him to fight and die togetherwith his heroes.”¹⁴If later accounts can be trusted,
Marchwitza himself had learnedafew tricksinwriting“captivating”literature
from an anticommunist pulp novel about theKapp Putsch, Hermann Dreyhaus’s
Lava(1921).¹⁵In light of these literary choices and influences, it should not sur-
prise thatWeimarcontemporary Erik Reger,author ofadocumentary novel set in
theRuhr region, attackedTheBurning Ruhrfor“muddyingagreat struggle with
romantic infatuations, milieu descriptions, and tamelyricisms”and concluded
with open scorn that,“the petty-bourgeois heart beating underthe red uniform
is amatter of fact.”¹⁶Acritic fromDieWeltbühnewas even more dismissive,call-
ing the novel“communist kitsch”and itsauthor“the red Courths-Mahler.”¹⁷
The unsettling effect of the spectacle of female sexualityonthe budding
youngrevolutionary inTheBurning Ruhrillustrates perfectlyhow lurid sensa-
tionalism could be enlisted in the project of historicaland emotional revision-
ism.¹⁸Grünbergplaces the main protagonistbetween two women, the fascist
femme fatale and the communistgood girl; both disappear towardthe end so
that his friendshipwith amale comrade can be strengthened and the primacy
of the collective struggle over personal happiness affirmed. Thenovel starts
withachance meetingonatrain involving the idealistic chemistry student
ErnstSukrow;the beautiful Gisela Zenk, daughter ofafactory owner and mem-
ber of the nationalist,antisemiticRugard group;and thegood-heartedRuckers,
an old miner,union man, and father ofanice, but plain,proletarian girl. The
travelers’destination is Sterkrade,asection of Oberhausen (here called Swertr-
up) andacenter of revolutionary activity. Soon theWerkstudent(student trainee)
Sukrow spends manyhappy hours with theRuckers family, includingdaughter
Karl Grünberg, afterwordtoBrennende Ruhr.Roman aus der Zeit desKapp-Putsches,sec. ed.
(Rudolstadt: Greifenverlag, 1948),257.
As claimed by Paul Sielaff,“Ka rl Grünbergund dasRuhrgebiet.Der Kohlenpott in der pro-
letarischen Literatur,”RotFuchs(Juni2010), 24.The work in question is Hermann Dreyhaus,
Lava(Berlin: Hafen-Verlag,1921); alreadyacursory look confirms the novel’sstrong influence
on Marchwitza’sequation of the political enemywith an alluring, but dangerousfemale sexual-
ity.
Erik Reger,1928review ofBrennendeRuhr,reprinted in Sabina Becker,Neue Sachlichkeit,
Vol. 1: Die Ästhetik der neusachlichen Literatur (1920–1933)(Cologne:Böhlau,2000),237.
WaltherKarsch,“Courths-Mahler rot,”DieWeltbühne28.39 (1931): 495–497. Hedwig
Courths-Mahler was the most successfulauthor of pulp fiction in the latenineteenth century.
See SandraBeck,“Erinnerungen an die Revolution-Konzeptionender Weiblichkeit:Karl
GrünbergsBrennende Ruhr.Roman aus demKapp-Putsch(1929),”in“Friede, Freiheit, Brot”:Ro-
manezurdeutschen Novemberrevolution,ed. Ulrich Kittstein and Regine Zeller(Amsterdam: Ro-
dopi,2009), 163–180.CompareMichaela Menger,“Literatur als‘Waffe’im‘Bürgerkrieg der Erin-
nerungen.’Ruhrkampf im politisch- propagandistischen Zeitroman derWeimarer Republik,”in
Text &Kontext.Jahrbuchfürgermanistische Literaturforschung in Skandinavien36 (2014): 68–97.
Revolutionary Fantasy and Proletarian Masculinity 185