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102-559: In order to circumvent the limitation, Seeckt created the Black Reichswehr as purportedly civilian "labour battalions" ( Arbeitskommandos ) attached to regular Reichswehr units. The Arbeitskommandos received military training, provisioning and orders from the Reichswehr, although ultimately they were never involved in military action. The Black Reichswehr reached a peak membership estimated at 50,000 to 80,000 in 1923 and

204-659: A German officer and pacifist, about the Feme murders of more than twenty members of right-wing groups. In January 1926, at the request of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), an investigative committee of the Reichstag was set up under the name "Feme Organizations and Feme Murders" to investigate the crimes and their political environment within parties, the Reichswehr and the judiciary. The project

306-560: 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

408-549: A large number of contacts among the Right. Defence Minister Otto Gessler had made such contacts illegal in February 1923, and some Reichswehr members had been discharged from the service as a result. Seeckt nevertheless encouraged regional Reichswehr leaders to keep up the contacts. In the spring of 1923, he himself talked with Freikorps leaders Georg Escherich , Gerhard Rossbach and Franz von Epp about bringing their troops into

510-478: 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

612-615: A letter to the court admitting that there was such a group and defending the need for it and for keeping it secret. The revelations about the Black Reichswehr led to the fall of the government of Wilhelm Marx at the end of 1926. A group of a few hundred Black Reichswehr men led by Bruno Buchrucker attempted a coup on 1 October 1923. It centred around the fortress at Küstrin , on the Elbe river in Brandenburg , and at Spandau in Berlin, and

714-420: 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 –

816-455: Is not known how many were killed in the Feme murders, which are most often considered a distinct category from political assassinations. The number may have been in the hundreds, although one source reports just 23 between 1920 and 1923 in Bavaria and the eastern states of East Prussia , Pomerania , Mecklenburg , Brandenburg and Upper Silesia . In spite of a number of investigations into

918-445: 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.

1020-814: 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

1122-590: The Bavarian Landtag set up its own investigative committee to look into the situation after former Reichswehr soldier Hans Dobner was unsuccessfully targeted when he attempted to sell information on a weapons cache to the authorities. In 1924, the Landtag of Prussia set up a "Political Murders" investigative committee, and two years later instituted a second. In November 1925, the journal Die Weltbühne published an unattributed article by Carl Mertens,

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1224-545: The Black Reichswehr were convicted and imprisoned before an amnesty for the Feme murders was declared in 1930, but Germans who exposed the killings were tried and convicted for insulting the military establishment for their role in doing so, even when their allegations against the military were true. The deficiencies in law enforcement were matters of concern for several parliaments during the Weimar period. In 1920,

1326-610: 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

1428-704: 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

1530-773: 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

1632-463: The Feme murders were carried out under the orders of Reichswehr leaders, including Bock, Schleicher and even Seeckt. Whether or not those allegations were true, the press coverage of the trials revealed a considerable amount of secret information about the Black Reichswehr and its activities. The Reichswehr and Defence Minister Gessler denied publicly that the Black Reichswehr existed, although Seeckt wrote

1734-593: 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

1836-499: 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

1938-572: 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

2040-537: 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

2142-414: 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

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2244-439: The 27th Reichstag commission officially differentiated political assassinations from Feme murders. Assassinations were by definition carried out against political opponents, whereas the commission defined Feme murders as "Attacks on human life on the basis of an organisation's or individual member's conspiracy against members and former members as well as against outsiders because of behaviour they consider treacherous or harmful to

2346-654: The AK's were under the army's control and not independent militia units, on call for potential use against the French. None of these units, however, ever went into action. Major Fedor von Bock was in overall command of the Arbeitskommandos and the Black Reichswehr; Kurt von Schleicher , who later became the Weimar Republic's last chancellor, served as his main liaison with the Reichswehr. Captain Eugen Ott

2448-576: The AKs increase the number and extent of arms searches and then had them keep the good weapons that they found for the Black Reichswehr's use and turn the useless ones over to the Allies. When French and Belgian troops occupied the Ruhr in January 1923 in response to Germany's default on its reparations payments, both the Berlin government and General Seeckt knew that they could not use the Reichswehr to oppose

2550-450: The AKs. Within two years, he had expanded it to a group with 2,000 permanent members and 18,000 more on standby. The latter came mostly from nationalist organisations and underwent four- to six-week training courses. Some of the work that the AKs did technically fell under the terms of Article 206, for example collecting and disposing of illegal arms left over from the war. Because the Reichswehr wanted its auxiliaries to be well-armed, it had

2652-662: 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

2754-501: The Black Reichswehr were extremely angry with their officers, whom they felt had betrayed them. ... [They] complained that on the day the Potsdam Uhlans arrived, no officers were to be seen, so that they were completely leaderless. The members of the Black Reichswehr were all arrested. Some were given the offer to join the Reichswehr if they complied with the prescribed conditions. Most of them had no inclination to do so. Although

2856-427: The Black Reichswehr". Buchrucker admitted that he had done so in order to be prepared for an imminent communist uprising. Bock issued an arrest warrant against Buchrucker, who hurried to Küstrin to initiate the putsch, which was quickly put down by Reichswehr troops. Buchrucker was taken into custody and sentenced to ten years imprisonment. In response to the putsch, General Seeckt dissolved the Black Reichswehr. Some of

2958-449: The Black Reichswehr, First Lieutenant Paul Schulz commanded a special unit that killed those who were seen as having betrayed the country by leaking military secrets. The following is a selected list of victims: Ruhr district The Ruhr ( / ˈ r ʊər / ROOR ; German : Ruhrgebiet [ˈʁuːɐ̯ɡəˌbiːt] , also Ruhrpott German pronunciation: [ˈʁuːɐ̯pɔt] ), also referred to as

3060-420: The Black Reichswehr. The Black Reichswehr saw essentially no direct action. During the crises of early 1923, there were only about 1,000 Black Reichswehr troops in Berlin, making it of little use there. They were occasionally on active duty, for example as sentries at government buildings such as the presidential palace. Some of the guards there spoke of being able to take President Friedrich Ebert into custody at

3162-532: 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

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3264-519: 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

3366-562: The Feme!" – Victims – Murderers – Judges (1919–1929)). While the Weimar judiciary rigorously prosecuted leftists involved in the German revolution of 1918–1919 and in the political activities of the Bavarian Soviet Republic , police and judicial investigations of the Feme crimes were slow, and the murderers, if they were identified, often received lesser sentences or acquittals. Some military officers such as Paul Schulz of

3468-512: The Freikorps. The loss of government support for the Freikorps in 1920 and then its banning in 1921 left large numbers of former members at loose ends. General Seeckt and Chancellor Joseph Wirth were able in the short run to focus the men's anger towards the outside rather than against the Republic. With Wirth's agreement, Seeckt used the opportunity to clandestinely increase the strength of

3570-582: The Freikorps. It is estimated that between 1918 and 1923 some 500,000 men were formal Freikorps members with another 1.5 million participating informally. In the turbulent early days of the Weimar Republic, the government in Berlin accepted the Freikorps as necessary and used them to defeat the Spartacist uprising in January 1919 and put down several local attempts to set up soviet republics, such as in Bremen and Bavaria . The Kapp Putsch of March 1920 caused

3672-518: The French demand and banned the Freikorps. Also playing a role in his decision was the London ultimatum of 5 May 1921, which threatened an occupation of the heavily industrialized Ruhr district if Germany did not accept a new schedule for war reparations payments. It included a statement declaring Germany in default of the Treaty of Versailles' disarmament requirements, in part due to the number of men in

3774-422: The German military. It limited the army to a total of 100,000 men and 4,000 officers. Conscription was prohibited, and the military was to be exclusively devoted to the maintenance of internal order and control of the borders. The Treaty also prohibited the construction of aircraft, heavy artillery and tanks, and the production of materials for chemical warfare. The navy was placed under equally tight restrictions and

3876-590: The Reichswehr beyond the 100,000-man limit imposed by the Treaty of Versailles, which he thought was not enough to defend Germany's borders. In order to get around the treaty restrictions, the Reichswehr created labour battalions ( Arbeitskommandos , or AKs) attached to regular army units. The Treaty of Versailles allowed work groups such as the AKs but only for the limited purposes that were spelled out in Article 206: "The German Government must in all cases furnish at its own cost all labour and material required to effect

3978-605: The Reichswehr had a large proving ground, included the following: At the Döberitz training camp two days ago, a troop unit of the Black Reichswehr, the Löwenfeld regiment, which was 2 battalions strong, was disarmed by the Potsdam cavalry regiment (Uhlans) of the Reichswehr. The Black Reichswehr in Döberitz had a battery of 8 guns, including 21 and 15 cm guns. Heavy mine launchers and machine guns were also present. The members of

4080-562: The Reichswehr if a military conflict broke out. On 23 August there was a meeting at Ludendorff's house attended by Adolf Hitler , Buchrucker and Kurt Jahnke . They talked about what to do if resistance to the Ruhr occupation broke down and agreed that the response should start with the Black Reichswehr. Most of the attendees – but not Hitler – wanted to set up a right-wing dictatorship when the government abandoned passive resistance, which it did in September, although without any response from

4182-428: The Reichswehr to set up the framework for the AKs. Its members, officially volunteer civilian labourers on short-term contracts, wore regular Reichswehr uniforms, were quartered with the Reichswehr and received military training and orders from it. They also had identifications that corresponded to the Reichswehr's. In the summer of 1921, Bruno Ernst Buchrucker was hired by the Reichswehr on a private contract to build up

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4284-416: The Reichswehr; and from support given by other militias and right-wing groups. Following the occupation of the Ruhr, Chancellor Cuno held talks with various right-wing militias who offered their assistance in dealing with the French. Representatives of heavy industry, including the conglomerate owned by Hugo Stinnes , were involved in the talks. Stinnes introduced General Seeckt to Erich Ludendorff , who had

4386-754: 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

4488-481: 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

4590-583: 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

4692-614: 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

4794-769: 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,

4896-512: 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

4998-427: 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

5100-525: 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

5202-597: 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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5304-558: The Treaty's terms became an important part of the politics of the Weimar Republic . Nationalists were drawn to parties on the Right that promised to rearm Germany and restore its great power status in Europe and the world. The Black Reichswehr had its roots in the Freikorps movement that sprang up following the end of World War I. Many demobilised soldiers from the Imperial Army joined paramilitary groups collectively known as

5406-625: 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

5508-476: 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

5610-521: 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

5712-529: 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

5814-414: 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

5916-415: 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

6018-410: 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

6120-409: The carrying out of Feme justice, which generally took the form of quick and secret murders of those suspected of being traitors. It is not certain how many murders the Black Reichswehr was responsible for; the number killed under the Feme by all right-wing extremist groups is estimated at about 350. In 1925 a former member of the Black Reichswehr named Carl Mertens revealed many of the activities of

6222-588: 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

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6324-531: The community". The meaning can also be seen in the phrase " Verräter verfallen der Feme! " ("Traitors fall to the Feme!"), which was in the statutes of the Organisation Consul and often used in mass media reports regarding violent acts of vengeance among the German right. The first to attempt to study the phenomenon systematically and for all of Germany was the Jewish statistician Emil Julius Gumbel , who in 1929 published Verräter verfallen der Feme!“ Opfer – Mörder – Richter (1919–1929) ("Traitors fall to

6426-410: The deliveries and the works of destruction, dismantling, demolition, and of rendering things useless, provided for in the present Treaty." It was these innocuous sounding labour groups that became what was later called the Black Reichswehr. The Prussian state government under Minister President Otto Braun and Interior Minister Carl Severing , both of the Social Democratic Party , actively worked with

6528-429: 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

6630-412: 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

6732-489: 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

6834-523: The fictional ringleader of the plot, is an amalgamation of several historical Reichswehr officers, including Hans von Seeckt and Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord . Fememord The Feme murders ( German : Fememorde [ˈfeːməmɔʁdə] ) were extrajudicial killings that took place during the early years of the Weimar Republic . They were carried out primarily by far-right groups against individuals, often their own members, who were thought to have betrayed them. Due to their secretive nature, it

6936-407: 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

7038-404: The government's view of the Freikorps to change from acceptance to concern about whether they could be controlled. When Defence Minister Gustav Noske ordered two major Freikorps units to be disbanded in late February 1920, they refused and took a leading role in the putsch. General Hans von Seeckt , who was appointed chief of the Army Command shortly after the putsch collapsed and who had disliked

7140-401: The group, including the Feme murders, to the magazine Die Weltbühne . An investigation by the Prussian Parliament corroborated the published information, and the matter was turned over to the courts. Paul Schulz was put on trial for his role in the Feme and sentenced to death in 1927, although in the end he served only a few years behind bars. During the testimony, counsel alleged that

7242-432: 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

7344-403: 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

7446-702: 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

7548-434: 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,

7650-489: 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

7752-427: 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

7854-520: The members continued to receive support for their activities from large landowners in East Prussia , while others, especially officers, went to Bavaria and joined the Nazi Party . At the cabinet session of Chancellor Gustav Stresemann on 3 October 1923, a report was delivered that detailed the disarming of the Black Reichswehr units at Döberitz and Spandau. The section on Döberitz, where

7956-643: The move without sparking a war. The official German policy was therefore limited to passive resistance. At around the same time, Poland demanded the "rectification" of the German-Polish border and Lithuanian troops occupied Memel . Realizing that they could not protect the nation's borders, Seeckt and the government under Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno , a political independent, agreed to expand the Arbeitskommandos . By September 1923, their number had reached an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 men. In addition, Reichswehr leadership put various paramilitary units, which like

8058-429: The murders, few of the perpetrators were ever identified or prosecuted. The Feme murders had largely ended by 1924. Fememord (from Middle High German vëme , meaning "punishment", and mord meaning "murder"), refers to an act of vigilante justice by a political group: the killing of "traitors" who knew about the group's secrets and had reported them to authorities or threatened to do so. The name alludes to

8160-574: 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

8262-414: The name Black Reichswehr is sometimes applied to all Freikorps that were used by the German government or the Reichswehr, it is most commonly limited to the clandestine units that were directly a part of the Reichswehr. The differing usages can lead to confusion as to whether an individual or even a group belonged to the Freikorps or to the Black Reichswehr. The following men were in the Black Reichswehr under

8364-578: The narrower definition: The Black Reichswehr is featured in Babylon Berlin , the German neo-noir television series based on the 2008 novel Der nasse Fisch (The Wet Fish) by Volker Kutscher . In the first two seasons, the organisation is depicted as plotting a coup of the Weimar Republic to restore the German Empire, returning Wilhelm II to the throne and installing Erich Ludendorff as Chancellor. The character of Generalmajor Seegers,

8466-539: 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

8568-406: 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

8670-401: The right moment. Black Reichswehr troops also paraded in front of Reichswehr Minister Gessler and Army chief of staff Seeckt. Within the Black Reichswehr, discipline for offenses such as insubordination were handled by methods similar to those used by the regular Reichswehr. The situation was entirely different when it came to thefts from the Black Reichswehr's illegal arms stockpiles or – which

8772-589: 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 ,

8874-517: The secretive Vehmic court system of the Middle Ages, which had authority to ordain capital punishment. In the politically heated turmoil of the early Weimar Republic , the media frequently used the term Fememord to refer to right-wing political killings by groups such as the Organisation Consul , e.g. the murder of Jewish politicians Kurt Eisner and Walther Rathenau and other politicians including Matthias Erzberger . In 1926,

8976-521: The southeast of the state of Prussia to fight the Polish insurgents. After the Freikorps won the Battle of Annaberg on 23 May 1921, the French issued an ultimatum demanding that Germany end its support of all paramilitary forces. The next day, to the shock of the Freikorps, who were expecting to follow up their victory by keeping all of Upper Silesia for Germany, German president Friedrich Ebert bowed to

9078-550: 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

9180-410: The un-military spirit of independence and rebellion within the Freikorps, then removed almost all of its members from the Reichswehr and limited Freikorps access to government funding and equipment. The Freikorps' last large-scale military action came during the third Silesian uprising , which began on 2 May 1921. Current and former Freikorps members from all over Germany went to the contested area in

9282-513: 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

9384-711: 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,

9486-447: Was a reaction to the government's decision to end passive resistance against the French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr. Buchrucker believed that he could use the extreme Right's anger at the government to start a national uprising with the assistance of various right wing defence organisations. Bock, who had received intelligence about increased activity among such groups, called Buchrucker in and asked him about "excessive recruitment to

9588-855: 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

9690-570: 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

9792-446: Was considered far worse – the betrayal of their locations or of other members. Given the fact that the Black Reichswehr were officially civilians, the military penal code could not be used against such "traitors", and because of the need for secrecy, neither could they be handed over to civil authorities. The result was the use of the Feme , named after medieval special courts that judged particularly serious offenses. Paul Schulz oversaw

9894-528: Was dissolved the same year after a group of its members launched the failed Küstrin Putsch . Its existence became widely known in 1925 when its practice of Fememord , the extra-judicial killing of "traitors" among its ranks, was revealed to the public. When the Treaty of Versailles set the conditions for peace following Germany's defeat in World War I , it put tight restrictions on the size and weaponry of

9996-404: 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

10098-541: Was hindered from the beginning by the right wing-majority in the Reichstag, the Bavarian judicial authorities' refusal to cooperate, and not least by the indecisiveness of the SPD itself. Nearly all of the Feme murders occurred during the turbulent early years of the Weimar Republic. A peak was reached in 1923 when hyperinflation , Allied occupation of the Ruhr and numerous putsch and separatist efforts shook Germany. Within

10200-414: Was in particular prohibited from building or acquiring submarines. The harsh terms of the Treaty, which also included demilitarisation of the Rhineland , payment of reparations to the Allies and Germany being forced to accept sole responsibility for the war, were intended to ensure that Germany could never again pose a military threat to Europe. The Germans saw it as a national humiliation, and revising

10302-591: 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

10404-489: Was the intelligence officer. First Lieutenant Paul Schulz worked with Bruno Buchrucker in setting up the Arbeitskommandos . The Black Reichswehr was funded from a number of sources at levels that generally are not known. The majority of the support came from secret government accounts; from heavy industry, which expected to benefit from rearmament; agricultural groups, especially in the east where owners of large estates felt particularly threatened and were natural allies of

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