THE MARCH ACTION

The final rising of the radical left during the Weimar period was followed by the sharp decline of communist influence in Germany

- 

Left-wing political parties enjoyed popular support among ordinary workers during the early Weimar Republic period. Much of this support was the result of worsening economic conditions that had blighted the country. As Frank McDonough writes in The Weimar Years: “The Communists had been buoyed up by performing exceptionally well in elections to the Prussian State Parliament on 20 February 1920, in which the VKPD had performed particularly well in central Germany which led party activists to lead a wave of strikes and street clashes with the police.”

Discontent among industrial workers was rife, and parties such as the Communist Party of Germany (KPD) were keen to exploit such anger for their own ends. In central Germany, where much of the country’s chemical industry was based, there were frequent clashes between workers and local police. In Saxony, in the wake of the March uprisings of the previous year, many weapons were still thought to be in the hands of discontented workers.

“THERE WERE FREQUENT CLASHES BETWEEN WORKERS AND LOCAL POLICE”

The ongoing discontent in central Germany was viewed by the KPD as an opportunity to spark another uprising against the government. The KPD attempted to encourage rebellious action by spreading propaganda published in their party newspaper Rote Fahne (