a small majority came from the free unions and the remainder from the FAUD. Among members of political parties, 60% were KPD, 30% USPD and 10% SPD.^[15]

On 15 March 1920, units of the Red Ruhr Army near Wetter defeated an advance party of the Freikorps Lichtschlag. Two days later, the full Freikorps Lichtschlag was badly beaten near Aplerbeck, and the workers captured their weapons.^[16] On 16 March other members of the Red Ruhr Army occupied Dortmund.^[2] By the 22nd, the whole of the Ruhr region was in their hands.^[13]

In Essen, which had been taken on the 18th, a central committee of the workers' councils was formed on 20 March 1920.^[4] Other central committees followed in Hagen and Mülheim (where it was controlled by syndicalists), while Duisburg was in the hands of anarchists.^[15] The uprising had no common leadership or political program. In general, their aims were revolutionary and hostile to the Weimar Republic. They saw the revolution of 1918–1919 as failed and wanted radical social and economic changes, especially nationalization of key industries.^[12]

The general strike against the Kapp Putsch was officially declared over on 22 March by the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB), the USPD and the KPD. The call by the USPD for a socialist workers' government to prevent Germany from moving to the right were rejected. As a result, few strikers returned to work. The government issued an ultimatum on 24 March demanding that the workers' councils put an end to the strike and uprising by 30 March but then quickly extended the date to 2 April.^[17][4]

On 25 March, the government of Gustav Bauer resigned. The following day President Friedrich Ebert appointed Hermann Müller (SPD) the new chancellor.^[4]

An attempt to settle the conflict peacefully produced the Bielefeld Agreement on 24 March. The negotiating group included members from the unions, political parties, executive councils, city administrations and representatives from Berlin. Carl Severing, the Reich and Prussian commissioner for the Ruhr region, made it clear that Berlin wanted to see the Red Ruhr Army disarmed and its weapons handed over. The final agreement achieved those ends and added clauses promising amnesty for anyone who had broken the law in defence of the Republic against the putschists. It also stated that the handing over of weapons would be handled locally and that if it were done "loyally", the Reichswehr would not enter the Ruhr.^[18]

The USPD and the Hagen Central Committee accepted the terms of the Bielefeld Agreement; the KPD and Essen Central Committee wanted new negotiations; leaders of the Red Ruhr Army thought that it would be better to fight than accept the compromises in the agreement. The situation in Duisburg – which was in the hands of anarchists – had become so serious by then, however, that the Müller government responded to the Essen Committee with an ultimatum to accept the agreement by 28 March. The regional Reichswehr commander, General Oskar von Watter, without consulting Berlin, added the condition the next day that all weapons had to be handed in by 30 March, a deadline that clearly could not be met. The consequence was the renewed proclamation of a general strike by the Essen Central Committee. 330,000 workers, more than 75% of the workforce in the Ruhr, responded to the call.^[19]

Severing then reached an agreement with the executive councils for a deadline of 2 April to turn in weapons, and he promised to keep the army out of the Ruhr. At a meeting at Essen on 1 April, the leaders of the Red Ruhr Army agreed that there was no point in continuing the fight, but the Red Ruhr Army had by then splintered into numerous largely independent groups over which the leaders had no control. In addition, as Severing wrote later – and without exaggeration, as historian Heinrich August Winkler noted:^[20]

Reports of extortion and looting [by the insurgents], of abuse and shootings, increased at an alarming rate. The calls for help from the population, the city administrations and the leaders of the political parties became more and more urgent.

At the end of the day on 2 April, few weapons had been turned in. The Reichswehr and Freikorps, including the Marinebrigade Loewenfeld, which had been a major participant in the Kapp Putsch, then entered the Ruhr.^[20]

The experienced and heavily armed government troops quickly ended the uprising with acts of violence and cruelty that dwarfed the workers' "red terror".^[20] There were mass arrests and shootings without it always being clear whether the victims were members of the Red Ruhr Army. Wounded fighters were shot, as were ten female medics with the Red Ruhr Army who were carrying pistols. Many fighters were reported as having been shot while fleeing, indicating that they were shot in the back. Fifty had been executed and an additional 205 condemned by drumhead courts before the government in Berlin forbade them on 3 April. Von Watter defended himself from other charges that his men had engaged in unlawful behaviour by citing a letter from the Ministry of the Reichswehr that stated, "You are given complete freedom to do what the situation demands".^[10][20]

On 5 April a large part of the Red Ruhr Army fled to the French occupied zone of the Rhineland.^[4] The skirmish that took place in Gelsenkirchen the next day marked the final end of the uprising.^[2] The number of insurgents killed has never been accurately determined. Heinrich August Winkler puts the number at "well over 1,000", the majority of them killed after being captured. The Reichswehr lost 208 killed and 123 missing; the security police 41 dead.^[20] The number of Freikorps deaths has been put at 273.^{[citation needed]}

In response to the Reichswehr's entry into the demilitarized Ruhr in violation of the Treaty of Versailles, the French occupied the Maingau region, which included the cities of Frankfurt, Hanau and Darmstadt, on 6 April.^[4] They withdrew on 17 May, not long after the German military intervention in the Ruhr ended.^[21]

Approximately 3,000 workers were arrested^[22] and held under often very poor conditions while they awaited trial. The military courts that tried them at first ignored the cabinet's amnesty for those who had fought against the putschists, but the situation improved after civil authorities intervened. The state of emergency in the Ruhr was lifted in early June, and the 1920 federal election on 6 June proceeded smoothly.^[21] The SPD lost 62 seats in the Reichstag and for the first time since the establishment of the Republic was not part of the ruling coalition. Much of the party's poor showing was attributed to its handling of the Ruhr uprising.^[5]

• Hans Marchwitza
• History of the Ruhr District
• Wilhelm Zaisser