Ruhr uprising

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Ruhr uprising" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Ruhr uprising
Part of the reactions to the Kapp Putsch, Revolutions of 1917–1923 and Political violence in Germany (1918–1933)
Members of the Ruhr Red Army in Dortmund
Date 13 March – 12 April 1920 (1920-03-13 – 1920-04-12) (4 weeks and 2 days) Location Ruhr, Germany Result Government victory
Belligerents
Weimar Republic Reichswehr Security Police Freikorps	Ruhr Red Army KPD KAPD USPD SPD FAUD
Commanders and leaders
Oskar von Watter	Workers' councils
Strength
Unknown	50,000
Casualties and losses
604 killed and missing Reichswehr: 208 killed 123 missing Freikorps: 273 killed Police: Unknown	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 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.