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Summary

The government's call for a general strike to defeat the 1920 Kapp Putsch led to a spontaneous workers' uprising in the industralised Ruhr area.

The workers formed a huge 'Red Army', defeated the local Freikorps, and started setting up Workers' Councils.  When the government told them to call off the action, they ignored it.  An attempt at a negotiated settlement failed when the Reichswehr demanded harsh terms that the Red Army were not prepared to agree. 

On 2 April the Reichswehr invaded, supported by the Freikorps.  The insurgents had no organised leadership or strategy, and the uprising was brutally suppressed.

After the Uprisng, the government passed laws to suppress armed groups and political extremism.  Meanwhile, the Ruhr workers lost all faith in the political process ... something that would harm the Weimar government in the long term.

 

 

Ruhr Uprising, 1920

Causes

  1. The Ruhr: was the coal-mining/industrial area of Germany.  It was heavily unionised and overwhelmingly left-wing.  Membership of the left-wing Social Democrats (USPD), Communists (KPD) was high.

  2. Kapp Putsch: To defeat the Kapp Putsch of 1920, the Weimar government called on the workers to mount a general strike.  This was not only obeyed in Berlin, but also in the Ruhr, where the huge strike was adopted by the USPD, KPD and Anarchists as an opportunity to seize power. 

  3. A Ruhr 'Red Army': was formed of some 50,000 insurgents and miners; many had been soldiers during the war.  They quickly defeated the local Freikorps Units who supported the Kapp Putsch.  This gave the Uprising an army. 

 

Events

  • When on 22 March the government declared the general strike over, the workers in the Ruhr ignored it. 

  • The uprising was a spontansous workers' uprising.  It possessed no central leadership or programme.  The leadership and membership of the Red Army was similarly fluid.  There was no unity: the strikers in Hagen were moderates, in Essen extremists, in Duisburg anarchists (who took money from the banks and provisions from the stores & warehouses, and organized free distribution of goods).  The east Ruhr supported the USPD; the west the KPD. 

  • Workers' Councils began taking control over local government.  On 20 March a Central Committee of Workers' Councils was set up in Essen.

  • An attempt at negotiation between the government and the strikers (the Bielefeld Conference, 23-24 March) failed when the Reichswehr intervened demanding harsher terms ...  which resulted in 300,000 miners going back on strike. 

  • On 2 April the Reichwehr, supported by the Freikorps Units which had mounted the Kapp Putsch, attacked and brutally suppressed the uprising.

 

Results

  1. More than 1,000 insurgents were killed; those who surrendered with their weapons were shot.  The Reichswehr lost about 331 dead or missing, the Freikorps 273. 

  2. Many of the left-wing working class lost faith in the Parliamentary process and stopped voting. 

  3. The government began restricting civil liberties.  In August 1920, a National Disarmament Law required political and paramilitary groups to surrender their weapons and civilians to report the whereabouts of these weapons.  In 1922 a Law for the Protection of the Reich allowed state to ban the activities of groups declared to be enemies of the regime.

 

 

 

Consider:

Study the events of the Uprising and analyse them into two columns of 'Messages for the Weimar Government':

   •  Reasons for Hope;

   •  Causes for Concern.

 

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