the Reichswehr against its own citizens. On8April, the Reich regained control
over theRuhr region with brute military force;more thanone thousand workers
werekilled.
From the KPD’sperspective,the Ruhr Uprising should have completed what
the revolutionary days of 1918/19had failed to achieve–to establish the dictator-
ship of the proletariat.Once party functionaries redefined temporary defeat as
necessary preparation for the future, March 1920 would be commemoratedas
agloriousmoment in the history of the German workingclass. The memories
of revolution proved especiallyimportant duringthe late 1920swhen the KPD
pursuedaleft-radical course of militarization as part of its two-front strategy
against National Socialists and Social Democrats. The intense emotions sur-
roundingthe Ruhr Uprising–from pride about the organizational competence
of the workers’councils to grief about the deaths of the so-calledMärzgefalle-
nen–tied manyworkers ever more closelytothe dreamworld of communism.
The novels channeled these contradictory feelingsintogendered scenarios of
class that portrayed the bourgeoisie as femaleorfeminized and equatedfemale
sexuality with destructive,antisocial tendencies.Inthe process, the proletarian
imaginary became inextricablytied to the problem of modern masculinity and
the threat of female sexuality,aprocess with surprising similarities (on the
level of literarytropes and styles) to theautobiographical writingsofright-
wingFreikorps men and future Nazi leaders.⁶
Beginning in 1925,communistauthors producedasteadystream of political
analyses,historical recollections, and literarytreatments dealing with the imme-
diate postwaryears.Barrikaden an der Ruhr(1925,Barricades at theRuhr),acol-
lection of short stories byKurt Kläber (1897–1959), introducedthe Ruhr workers
and their strugglestothe readingpublic. The novel was banned because of its
alleged threat to public order,despite protests by Thomas Mann,KätheKollwitz,
and GerhartHauptmann; due to space considerations, this work cannot be con-
sidered here.⁷Twobetter-known novels appeared in time for the uprising’sten-
year anniversary,Karl Grünberg’sBrennende Ruhr.Roman aus der Zeit desKapp-
Putsches und desRuhraufstandes(1928,The BurningRuhr)and Hans Marchwit-
za’sSturm auf Essen(1930,inEnglish asStorm over theRuhr), and playedanim-
portantrole in the annualMärzfeiern(March celebrations)organized by theKPD.
Confirmingthe internationalism of the proletarian imagination duringthe inter-
To what degreeboth conservative and left liberalauthors respondedto acrisis of modern
masculinity is confirmed by BerndWiddig,Männerbünde undMassen. Zur Krise männlicher
Identiät in der Literatur der Moderne(Opladen:WestdeutscherVerlag, 1991).
Foradefinition of the proletarian novel, seeKurt Kläber,“Der proletarische Massenroman,”
Die Linkskurve5(1930): 22 – 25.
180 Chapter 9