The Ruhr uprising () or March uprising (Märzaufstand) was a left-wing workers' revolt in the Ruhr region of Germany in March 1920. It initially took place in support of the call for a general strike issued by the Social Democrat members of the German government, the unions, and other parties in response to the right-wing Kapp Putsch of 13 March 1920.
Communists and other socialists in the Ruhr had previously laid plans for "winning political power by the dictatorship of the proletariat" in the event of a general strike but after the collapse of the Kapp Putsch, the German government sent in the Reichswehr (the German army) and right-wing Freikorps to crush the ongoing insurgency of the estimated 50,000 members of the "Red Ruhr Army". This involved considerable brutality and summary executions of prisoners. An estimated 1,600 people were killed.
Origins
As the Treaty of Versailles came into force on 10 January 1920, the German government had to drastically reduce the headcount of its regular armed forces, and dissolve paramilitary units such as the right-wing Freikorps. Consequently, the German Reichswehrminister (defence minister) Gustav Noske ordered the dissolution of the Freikorps Marinebrigaden "Ehrhardt" and "Loewenfeld".
The highest-ranking general of the Reichswehr, Walther von Lüttwitz, refused to comply. He contributed to what became known as Kapp Putsch, or Lüttwitz-Kapp-Putsch, an effort by military and right-wing forces to overthrow the elected government and restore the monarchy. On 13 March 1920, the right-wing Marinebrigade Ehrhardt led by von Lüttwitz marched into Berlin, occupied the government buildings, and installed Wolfgang Kapp as new chancellor, calling for a return of the monarchy. To restore order, Noske asked Hans von Seeckt, who at the time was the head of the Truppenamt im Reichswehrministerium, to order the regular army, the "Transitional Reichswehr", to put down the putsch. Von Seeckt and the other senior commanders, with the exception of General Walther Reinhardt, refused and the government was forced to flee from Berlin.
Since the ministerial bureaucracy did not cooperate with the Kapp government, however, the latter could not govern effectively. On the very day of the putsch, the Social Democratic members of the government and Otto Wels, head of the SPD, signed a call for a general strike to topple the putschists. It was supported by the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (ADGB) led by Carl Legien, the Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Angestellte (AfA) and the Deutsche Beamtenbund. Separately, the KPD, USPD and the DDP also called for a strike. Although protests by conservative groups including the Reichswehr soon caused the Reichsregierung to distance itself from this call to strike, the general strike of around 12 million workers helped bring about the putsch's collapse on 17 March 1920.
Strike and uprising in the Ruhr region
The first demonstrations against the putsch were in the Ruhr region on 13 March 1920. For example, in Bochum, 20,000 people turned out. Whilst the Kapp Putsch was in progress in Berlin, on 14 March 1920, in Elberfeld a meeting of representatives of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD), the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD), and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) was held. The left-wing workers' parties decided on a spontaneous alliance against the putschists. The SPD, USPD and KPD drafted a joint appeal to "winning political power by the dictatorship of the proletariat".
As a consequence of this appeal and in the context of the general strike, some workers' organisations attempted to seize state power on a regional scale. Across the Ruhr area, spontaneously formed local "Executive Councils" took over political power. These were dominated mostly by the USPD, with the KPD also participating. The anarcho-syndicalist Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD) was also represented. Worker-soldiers were deployed, who controlled the cities.
The Red Ruhr Army, whose strength was estimated at approximately 50,000 members judging by the number of rifles that were later confiscated, prevailed over government forces in the area in a very short time.