(1977–1978), Theweleitreconstructs this distinctly fascistgenealogybasedonthe
Freikorpsmen’sfascination with, and horror of, female sexuality that,captured
in images of floods and streams,attests to their desperate attempts to acquire an
armor of masculinity as protection againstathus defined abject other.
The sexualization of war and revolution thatappears in both leftwing and
rightwing accounts of theRuhr Uprising pointsto ashared emotional investment
in modernindustrialized warfare as aparadigm of political emotions. Describing
the“white terror,”the KPD’sErwin Brauer includes graphic referencesto cut-off
breasts and vaginal penetrationsto make his point:“The white band of soldiers
had lost all inhibitions. Allgates of sadism and criminality wereopened. [...]
Now those appeared on the scene who weredying toramtheir bayonets into pro-
letarian men andrape defenseless proletarian women.”²²Fixated on the“redter-
ror,”the conservative geographer HansSpethmann used the 15 March 1920 battle
in Wetterto observeacompletebreakdown of the naturalgenderedorder:“Grue-
some scenestook place. [...]Evenwomen participated in the atrocities,taunting
the soldiers with the vilest cuss words and spitting on them. [...]Someofthe
women werenot even embarrassedtoundress on the castle square and market
square, becoming‘fellow fighters,’‘ammunition carriers,’and‘nurses.’”²³Allud-
ingto“transgressions [...]sohorrible that the penresists recording them,”²⁴
Spethmann ends his account with effusivepraise for theFreikorps troops and
deep gratitudetothe Reichswehr forrestoringlaw and order.
While thesegenderstereotypesreveal strongsimilarities between commu-
nist and fascist fantasies of (counter)revolution and point to their shared origins
in the traumasofWorldWarI,they should not distract from the considerable
differences between theFreikorps men’sbackward-looking narrativesofloss
and betrayal and the workers’equallystrongfixationonfuturevictory.Having
lost everything–their home, country,and community–theFreikorps men in
Theweleit’saccount feel compelledto continue theirsurrogatebattlesincivilian
women fromthe scene of the action”(158–159).Lucas brieflydiscusses the roleofwomen in the
RedRuhr ArmyinMärzrevolution 1920,81–84.
Erwin Brauer,DerRuhraufstand von 1920(Berlin: Internationaler Arbeiter-Verlag, 1930),
94 – 95.Brauer’sbook served asacase studyonarmed uprisings in the MASCH (Marxistische
Arbeiterschule) courses organized by the KPD in Berlin until 1933;see Klaus Kinner,Marxistische
deutsche Geschichtswissenschaft 1917 bis 1933.Geschichte und Politik imKampf derKPD(Berlin:
Akademie, 1982),435. Foracontemporary account of theRuhr UprisingbyaSocial Democrat,
compare GerhardColm,Beitrag zurGeschichte und Soziologie des Ruhraufstandes vom März-
April 1920(Essen:Baedeker,1921).
Hans Spethmann,Die Rote Armee anRuhr undRhein.Ausden Kapptagen1920(Berlin: Re-
imar Hobbing, 1930),63 and 77.
Spethmann,Die Rote Armee anRuhr undRhein,78and 92.
RevolutionaryFantasy and Proletarian Masculinity 189