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116-797: At the height of the conflict in the Ruhr , which had started due to the Kapp Putsch , the Ruhr Red Army was in control of the Ruhr area and the nearby areas. However, the differences among the participants were great. The central organ in Hagen was relatively moderate, whereas the central council in Mülheim was dominated by syndicalists . In Duisburg , anarchist forces took control and acted completely separately from any higher authorities. In general, in

232-722: A French company of Miners was captured and taken into service of the Republic. France also made extensive use of Free Companies and Legions. At the Battle of Fontenoy , deployment of the British attack column was hampered by the French 'Harquebusiers de Grassins'. After the Battle of Lauffelt, French light troops pursued the retreating allies, but were engaged in a bloody guerilla war with Austrian and Dutch light troops and Free Companies for

348-509: A decisive role in the development of coal mining in the Ruhr. According to the Regionalverband Ruhr (RVR, Ruhr Regional Association), 37.6% of the region's area is built up. A total of 40.7% of the region's land remains in agricultural use. Forests account for 17.6%, and bodies of water and other types of land use occupy the rest. The inclusion of four mainly rural districts in the otherwise mainly industrial Ruhr helps to explain

464-715: A kind of commando or guerrilla force. Throughout the 19th century, these anti-Napoleonic Freikorps were greatly praised and glorified by German nationalists, and a heroic myth built up around their exploits. This myth was invoked, in considerably different circumstances, in the aftermath of Germany's defeat in World War I . The anti-Napoleonic movements in Germany, Russia and Spain in the early 1810s also produced their own style of poetry, hussar poetry or Freikorps poetry , written by soldier-poets. In Germany, Theodor Körner , Max von Schenkendorff and Ernst Moritz Arndt were

580-423: A lesser extent between either club and/or VfL Bochum , MSV Duisburg or Rot-Weiss Essen ( kleines Revierderby ). With 22 universities and colleges and more than 250,000 students, the Ruhr region has the highest density of further education establishments anywhere in Germany. These include five universities alone in the cities of Bochum, Duisburg, Dortmund, Essen and Witten . In addition, Folkwang University of

696-532: A lesser extent, German youth who were not old enough to have served in World War I enlisted in the Freikorps in hopes of proving themselves as patriots and as men. Regardless of reasons for joining, modern German historians agree that men of the Freikorps consistently embodied post- Enlightenment masculine ideals that are characterized by "physical, emotional, and moral 'hardness'". Described as "children of

812-420: A non-aggression pact with Germany. During World War II, the bombing of the Ruhr in 1940–1944 caused a loss of 30% of plant and equipment (compared to 15–20% for German industry as a whole). A second battle of the Ruhr (6/7 October 1944 – end of 1944) began with an attack on Dortmund . The devastating bombing raids of Dortmund on 12 March 1945 with 1,108 aircraft – 748 Lancasters, 292 Halifaxes, 68 Mosquitos –

928-558: A number of "Vrij compagnieën"(Free Companies), raised between 1745 and 1747 and made up of volunteers and French deserters, such as the Walloon Grenadier Company. Although mostly used for reconnaissance and harassing enemy columns, the companies were organised into a battalion and engaged at the engagement at Wouw and the Battle of Lauffelt . Some companies were accompanied by a company of Dragons or Hussars, such as Roodt's Company and Cornabé's Legion. And in late 1747,

1044-839: A section leader and quartermaster. Reich Farmers' Leader and Minister of Food and Agriculture Richard Walther Darré was part of the Berlin Freikorps. Reinhard Heydrich , future chief of the Reich Security Main Office (including the Gestapo , Kripo , and SD ) and initiator of the Final Solution , was in Georg Ludwig Rudolf Maercker 's Freikorps as a teenager. Leader of the SS Heinrich Himmler enlisted in

1160-587: A sense of belonging in the Freikorps. Jason Crouthamel notes how the Freikorps' military structure was a familiar continuation of the frontlines, emulating the Kampfgemeinschaft (battle community) and Kameradschaft (camaraderie), thus preserving "the heroic spirit of comradeship in the trenches". Others, angry at Germany's sudden, seemingly inexplicable defeat , joined the Freikorps to fight against communism and socialism in Germany or to exact some form of revenge on those they considered responsible. To

1276-586: A short while previously on a national level between trade unions and the government. It also contained certain specific points. It contained an amnesty for illegal acts which had been committed in the context of resistance to the Kapp Putsch. With respect to the disarmament, the negotiators agreed on cooperation between the local authorities and the workers' executive councils. Indeed, both were to cooperate, to set up republican defence forces. The government delegates agreed that, if these measures were complied with,

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1392-445: Is really no uniform regiolect that justifies designation as a single regiolect. It is rather a working-class sociolect with influences from the various dialects found in the area and changing even with the professions of the workers. A major common influence stems from the coal mining tradition of the area. For example, quite a few locals prefer to call the Ruhr either "Pott", which is a derivate of "Pütt" (pitmen's term for mine ; cp.

1508-814: Is the Klavier-Festival Ruhr in the Ruhr area with 50 to 80 events of classical and jazz music. With more than 50 museums, Ruhr has one of the largest variety of museums in Europe. Industrial Museum The city of Essen (representing the Ruhr) was selected as European Capital of Culture for 2010 by the Council of the European Union . In association football , the Revierderby is the rivalry between Borussia Dortmund and FC Schalke 04 , and to

1624-613: The Corps Francs d'Afrique (CFA) (African Corps Franc) was raised in French Morocco within the Free French Forces by General Giraud . Giraud drew the members of the all-volunteer unit from residents of Northern Africa of diverse religious backgrounds (Christian, Jew, and Muslim) and gave them the title of Vélite , a name inspired by the elite light infantry of Napoleon's Imperial Guard , who were named after

1740-1122: The Darlan Deal wherein Vichy French forces came over to the Allied side. Darlan was later assassinated by Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle , an early member of the Corps Francs d'Afrique. They functioned as the Free French equivalent to the British Commandos . The Corps also included many Spanish and International old combatants of the Spanish Republican Army , which had sought refuge in Northern Africa in 1939. The Corps Francs d'Afrique, under command of Joseph de Goislard de Monsabert , went on to fight Rommel's Afrikakorps in Tunisia with

1856-610: The Dawes Plan , which led to the withdrawal of the French and Belgian troops from the Ruhr in 1925. However, the occupation of the Ruhr caused several direct and indirect consequences to the German economy and government, including accelerating the growth of right wing parties due to the Weimar government's inability to successfully resolve the problem. On 7 March 1936, Adolf Hitler took a massive gamble by sending 30,000 troops into

1972-704: The Encyclopædia Britannica . Even after World War II, the term "Ruhr" may not have been in general use for the region: it was defined in Documents on American Foreign Relations (1948): "For the purposes of the present Agreement: (i) the expression 'Ruhr' means the areas, as presently constituted, in Land North Rhine–Westphalia, listed in the Annex to this Agreement." However, Lawrence K. Cecil and Philip Hauge Abelson still write in 1967: "In

2088-773: The European Route of Industrial Heritage in the Ruhr area. Ruhr is known for its numerous cultural institutions, many of which enjoy international reputation. Ruhr has three major opera houses and more than 10 theaters and stages. There are special classical music halls like the Bochumer Symphoniker, the Duisburg Mercatorhalle, the Saalbau Essen or the Dortmunder Philharmoniker . Each year in spring time, there

2204-534: The Gorlitz Freikorps under Lieutenant Colonel Faupel, and two Swabian divisions from Württemberg under General Haas and Major Hirl as well as the largest Freikorps in Bavaria commanded by Colonel Franz Ritter von Epp . While they were met with little Communist resistance, the Freikorps acted with particular brutality and violence under Noske's blessing and at the behest of Major Schulz, adjutant of

2320-792: The Groupes Francs Motorisé de Cavalerie (GFC) who played a storied role in the delaying operations and last stands of the Battle of France , notably in the defenses of the Seine and the Loire . Between April – September 1944, the Corps Franc de la Montagne Noire unit operated as part of the French Resistance . On 25 November 1942, in the immediate aftermath of the Allied Invasion of Vichy French North Africa

2436-672: The King's German Legion , who had fought for Britain in French-occupied Spain and mainly were recruited from Hanoverians, the Lützow Free Corps and the Black Brunswickers . The Freikorps attracted many nationally disposed citizens and students. Freikorps commanders such as Ferdinand von Schill , Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow or Frederick William, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel , known as

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2552-522: The Lützow Freikorps , who reminded his men that it "[was] a lot better to kill a few innocent people than to let one guilty person escape" and that there was no place in his ranks for those whose conscience bothered them. On 5 May 1919, Lieutenant Georg Pölzing, one of Schulz's officers, travelled to the town of Perlach outside of Munich . There, Pölzing chose a dozen alleged communist workers—none of whom were actually communists, but members of

2668-665: The Maginot Line during the period known as the Phoney War (Drôle de Guerre) . They were tasked with attacking German troops guarding the Siegfried Line . Future Vichy collaborationist , Anti-Bolshevik and SS Major Joseph Darnand was one of the more famous participants in these commando actions. In May 1940, the experience of the Phoney War-era Corps Franc was an influence in creating

2784-598: The Napoleonic Wars , Austria recruited various Freikorps of Slavic origin. The Slavonic Wurmser Freikorps fought in Alsace . The combat effectiveness of the six Viennese Freikorps (37,000 infantrymen and cavalrymen), however, was low. An exception were the border regiments of Croats and Serbs who served permanently on the Austro- Ottoman border. During Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia ,

2900-755: The Nazis beginning in 1923. The rise of the Nazi Party led to a resurgence of Freikorps activity, as many members or ex-members were drawn to the party's marrying of military and political life and extreme nationalism by joining the Sturmabteilung (SA) and Schutzstaffel (SS). Unlike in the German Revolution of 1918–19 or their involvement in Eastern Europe, the Freikorps now had almost no military value and were instead utilized by

3016-964: The Nazis in their rise to power. The first Freikorps appeared during the War of the Austrian Succession and especially during the Seven Years' War, when France, Prussia, and the Habsburg monarchy embarked on an escalation of petty warfare while conserving their regular regiments. Even during the last Kabinettskrieg , the War of the Bavarian Succession , Freikorp formations were formed in 1778. Germans, Hungarians, Poles, Lithuanians, and South Slavs , as well as Turks, Tatars and Cossacks , were believed by all warring parties to be inherently good fighters. The nationality of many soldiers can no longer be ascertained as

3132-751: The Roman Velites . Much of the Corps was drawn from Henri d'Astier de la Vigerie and José Aboulker 's Géo Gras French Resistance Group which had been responsible for the Algiers Insurrection where the Resistance seized control of Algiers on the night of 8 November 1942 in coordination with the Allied landings happening that same night. In taking over Algiers, they managed to capture both Admiral Darlan and General Juin , which led to

3248-543: The Ruhr area , sometimes Ruhr district , Ruhr region , or Ruhr valley , is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany . With a population density of 2,800/km and a population of over 5 million (2017), it is the largest urban area in Germany and the third of the European Union . It consists of several large cities bordered by the rivers Ruhr to the south, Rhine to

3364-668: The Social Democratic Party —and shot them on the spot. The following day, a Freikorps patrol led by Captain Alt-Sutterheim interrupted the meeting of a local Catholic club, the St Joseph Society, and chose twenty of the thirty members present to be shot, beaten, and bayoneted to death. A memorial on Pfanzeltplatz in Munich commemorates the incident. Historian Nigel Jones notes that as a result of

3480-499: The United Kingdom . It has been claimed that immigrants came to the Ruhr from over 140 countries. Almost all their descendants today speak German as a first language, and for various reasons, they do not identify with their Polish roots and traditions, often their Polish family names only remain as a sign of their past. The Industrial Heritage Trail ( German : Route der Industriekultur ) links tourist attractions related to

3596-672: The Weimar Republic , the tenuous German government under Friedrich Ebert , leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany ( Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands , SPD), used the Freikorps to quell socialist and communist uprisings. Minister of Defence and SPD member Gustav Noske also relied on the Freikorps to suppress the Marxist Spartacist uprising , culminating in the summary executions of revolutionary communist leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg on 15 January 1919. The Bavarian Soviet Republic

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3712-572: The bow echo that hit the cities on June 9, 2014, and caused tens of thousands of trees to fall which was publicly dubbed the "Pfingststurm" (German for "Whitsun storm"). Winters have become more mild which poses a risk for crops such as apples whose blooms are vulnerable to late freezes if bud break happens too early. The ten largest cities of the Ruhr: The local regiolect of German is commonly called Ruhrdeutsch ( Ruhrgebietsdeutsch, Ruhrpottdeutsch, Ruhrpottisch, Ruhrpöttisch ) although there

3828-426: The imperial city of Dortmund were concentrated along the Hellweg from the Rhineland to Westphalia . Since the 19th century, these cities have grown together into a large complex with a vast industrial landscape, inhabited by some 7.3 million people (including Düsseldorf and Wuppertal , large cities that are nearby but officially not part of the Ruhr area). The Ruhr area has no administrative centre; each city in

3944-501: The "Black Duke", led their own attacks on Napoleonic occupation forces in Germany. Those led by Schill were decimated in the Battle of Stralsund (1809) ; many were killed in battle or executed at Napoleon's command in the aftermath. The Freikorps were very popular during the period of the German War of Liberation (1813–15), during which von Lützow, a survivor of Schill's Freikorps , formed his Lützow Free Corps. The anti-Napoleonic Freikorps often operated behind French lines as

4060-430: The "Thousand of Marsala", which landed in Sicily in 1860. Even before the Franco-Prussian War of 1870/71, Freikorps were developed in France that were known as franc-tireurs . After World War I , the meaning of the word Freikorps changed compared to its past iterations. After 1918, the term referred to various—yet, still, loosely affiliated— paramilitary organizations that were established in Germany following

4176-414: The 1950s and 1960s, as very rapid economic growth (9% a year) created a heavy demand for coal and steel. After 1973, Germany was hard hit by a worldwide economic crisis, soaring oil prices, and increasing unemployment, which jumped from 300,000 in 1973 to 1.1 million in 1975. The Ruhr region was hardest hit, as the easy-to-reach coal mines became exhausted, and German coal was no longer competitive. Likewise

4292-440: The 9-points-program, which the chairman of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (General German Confederation of Trade Unions) Carl Legien had agreed with Friedrich Ebert , which provided for a strengthening of the political influence of the workers' movement in German politics. In the end, a commission agreed on precisely that. The negotiated Bielefeld Agreement at first contained wording similar to an agreement reached

4408-405: The A44 and the A52 have several missing links, in various stages of planning. Some missing sections are currently in construction or planned to be constructed in the near future. Freikorps Freikorps ( German: [ˈfʁaɪˌkoːɐ̯] , "Free Corps " or "Volunteer Corps " ) were irregular German and other European paramilitary volunteer units that existed from the 18th to

4524-611: The Arts is an internationally acclaimed art college with its base in the Ruhr region. Furthermore, the universities are not the only places in the Ruhr region where academic qualifications can be obtained. There are 17 different universities of applied sciences which offer students to have the opportunity to undertake practice-relevant and qualified studies in various subjects, such as economics, logistics, administration or management. The Ruhr area has 5 major universities in 6 cities with about 120,000 students. The three largest universities (Ruhr University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, and

4640-423: The Duchies of Cleves and Berg and the territories of the bishop of Münster and the archbishop of Cologne . The region included some villages and castles, and was mainly agrarian: its loess soil made it one of the richer parts of western Germany. The free imperial city of Dortmund was the trading and cultural centre, lying on the Hellweg , an important east–west trading route, that also brought prosperity to

4756-454: The East, the Freikorps launched a campaign of propaganda that falsely positioned themselves as protectors of Germany's territorial hegemony over Lithuania , Latvia , and Estonia as a result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and as defenders against Slavic and Bolshevik hordes that "raped women and butchered children" in their wake. Historian Nigel Jones highlights the Freikorps's "usual excesses" of violence and murder in Latvia which were all

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4872-405: The English "pit"), or "Revier". During the nineteenth century, the Ruhr attracted up to 500,000 ethnic Poles , Masurians and Silesians from East Prussia and Silesia in a migration known as Ostflucht (flight from the east). By 1925, the Ruhrgebiet had around 3,800,000 inhabitants. Most of the new inhabitants came from Eastern Europe, but immigrants also came from France , Ireland , and

4988-536: The Freikorps and carried a flag in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch . Rudolf Höss joined the East Prussian Volunteer Freikorps in 1919 and eventually became commander of the Auschwitz extermination camp . Ernst Röhm , eventual leader of the SA , supported various Bavarian Freikorps groups, funnelling them arms and cash. Although many high-ranking National Socialists were former Freikorps fighters, recent research shows that former Freikorps fighters were no more likely to be involved in National Socialist organisations than

5104-412: The Freikorps as a nuisance and possible threat to his consolidation of power. During the Night of the Long Knives in 1934, an internal purge of Hitler's enemies within the Nazi Party , numerous Freikorps members and leaders were targeted for killing or arrest, including Freikorps commander Hermann Ehrhardt and SA leader Ernst Röhm . In Hitler's Reichstag speech following the purge, Hitler denounced

5220-466: The Freikorps as lawless "moral degenerates...aimed at the destruction of all existing institutions" and as "pathological enemies of the state...[and] enemies of all authority," despite his previous public adoration of the movement. Numerous future members and leaders of the Nazi Party served in the Freikorps. Martin Bormann , eventual head of the Nazi party Chancellery and Private Secretary to Hitler, joined Gerhard Roßbach's Freikorps in Mecklenburg as

5336-416: The Freikorps radicalized Western and German norms of male self-control into a perpetual war against feminine-coded desires for domesticity, tenderness, and compassion amongst men. Historians Nigel Jones and Thomas Kühne note that the Freikorps' displays of violence, terror, and male aggression and solidarity established the beginnings of the fascist New Man upon which the Nazis built. The extent of

5452-429: The Freikorps' autonomy and strength steadily declined as Hans von Seeckt , commander of the Reichswehr, removed all Freikorps members from the army and restricted the movements' access to future funding and equipment from the government. Von Seeckt was successful, and by 1921 only a small yet devoted core remained, effectively drawing an end to the Freikorps until their resurgence as far-right thugs and street brawlers for

5568-402: The Freikorps' involvement and actions in Eastern Europe , where they demonstrated full autonomy and rejected orders from the Reichswehr and German government , left a negative impression with the state. By this time, the Freikorps had served Ebert's purpose of suppressing revolts and communist uprisings. After the failed Kapp-Lütwitz Putsch in March 1920 that the Freikorps participated in,

5684-463: The Freikorps' violence, Munich's undertakers were overwhelmed, resulting in bodies lying in the streets and decaying until mass graves were completed. The Freikorps also fought against communists and Bolsheviks in Eastern Europe, most notably East Prussia , Latvia , Silesia , and Poland . The Freikorps demonstrated fervent anti-Slavic racism and viewed Slavs and Bolsheviks as "sub-human" hordes of "ravening wolves". To justify their campaign in

5800-407: The Nazis as thugs to engage in street brawls with communists and to break up anarchist, communist and socialist meetings alongside the SA to gain a political edge. Moreover, the Nazis elevated the Freikorps as a symbol of pure German nationalism, anti-communism, and militarized masculinity to co-opt the lingering social and political support of the movement. Eventually, Adolf Hitler came to view

5916-419: The Red Ruhr Army took the same view. They preferred an "honourable downfall" to an apparently foul compromise. The demands for fresh negotiations might have been successful, had it not been for the increasingly chaotic situation in Duisburg. The Reich Cabinet under Hermann Müller broke away from the agreement and set an ultimatum. The regional military commander Generalleutnant Oskar von Watter then tightened

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6032-426: The Rhineland . As Hitler and other Nazis admitted, the French army alone could have destroyed the Wehrmacht . The French passed the problem to the British, who found that the Germans had the right to "enter their own backyard", and no action was taken. In the League of Nations , the Soviet delegate Maxim Litvinov was the only one who proposed economic sanctions against Germany. All restraint on German rearmament

6148-409: The Ruhr is structured differently from monocentric urban regions such as Munich , which developed through the rapid absorption of smaller towns and villages by the most significant city among them. Instead in the Ruhr, the individual city boroughs and urban districts of the Ruhr grew in a rapid and parallel fashion independently of one another during the Industrial Revolution . The population density of

6264-583: The Ruhr steel industry went into sharp decline, as its prices were undercut by lower-cost suppliers such as Japan. The welfare system provided a safety net for the large number of unemployed workers, and many factories reduced their labor force and began to concentrate on high-profit specialty items. As demand for coal decreased after 1958, the area went through phases of structural crisis (see steel crisis ) and industrial diversification, first developing traditional heavy industry, then moving into service industries and high technology. The air and water pollution of

6380-468: The Ruhr would not be militarily occupied by the Reichswehr. The agreement seemed a sensible attempt to end the conflict through peaceful means. In the end it came to a division of the rebels. The moderate forces including the USPD and the central body in Hagen supported the agreement. The central council in Essen and the KPD demanded new negotiations, whilst the radical executive councils of Mülheim and Hamborn rejected any settlement. The military leaders of

6496-419: The Ruhr" was published in Papers Relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States . The 1926 Encyclopædia Britannica , in addition to its article on the river Ruhr, has a further article on "RUHR, the name given to a district of Westphalia, Germany". Thus the name "Ruhr" was given to the region (as a short form of "Ruhr District" or "Ruhr Valley") only a few years before the publication of this edition of

6612-537: The Ruhr's coal and steel industries, was created as a condition for the establishment of the Federal Republic of Germany . During the Cold War , the Western allies anticipated that any Red Army thrust into Western Europe would begin in the Fulda Gap and have the Ruhr as a primary target. Increased German control of the area was limited by the pooling of German coal and steel into the multinational European Coal and Steel Community in 1951. The nearby Saar region , containing much of Germany's remaining coal deposits,

6728-461: The Ruhr, who were known as Ruhrpolen since. The Poles were treated as second class citizens. In 1899 this led to a revolt in Herne of young Polish workers, who later established a Workers' Union. Skilled workers in the mines were often housed in "miners' colonies", built by the mining firms. By 1870, over 3 million people lived in the Ruhrgebiet and the new coal-mining district had become the largest industrial region of Europe. During World War I

6844-427: The Ruhr. By 1950, after the virtual completion of the by-then much watered-down "level of industry" plans, equipment had been removed from 706 manufacturing plants in the west, and steel production capacity had been reduced by 6.7 million tons. Dismantling finally ended in 1951. In all, less than 5% of the industrial base was dismantled. The Ruhr was at the centre of the German economic miracle Wirtschaftswunder of

6960-409: The Ruhrgebiet functioned as Germany's central weapon factory. At a big Essen company, F. Krupp A.G., the number of employees rose from 40,000 to 120,000 or more, in four years. They were partly women, partly forced labourers. In the March 1920 Kapp Putsch , nationalist and monarchist elements with the armed support of Freikorps units attempted to overthrow the government of the Weimar Republic . It

7076-410: The Transport and General Workers Union (London 1923). Yet "The report of a deputation from the Transport and General Workers' Union which spent a fortnight examining the problems in the Ruhr Valley", published in The Economic Review , Volume 8, 1923, is still using the traditional term. In the same year, "Objections by the United States to discriminatory regulations on exports from the occupied region of

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7192-438: The U.S. 5th Army . They fought alongside the British 139th Brigade at Kassarine and Sidi Nasr , where they famously conducted a heroic bayonet charge, facing two to one odds, against the Italian 34th Battalion of the 10th Bersaglieri near the mountain of Kef Zilia on the road to Bizerte , taking 380 prisoners, killing the Italian battalion commander, and capturing the plans for Operation Ausladung . They participated in

7308-449: The University of Duisburg-Essen) opened an alliance called " UA Ruhr ". Students enrolled at one of the UA Ruhr universities can attend lectures and seminars at all three institutions without having to pay a visiting student fee. Consequently, they have many options to specialize in and to explore their chosen disciplines in depth. The UA Ruhr has three liaison offices for interested students in New York City , Moscow and São Paulo . With

7424-408: The Versailles Treaty. The German government responded with a policy of passive resistance, letting workers and civil servants refuse orders and instructions by the occupation forces. Production and transport came to a standstill and the financial consequences contributed to German hyperinflation . After passive resistance was called off in late 1923, Germany implemented a currency reform and negotiated

7540-461: The aftermath of World War I and during the German Revolution of 1918–19 , Freikorps , consisting partially of World War I veterans, were raised as paramilitary militias. They were ostensibly mustered to fight on behalf of the government against the German communists attempting to overthrow the Weimar Republic . However, many Freikorps also largely despised the Republic and were involved in assassinations of its supporters, later aiding

7656-492: The aftermath of the Napoleonic era , Freikorps were set up with varying degrees of success. During the March 1848 riots, student Freikorps were set up in Munich. In First Schleswig War of 1848 the Freikorps of von der Tann , Zastrow and others distinguished themselves. In 1864 in Mexico, the French formed the so-called Contreguerrillas under former Prussian hussar officer, Milson. In Italy , Giuseppe Garibaldi formed his famous Freischars , notably

7772-465: The area are largely a thing of the past although some issues take a long time to solve. In 2005 Essen was the official candidate for nomination as European Capital of Culture for 2010. The Ruhr has an oceanic climate in spite of its inland position, with winds from the Atlantic travelling over the lowlands to moderate temperature extremes, in spite of its relatively northerly latitude that sees significant variety in daylight hours. A consequence of

7888-410: The area has its own administration, although there is a supracommunal Ruhr Regional Association  [ de ] institution in Essen. For 2010, the Ruhr region was one of the European Capitals of Culture . The 1911 edition of Encyclopædia Britannica has only one definition of "Ruhr": "a river of Germany, an important right-bank tributary of the lower Rhine". The use of the term "Ruhr" for

8004-414: The article, "Exports from the Ruhr district of Germany". In 1924 the English and American press was still talking of the "French occupation of the Ruhr Valley" or "Ruhr District". A 62-page publication seems to be responsible for the use of "Ruhr" as a short form of the then more common "Ruhr District" or "Ruhr Valley": Ben Tillett, A. Creech-Jones and Samuel Warren's The Ruhr: The Report of a Deputation from

8120-423: The average male population in Germany. During World War II , there existed certain armed groups loyal to Germany that went under the name "Freikorps". These include: In France , a similar group (but unrelated to the Freikorps) were the "Corps Franc". Starting in October 1939, the French Army raised a number of Corps Franc units with the mission of carrying out ambush, raid, and harassing operations forward of

8236-475: The battles of Krasnoi and the Berezina . Freikorps in the modern sense emerged in Germany during the course of the Napoleonic Wars. They fought not so much for money but for patriotic reasons, seeking to shake off the French Confederation of the Rhine . After the French under Emperor Napoleon had either conquered the German states or forced them to collaborate, remnants of the defeated armies continued to fight on in this fashion. Famous formations included

8352-482: The bigger European cities as Amsterdam , Brussels , Paris , Vienna or Zürich . The Ruhr area also contains the longest tram system in the world, with tram and Stadtbahn services from Witten to Krefeld as well as the Rhine-Ruhr S-Bahn network. Originally the system was even bigger, it was possible to travel from Unna to Bad Honnef without using railway or bus services. The Ruhr has one of

8468-410: The borders of the present-day city of Oberhausen . Moreover, the urbanization also boosted the expansion of railroad connections. At the beginning of the 1880s, agricultural regions did not benefit from the newly built transport facilities as much as non-agricultural regions did. This in its turn increased inequality, and made anthropometric measurements, e.g. height, more dependent on wages . In

8584-501: The brutal and deadly beatings of suspected communists and particularly communist women. Freikorps ranks were composed primarily of former World War I soldiers who, upon demobilization , were unable to reintegrate into civilian society having been brutalized by the violence of the war physically and mentally. Combined with the government's poor support of veterans, who were dismissed as hysterical when suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder , many German veterans found comfort and

8700-763: The capture of Bizerte in May 1943. For its actions, the Corps Franc d'Afrique was awarded the Croix de Guerre . The CFA formally was dissolved on 9 July 1943, with its members and equipment forming the corps of the newly created African Commando Group (GCA) on 13 July 1943 in Dupleix , Algeria , today seen as a forebear to the postwar Parachutist Shock Battalions and the modern day 13th RDP . The GCA went on to fight at Pianosa , Elba , Salerno , Provence , Belfort , Giromagny , Alsace , Cernay , Guebwiller , Buhl , and

8816-588: The central Ruhr is about 2,100 inhabitants per square kilometre (about 5,400 per square mile)—not too high compared to other German cities. Between the constituent urban areas are relatively open suburbs and even some open land with agricultural fields. In many places however, the borders between cities in the central Ruhr are unrecognizable, blending into one urban landscape due to continuous development across them. The replanting of brownfield land has created new parks and recreation areas in recent decades. The Emscher Landschaftspark (Emscher Landscape Park) lies along

8932-400: The defeat in World War I. Of the numerous Weimar paramilitary groups active during that time, the Freikorps were, and remain, the most notable. While numbers are difficult to determine, historians agree that some 500,000 men were formal Freikorps members with another 1.5 million men participating informally. Amongst the social, political, and economic upheavals that marked the early years of

9048-429: The densest motorway networks in all of Europe, with dozens of Autobahns and similar Schnellstraßen (expressways) crossing the region. The Autobahn network is built in a grid network, with four east–west ( A2 , A40 , A42 , A44 ) and seven north–south ( A1 , A3 , A43 , A45 , A52 , A57 , A59 ) routes. The A1, A2 and A3 are mostly used by through traffic, while the other autobahns have a more regional function. Both

9164-652: The districts of Wesel , Recklinghausen , Unna and Ennepe-Ruhr-Kreis . The most populous cities are Dortmund (with a population of approximately 612,065), Essen (about 583,000) and Duisburg (about 497,000). In the Middle Ages, the Hellweg was an important trade route from the region of the Lower Rhine to the mountains of the Teutoburg Forest . The most important towns of the region from Duisburg to

9280-756: The early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenaries or private military companies , regardless of their own nationality. In German-speaking countries , the first so-called Freikorps ("free regiments", Freie Regimenter ) were formed in the 18th century from native volunteers, enemy renegades, and deserters . These sometimes exotically equipped units served as infantry and cavalry (or, more rarely, as artillery); sometimes in just company strength and sometimes in formations of up to several thousand strong. There were also various mixed formations or legions. The Prussian von Kleist Freikorps included infantry, jäger , dragoons and hussars . The French Volontaires de Saxe combined uhlans and dragoons. In

9396-459: The east and south part of the Ruhr, the less radical Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany (USPD) was dominant, whereas in the west, syndicalists and communists were stronger. The government in Berlin saw these internal differences as an opportunity. They wanted to drive a wedge between the various movements and thereby weaken the power of the movement as a whole. The representatives of

9512-595: The ethnic origin was often described imprecisely in the regimental lists. Slavs (Croats, Serbs) were often referred to as "Hungarians" or just "Croats", and Muslim recruits (Albanians, Bosnians, Tatars) as "Turks". Inspired by the Slavic troops in Austrian service, France, the Dutch Republic and other nations began employing "Free Troops", usually consisting of infantry and cavalry units. The Dutch Republic employed

9628-630: The exception of public transport companies serving Hamm and Kreis Unna , all such companies in the Ruhr region are run under the umbrella of the Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Ruhr , which provides a uniform ticket system valid for the entire area. The Ruhr region is well-integrated into the national rail system, the Deutsche Bahn , for both passenger and goods services, each city in the region has at least one train stations. The bigger central stations have hourly direct connections to

9744-518: The first place, the average person uses the term 'Ruhr' indiscriminately as the Ruhr River or the Ruhr district, two entirely different things. The Ruhr River is only one of half a dozen rivers in the Ruhr district, in addition to the Rhine. The Rhine itself runs through the heart of the Ruhr district." According to Merriam Webster's Geographical Dictionary , a standard reference on place names around

9860-527: The free infantry which consisted of various military branches (such as infantry, hussars, dragoons, jäger ) and were used in combination. They were often used to ward off Maria Theresa 's Pandurs. In the era of linear tactics , light troops had been seen necessary for outpost, reinforcement and reconnaissance duties . During the war, eight such volunteer corps were set up: Because, some exceptions, they were seen as undisciplined and less battleworthy, they were used for less onerous guard and garrison duties. In

9976-574: The government were Post Minister Johannes Giesberts of the Centre Party and the Prussian agriculture minister Otto Braun of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). They held a conference on 23 — 24 March 1920 in Bielefeld . The other participants were the executive councils of the rebels, city governments, the regional presidents of the regions Düsseldorf , Münster and Arnsberg ,

10092-432: The hills, highly skilled workers manufactured knives, tools, weapons and harnesses, using water, coal and charcoal. As the machines became bigger and moved from water power to steam power, locally mined coal and charcoal became expensive and there was not enough of it. The Bergische industry ordered more and more coal from the new coal mining area along the Ruhr . Impressive and expensive railways were constructed through

10208-403: The hilly Wupper region, to bring coal, and later steel, in from the Ruhr, and for outward transport of finished products. By 1850, there were almost 300 coal mines in operation in the Ruhr area, in and around the central cities of Duisburg, Essen, Bochum and Dortmund. The coal was exported or processed in coking ovens into coke , used in blast furnaces , producing iron and steel. In this period

10324-413: The hussar Denis Davydov , a warrior-poet , formed volunteer partisan detachments functioning as Freikorps during the French retreat from Moscow . These irregular units operated in conjunction with Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov 's regular Russian Imperial Army and Ataman Matvei Platov 's Cossack detachments, harassing the French supply lines and inflicting defeats on the retreating Grande Armée in

10440-597: The immediate interwar era . Although World War I ended in Germany's surrender, many men in the Freikorps nonetheless viewed themselves as soldiers still engaged in active warfare with enemies of the traditional German Empire such as communists and Bolsheviks , Jews, socialists , and pacifists . Prominent Freikorps member Ernst von Salomon described his troops as "full of wild demand for revenge and action and adventure...a band of fighter...full of lust, exultant in anger." In 1977, German sociologist Klaus Theweleit published Male Fantasies, in which he argues that men in

10556-702: The industrial region started in Britain only after World War I, when French and Belgian troops had occupied the Ruhr district and seized its prime industrial assets in lieu of unpaid reparations in 1923. In 1920, the International Labour Office published a report entitled Coal Production in the Ruhr District . In 1923, the Canadian Commercial Intelligence Journal , Volume 28, Issue 1013, includes

10672-434: The large proportion of agricultural and forested land. In addition, the city boroughs of the Ruhr region have outlying districts with a rural character. Seen on a map, the Ruhr could be considered a single city, since there are no visible breaks between the individual city boroughs. Thus the Ruhr is described as a polycentric urban area, which shares a similar history of urban and economic development. Because of its history,

10788-489: The long run, however, effects of the railroad proximity diminished. Consequently, the population climbed rapidly. Towns with only 2,000 to 5,000 people in the early 19th century grew in the following 100 years to over 100,000. Skilled mineworkers were recruited from other regions to the Ruhr's mines and steel mills and unskilled people started to move in. From 1860 onwards there was large-scale migration of Polish speakers from Silesia , Pomerania , East Prussia and Posen to

10904-427: The marine influence is a cloudy and wet climate with low sunshine hours. Summers normally average in the low 20s, with winters being somewhat above the freezing point. From the onset of the 21st century, the effects of global warming have become more profound. The area has been affected by severe droughts (like 2018), heat waves with temperatures above 40.0 °C (104.0 °F) (2019) and severe weather events like

11020-421: The more unrestrained since they were fighting in a foreign land versus their own country. Hundreds were murdered in the Freikorps' Eastern campaigns, such as the massacre of 500 Latvian civilians suspected of harbouring Bolshevik sympathies or the capture of Riga which saw the Freikorps slaughter some 3,000 people. Summary executions via firing squads were most common, but several Freikorps members recorded

11136-529: The most famous soldier-poets from the Freikorps. Their lyrics were for the most part patriotic, republican, anti-monarchical and anti-French. In Russia, the leader of the guerrilla army, Davydov, invented the genre of hussar poetry, characterised by hedonism and bravado. He used events from his own life to illustrate such poetry. Later, when Mikhail Lermontov was a junker ( cadet ) in the Russian Imperial Army, he also wrote such poetry. Even in

11252-574: The name Ruhrgebiet became common. Before the coal deposits along the Ruhr were exhausted, the mining industry moved northward to the Emscher and finally to the Lippe, drilling ever deeper mines as it went. Locks built at Mülheim on the Ruhr led to the expansion of Mülheim as a port. With the construction of the Cologne-Minden railway in the late 19th century, several iron works were built within

11368-547: The provisions of this ultimatum regarding the surrender of weapons so much so that it was not even technically possible for the rebels to comply with them, even though they were willing to do so. The behaviour of Watter illustrates one central weakness of the Bielefeld Agreement: as the military was not included in the agreement, and was also not as a whole effectively controlled by the government, it could act on its own initiative. The consequence of Watter's ultimatum

11484-604: The rebellion in early April 1920 and re-established the Weimar Republic's control of the district. An estimated 1,000 insurgents and 200 Reichswehr soldiers were killed in the battles. In March 1921, French and Belgian troops occupied Duisburg , which under the Treaty of Versailles formed part of the demilitarized Rhineland . In January 1923 the whole Ruhr district was occupied  after Germany failed to fulfill part of its World War I reparation payments as agreed in

11600-406: The region is defined by coal -bearing layers from the upper Carboniferous period. The coal seams reach the surface in a strip along the river Ruhr and dip downward from the river to the north. Beneath the Lippe, the coal seams lie at a depth of 600 to 800 metres (2,000 to 2,600 feet). The thickness of the coal layers ranges from one to three metres (three to ten feet). This geological feature played

11716-559: The remainder of the campaign. For Prussia, the Pandurs , who were made up of Croats and Serbs , were a clear model for the organization of such "free" troops. On 15 July 1759, Frederick the Great ordered the creation of a squadron of volunteer hussars to be attached to the 1st Hussar Regiment (von Kleist's Own). He entrusted the creation and command of this new unit to Colonel Friedrich Wilhelm von Kleist. This first squadron (80 men)

11832-529: The river Emscher , formerly virtually an open sewer, parts of which have undergone natural restoration. This park connects strips of parkland running from north to south, which were developed through regional planning in the 1920s, to form a green belt between the Ruhr cities from east to west. During the Middle Ages, much of the region that was later called the Ruhrgebiet was situated in the County of Mark ,

11948-559: The so-called "petty wars", the Freikorps interdicted enemy supply lines with guerrilla warfare . In the case of capture, their members were at risk of being executed as irregular fighters. In Prussia the Freikorps , which Frederick the Great had despised as "vermin", were disbanded. Their soldiers were given no entitlement to pensions or invalidity payments. In France, many corps continued to exist until 1776. They were attached to regular dragoon regiments as jäger squadrons . During

12064-550: The town of Duisburg . Both towns were members of the Hanseatic League . The development of the region into an urbanized industrial area started in the late 18th century with the early industrialisation in the nearby Wupper Valley in the Bergisches Land . By around 1820, hundreds of water-powered mills were producing textiles, lumber, shingles and iron in automated processes here. In additional workshops in

12180-470: The trade unions and the political parties from the political centre to the Communist Party of Germany (KPD). As Reichskommissar for the Ruhr, Carl Severing (SPD) also played a central role. He formulated the goal of the negotiations: to come to an understanding over disarming, and how this was to be organised. Whilst Braun and Giesberts tried to make as few concessions as possible, Severing kept to

12296-423: The trenches, spawned by war" and its process of brutalization, historians argue that Freikorps men idealized a militarized masculinity of aggression, physical domination, the absence of emotion (hardness). They were to be as "swift as greyhounds, tough as leather, [and] hard as Krupp steel" so as to defend what remained of German conservatism in times of social chaos, confusion, and revolution that came to define

12412-423: The war, 14 " free infantry " ( Frei-Infanterie ) units were created, mainly between 1756 and 1758, which were intended to be attractive to those soldiers who wanted military "adventure", but did not want to have to do military drill. A distinction should be made between the Freikorps formed up to 1759 for the final years of the war, which operated independently and disrupted the enemy with surprise attacks, and

12528-513: The west, and Lippe to the north. In the southwest it borders the Bergisches Land . It is considered part of the larger Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region of more than 10 million people, which is the third largest in Western Europe , behind only London and Paris . The Ruhr cities are, from west to east: Duisburg , Oberhausen , Bottrop , Mülheim an der Ruhr , Essen , Gelsenkirchen , Bochum , Herne , Hagen , Dortmund , Hamm and

12644-711: The world, the name "Ruhr" refers to the river. The name preferred for the region in this dictionary is "Ruhrgebiet", followed by "Ruhr Valley". The urban landscape of the Ruhr extends from the Lower Rhine Basin east to the Westphalian Plain and south to the hills of the Rhenish Massif . Through the centre of the Ruhr runs a segment of the loess belt that extends across Germany from west to east. Historically, this loess belt has underlain some of Germany's richest agricultural regions. Geologically,

12760-855: Was a record to a single target in the whole of World War II. More than 4,800 tons of bombs were dropped through the city centre and the south of the city. In addition to the strategic bombing of the Ruhr , in April 1945, the Allies trapped several hundred thousand Wehrmacht troops in the Ruhr Pocket . After the war, the region fell within the British occupation zone , and Level of Industry plans for Germany abolished all German munitions factories and civilian industries that could support them and severely restricted civilian industries of military potential. The Ruhr Authority , an international body to regulate

12876-451: Was a short-lived and unrecognized socialist-communist state from 12 April – 3 May 1919 in Bavaria during the German Revolution of 1918–19 . Following a series of political revolts and takeovers from German socialists and then Russian-backed Bolsheviks, Noske responded from Berlin by sending various Freikorps brigades to Bavaria in late April totalling some 30,000 men. The brigades included Hermann Ehrhardt's second Marine Brigade Freikorps,

12992-570: Was able to defeat the putsch by advocating a general strike that all but shut down Berlin. The work action effectively ended the putsch, but in the Ruhr it was the instigation for an armed revolt whose aim was to replace the Weimar Republic with a soviet-style council republic . In the Ruhr Uprising , the Ruhr Red Army was able to take control of the Ruhr industrial area. The Reichswehr , with assistance from Freikorps units, put down

13108-457: Was handed over to economic administration by France as a protectorate in 1947 and did not politically return to Germany until January 1957, with economic reintegration occurring two years later. Parallel to the question of political control of the Ruhr, the Allies tried to decrease German industrial potential by limitations on production and dismantling of factories and steel plants, predominantly in

13224-591: Was now removed. France's eastern allies (the Soviet Union , Poland , Czechoslovakia , Romania and Yugoslavia ) concluded that since the French refused to defend their own border, they certainly would not stand up for their allies in the East. Hitler could now continue eroding the alliance system that France had built since 1919. On 16 October 1936, Belgium repudiated the 1921 alliance with France and declared its absolute neutrality. In October 1937, Belgium signed

13340-598: Was raised in Dresden and consisted mainly of Hungarian deserters. This squadron was placed under the command of Lieutenant Johann Michael von Kovacs. At the end of 1759, the first four squadrons of dragoons (also called horse grenadiers) of the Freikorps were organised. They initially consisted of Prussian volunteers from Berlin, Magdeburg, Mecklenburg and Leipzig, but later recruited deserters. The Freikorps were regarded as unreliable by regular armies, so they were used mainly as sentries and for minor duties. . During

13456-613: Was the proclamation of a general strike by the Essen central council. This was answered, after 29 March, by about three quarters of the miners of the area. The military, above all the semi-official Freikorps , suppressed the revolt subsequently with brutal violence. The Bielefeld Agreement therefore had, ultimately, no effect at all. Ruhr The Ruhr ( / ˈ r ʊər / ROOR ; German : Ruhrgebiet [ˈʁuːɐ̯ɡəˌbiːt] , also Ruhrpott German pronunciation: [ˈʁuːɐ̯pɔt] ), also referred to as

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