From the Archives, this document is a Police Report and describes the course of the Ruhr Uprising in the city of Duisburg, starting from 14 March under the leadership of the Hamborn Action Committee of KPD-USPD-SPD to the battles against the Reichswehr led by Supreme Commander Dudo [August Müller] on 19-20 March. Although not mention in this document, the region would later come under the command of Council Communists. The document is to be read with a critical lens as it obviously reflects the standpoint of the bourgeois against the revolutionary workers. The original document can be found in "Kommunistische Kampforganisationen: Kommunistische Kampforganisationen" with the signature "StAB, 4.65, 1220" in the Bremen State Archives.
Immediately after the arrival of newspaper reports from Berlin about the Kapp Putsch on the morning of March 13 of this year, the Constitutional Committee of the City Council was convened on this side for an urgent meeting on the following day (Sunday, March 14 of this year). The Constitutional Committee includes leaders of all political parties (including a leader of the Communists) as members. The negotiations were attended by the current military commander of Hamborn, Captain Krause of Reichswehr Regiment 62. During the same meeting, several additional representatives of the free trade unions joined the session, having been admitted by the Constitutional Committee.
The undersigned chairman, on behalf of the city administration, and the military commander, on behalf of the local Reichswehr troops, expressly and solemnly declared during this meeting that they stood firmly on the ground of the constitution and behind the constitutional government, and that they would work to ensure that peace and order were maintained in every respect.
Although no evidence could be presented to suggest the existence of any reactionary tendencies in Hamborn, several leaders of the now united left-wing parties expressed the view that special measures were necessary to safeguard against alleged right-wing putsches, which they claimed were also being planned here. The prevailing opinion was that these fears of the left-wing parties were baseless, a fact that could not be disputed. This prompted several Majority Socialists, including the miner Bergmann, to issue the extraordinary statement that it was not about combating a reaction from the right, but rather that they (the left-wing parties) no longer wished to operate under the old (constitutional) Ebert-Noske government.
The assembly ultimately resolved that, for the days of political tension, the Constitutional Committee should be supplemented by an advisory council consisting of two representatives each from the workers’ organizations.
The Constitutional Committee and the advisory council met in a joint session on March 17, during which, after a consultation among the workers’ representatives in the presence of city administration members, the following mandate was unanimously adopted:
"After it has been declared by the constitutional government that
1. the strike has achieved the desired success,
2. the termination of the general strike has been agreed upon by the mining industry’s working community,
3. the city administration, with the support of the factories, has pledged to use all means to
a) secure the immediate release of workers arrested in recent days in connection with the strike,
b) ensure that the citizens’ militia in the future consists of at least 60% manual and intellectual workers,we recommend that our comrades immediately resume work."
However, it soon became apparent from the further behavior of the representatives of the left-wing parties—who, with the exception of the Communists, had joined this declaration and signed the mandate—that they were not serious about maintaining peace and order. Rather, they did not want to let the general strike, which had broken out and was still officially described yesterday as temporary and today as the holiest socialist duty, pass without using it to implement their Bolshevik program, which had been postponed since early 1919. The Communist leaders stated in this context that "they had not proclaimed the general strike and therefore did not wish to call for its termination." Meanwhile, as it later emerged, a revolutionary action committee, which had existed in secret for some time and consisted of members of the two socialist parties and the Communist Party, had been meeting since March 13 of this year in permanence. This action committee included, among others, the following leaders:
a) From the Social Democratic Party: Pütz, Rühlland, Möllenbeck, Vogel, Raabe.
b) From the Independent Social Democratic Party (U.S.P.D.): Hauschild, Hüllenschütt, and Mahling.
c) From the Communist Party: Heiling, Heimach, Grohmann, Karkosch, Koch, Hermes, Kahlmann, Ostheimer, Konitzng, Nadolczak.
This action committee, which on March 14, through six members including Koch and Pütz, publicly instructed the Duisburg Workers’ Council and the workforce in Hamborn "to immediately make themselves available, to use all means at their disposal to secure their essential needs, to procure means not available to them, and to personally report to the action committee," decided to establish direct contact with the city administration for a joint discussion in which they intended to assert their demands. This discussion was denied to the action committee. After prolonged disputes, it specified its demands approximately as follows:
The city administration must provide guarantees against a right-wing putsch by:
1. Replacing one-third of the members of the defense advisory committee and one-third of the citizens’ militia with members of the free trade unions,
2. Securing the release of all political prisoners,
3. Immediately lifting the state of siege and irrevocably introducing full freedom of assembly.
In response, the undersigned issued the following statement:
1. I am not legally authorized to agree that one-third of the representatives in the defense advisory committee and one-third of the citizens’ militia consist of members of the free trade unions. However, I am prepared to use my influence in the defense advisory committee to ensure that more workers, particularly those from the free trade unions, are admitted to the militia.
2. The release of political prisoners has been carried out.
3. I am not legally empowered to reinstate freedom of assembly; this is solely the responsibility of the military district command and Reich Commissioner Severing in Münster.
A subsequent joint meeting of the action committee and the works councils of the major factories, during which the above statement was announced and orally explained by the undersigned, resolved to continue the general strike and to send a delegation to Reich Commissioner Severing, who was to represent the demands of the revolutionary workforce there. These demands now also included the call for an order for the immediate withdrawal of the Reichswehr from the industrial region.
Throughout this period, the action committee maintained contact with similar committees in the rest of the industrial region via motorcyclists. Meanwhile, increasingly specific rumors spread about the appearance of the Red Army and successful battles by these workers’ armies against the Reichswehr near Dortmund. This reinforced the workforce’s belief that the time had come for the dictatorship of the proletariat and a council government. On March 19, it became known that Dortmund had been taken by red troops, Gelsenkirchen had been occupied, and fighting was already taking place in Stoppenberg, near Essen’s harbor area.
As was later reported by the local workers’ militia, revolutionary workers in and around Walsum had been armed and deployed on the same day at the Westphalian peat factory, with heavy machine guns in particular having been brought here from Essen via Bottrop. Exact details were not available. On the same day, the undersigned was in Münster with the aforementioned delegates. The discussion took place with Mehlich, the representative of Reich Commissioner Severing, who issued the following statement:
1. The current state of emergency was not imposed for local reasons. Its lifting will be carried out throughout the district as soon as the responsible authorities deem it possible. It will not be maintained a moment longer than necessary.
2. Regarding the withdrawal of the Reichswehr, efforts will be made to comply with this demand as soon as possible.
3. Regarding the release of political prisoners, it is noted that all protective custody detainees have been released. As for convicted individuals or those in investigative custody whose cases have a political dimension, the Reich Commissioner is not responsible for their release. Release can only be achieved through a pardon request or an application to a competent court.
4. Regarding the demand for freedom of assembly, it is noted that the Reich Commissioner has already worked to ensure that approvals in Hamborn follow the guidelines still in place. Joint membership meetings of recognized associations are permissible. The workers’ request to transfer approval authority to the mayor will be supported. Meetings of the workers’ union are currently still prohibited. It will be examined to what extent this ban can be relaxed or lifted. The moment the syndicalist organization declares itself in favor of rebuilding our economy and against the previously propagated means of violence, it will be granted the same rights as other organizations.
5. Regarding the restructuring of the citizens’ militia, it is stated that, under existing regulations, any morally reliable resident can be admitted to it, provided they commit to defending the existing constitution.
The withdrawal of the Reichswehr troops and the citizens’ militia, which had meanwhile been transformed into a volunteer regiment, was decided late on the evening of March 19. However, even before this, local members of the Red Army had secretly been armed. It was possible for the Majority Socialist Pütz to persuade Company Commander Bark of the citizens’ militia, Company Marxloh, to hand over his weapons to the action committee during the night of March 19 to 20. The agreements made with the action committee, according to which the troops were to withdraw to Wesel unhindered, were not honored by the action committee. Immediately afterward, Red Army troops occupied all side streets and corners of Weseler Straße in the Marxloh district, which the withdrawing Reichswehr troops had to use. Shortly after 5 a.m., systematic and heavy fire from rifles and machine guns began from an ambush against the Reichswehr and state security police, who were behaving calmly and correctly. Those treacherously attacked lost, on Hamborn territory alone: 8 officers and 22 enlisted men killed, 1 officer, 1 official, and 25 men wounded, and 1 officer and 46 men taken prisoner. Additionally, approximately 50 horses, 16 vehicles, and 2 trucks were lost. The fighting lasted until around noon. Even the first Red Army troops to appear here were partly well-equipped militarily, often wearing completely new leather uniforms. After the Reichswehr’s withdrawal, large numbers of young men joined the Red Army, initially poorly equipped. By the afternoon of March 20, the Hamborn town hall, where the action committee was meeting, housed the office of Supreme Commander Dudo, the combat command of Hauschild, and the medical office, with Majority Socialist Möllenbeck primarily issuing the necessary orders. A recruitment office (Rühlland) was set up in the Neuhaus tavern. Almost the entire Hamborn workforce, including many with their wives and children, took to the streets.
Immediately, significant traffic began with captured and requisitioned motor vehicles and horses. Large numbers of external red troop transports arrived, were fed here, and sent on to Dinslaken, where, as is known, the red front formed against the west.
The action committee, now calling itself the Executive Council, publicly announced that it was exercising the political power of the proletariat and would solely issue all public orders and measures. It decreed that, for the time being, only the main office of the city administration, the food office, the registry office, and the cemetery administration should remain operational.
The further course of events is likely known there.
A list of the affected parties is attached.
Damage claims are still being received daily. The submission of supplements to the list is therefore reserved.
Investigations are still ongoing regarding cases in which the insurgents interfered with the legitimate administrative apparatus of the authorities, businesses, and banks. There were repeated threats, extortions, etc., against private individuals. The details will also be provided in list form.
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