The Ruhr and revolution: the revolutionary movement in the Rhenish-Westphalian industrial region 1912-1919

Abstract

The German Revolution and its aftermath, the period of the Workers' and Soldiers' Councils, was a critical time in German history. Historians have asked whether the revolution could have changed the then existing inequalities. If so, it might have formed a basis for reconstruction which in turn would have arrested the deep division in the German labour movement, a major factor crippling Weimar Germany which contributed to the rise of Nazism. Dr Tampke deals with the revolutionary movement in the Rhenish- Westphalian Industrial Region - the Ruhr as it is commonly called, a part of Germany where the workers' radicalism was especially pronounced. He seeks to explain why the revolution took such a variable course in the Ruhr. This book moves into urban and regional history, a field that has so far been little studied and is an important contribution to knowledge of European urban and working-class history.