Ruhr Red Army

The Ruhr Red Army was a workers' uprising on March 21, 1920, in which workers stayed out on strike in the Ruhr Valley, the richest industrial area of Germany. The Communists formed a Red Army, but the German army was able to defeat them. The "Red Rising" gave the government reason to treat the Communists very brutally. Between 1919 and 1922 there were 356 political murders in Germany. Walther Rathenau, Germany's Foreign Minister, was murdered as part of the escalating violence.