Cuno strikes

As Cuno strikes is called a strike wave which was directed in August 1923 against the government of Chancellor Wilhelm Cuno. The arrears contributed actually in the resignation of the government, at the same time they increased in the communist camp the vain hope of an imminent revolution.

History

The Cuno government had called in January 1923 after the occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops to passive resistance. Due to the resulting loads inflation was driven to the climax. Significant parts of the labor movement opposed the government and the French occupiers alike. Their motto was "Beat Cuno and Poincaré at the Ruhr and on the Spree! "

Trigger for the strike movement was a labor dispute at Berlin's printing industry. Affected was the imperial printing at the instigation of the KPD. Thus, the printing press of the empire was shut down and made ​​himself soon a shortage of paper money noticeable. The strike also joined the workers of the power stations, construction workers and employees of the Berlin Transport Authority. While it succeeded Otto Wels against the will of the KPD chairman Ruth Fischer to prevent a general strike first. However, the defeat in the trade union bodies ADGB refused to accept the KPD. She called on 11 August 1923, a general meeting of the revolutionary councils of Greater Berlin. This called for a general strike to overthrow the government Cuno. However, it could not be widely used, this call because of the prohibition of the Red Banner.

Nevertheless, the strikes spread in Berlin on and spread to other cities and regions. This affected Hamburg, the Lausitz, the province of Saxony, and the Free States of Saxony and Thuringia. In the Ruhr, there were no strikes. Instead, passive resistance was practiced. From communist -minded workers were occupied factories and driven working lines.

The strikes lasted only briefly, but was so far a success because Cuno resigned on 12 August 1923. However, behind this was also a political development. On 10 August, the KPD had introduced a motion of censure against the government Cuno in the Reichstag. The SPD also driven from their base, which partially supported the Cuno strikes, saw no other political alternative than the formation of a grand coalition to avert a civil war-like situation and a possible revolution. Counter sections of the left to Paul Levi pleaded in particular Rudolf Hilferding to such a route, and urged Gustav Stresemann to take over the government.

After the resignation of the government Cuno, the work was taken up again in the next few days. The KPD had not been able to transform the social crisis in the beginning of a revolutionary upheaval. Instead, it had come to a solution in the context of the parliamentary system. However, the Cuno strikes have hopes for a revolution in Germany nourished with the Executive Committee of the Comintern. Their result was that the so-called German -October coup attempt should be ventured.