waryears,Storm over theRuhrwas translatedinto English and published in New
York and London in 1932. Onlyone year later,all three books weredestroyed dur-
ing the Nazi book burnings,and Kläber,Grünberg, and Marchwitza wereforced
to flee the country.InEast Germany in 1952, Marchwitza publishedarevisedver-
sion ofStorm overthe Ruhrthatincluded significant changes; all threenovels
sawnumerous East andWest German re-editions duringthe ColdWar and con-
tinue to attract interest as part of the local history of theRuhr region (see figures
9.1and 9.2).⁸
Fig..Karl Grünberg,Brennende Ruhr
(Berlin: Neues Leben,), dustjacket.
Fig..Karl Grünberg,Brennende Ruhr
(Essen: RuhrEcho,), cover design.Most fictional and historicalaccounts of theRuhr Uprising reduce the main
events toaseries of military encounters,add drama and suspenseto maintain
reader interest,and draw on Marxist terminologytoexplain the broader implica-
tions. The lengthydialogue scenes in the novels often read like editorialsfrom
the party press,and the descriptions of armed confrontation in the scholarly
works draw heavily on literaryconventions. Most leftwing accounts emphasize
the heroism of the RedRuhr Armyand the brutality ofFreikorps and Reichswehr.
Forinstance, note the numerous memorialsto slain workers throughout theRuhr region and
the inclusion of theRuhr Uprisinginthe“MythosRuhrgebiet”theme route22ofthe Routeder
Industriekultur.
Revolutionary Fantasy and Proletarian Masculinity 181