Bielefeld Agreement

The Bielefeld Agreement was an agreement during the Ruhr struggle of 1920 between the envoys of the Red Ruhr Army and government officials.

Prehistory

At the height of the Ruhr struggle that erupted in connection with the Kapp Putsch, the Red Ruhr Army dominated large parts of the Ruhr area and adjacent areas. However, the differences within the parties were great. Thus, the Hagen Central was relatively moderate, while the Mülheim Central was dominated by syndicalists. In Duisburg anarchist forces took control and acted completely detached from all over local connections. Overall, dominated in the eastern and southern part of the Ruhr area, the less radical USPD, while in the West prevailed syndicalists and left communists.

These internal differences seemed the leaders in Berlin a chance. They wanted to drive and so weaken the clout of the whole movement a wedge between the various forces.

Negotiations and Agreements

The representatives of the government were Reich Minister of Posts and trade unionist John Giesberts of the Centre Party and the Prussian Minister of Agriculture Otto Braun of the SPD. These held on March 23 and 24, 1920 in Bielefeld held a conference. At this was attended by law enforcement councils of insurgent, municipalities, the provincial government of Dusseldorf, Münster and Arnsberg, trade unions and political parties of the center part to the KPD. As Reich and Prussian State Commissioner for the Ruhr, a native of Herford Social Democrat Carl Severing played a central role. This formulated as the goal of negotiations to come to an agreement on disarmament and the organization of the weapons delivery. While Brown and Giesberts were anxious to make as few concessions to Severing stopped the nine-point program that the Chairman of the ADGB Carl Legiens had negotiated with Friedrich Ebert, which provided for a strengthening of the political influence of the labor movement in the politics of the empire.

A commission actually came to an agreement. This initially Bielefeld agreement contained similar wording such as the short time before the agreement concluded on imperial level between unions and the government. In addition, it contained a number of specific points. They foresaw an amnesty for breaches of the law had occurred in the context of resistance to the Kapp Putsch. With regard to the weapons charge, they agreed on a cooperation between local authorities and law enforcement councils. Both should do together to build Republican bulwarks. The government officials said that at a compliance of these agreements the Ruhr would not be occupied by the Reichswehr military.

The agreement seemed to be a reasonable attempt to resolve the conflict by peaceful means. In fact, there was a division of the insurgents. The moderate forces, including the USPD and the Hagen Central rallied to the agreements. The Essen Central Council and the KPD called for new negotiations, while the radical enforcement councils of Mülheim and Hamborn rejected any agreement. Indeed the position occupied the military leader of the Red Army of the Ruhr. These preferred a " honorable demise " a supposedly rotten compromise.

Failure and the escalation of conflict

The demands for new negotiations might have had success, not the increasingly chaotic states in Duisburg would have been. The Reich Cabinet under Hermann Müller left the base of the Bielefeld Agreement and issued an ultimatum. This was arbitrarily so aggravated with regard to the weapons charge that the rebels would be extended in readiness it, this was technically not possible from the regional military commander Lieutenant General Oskar von Watter. The procedure Watters shows a central weakness of the Bielefeld Agreement. The military was not involved namely in the agreements, and there was also a total not controlled by the government effective, it could act on its own. The sequence of Watters ultimatum was the proclamation of a general strike by the Essen Central. This was followed from March 29, about three-quarters of the miners of the district. The military, especially the semi-official Freikorps, crushed the revolt down in the following years with partial brute force. The Bielefeld agreement had so ultimately able to develop any real effect.