ruhr army

• the ruhr uprising of march-april 1920 was a left wing workers revolt. it was sparked by a general strike against the kapp putsch, and radical workers attempted to establish a Soviet-style republic, forming a Red Ruhr Army of 50,000-80,000 armed workers who took control of the area.
• when peace negotiations failed, the german government deployed riechswehr and freikorps troops to suppress the revolt, leading to brutal confrontations and over 1600 deaths (both workers and government forces)
• the ruhr uprising showed how weak the government was as they relied on extremists like the freikorps to suppress insurrections, foreshadowing the government inevitably being overthrown by extremists.
• the uprising painted the freikorps in a good light, they were viewed as Germany's saviours compared to the fragile and weak government which had become more distrusted. this caused more support towards the right wing cause