George Grosz

In the autumn of 1923, the cohesion of the crisis-ridden German Reich was in serious jeopardy. The occupation of the Ruhr by French and Belgian troops gave considerable impetus to Rhineland separatism, which had already failed once before with the establishment of an independent republic during the revolution of 1918/19. In the so-called Los-von-Berlin movement, the forced incorporation of the Catholic Rhineland into Prussia at the Congress of Vienna in 1815 was still met with a rejection that turned into radicalism over a hundred years later. The desire for a separate state was intensified by economic and social hardship in the Weimar Republic as a result of inflation, which was to be overcome by breaking away from the Prussian-dominated German Reich. Militant separatists therefore proclaimed the independent “Rhenish Republic” in Aachen on October 21, 1923. In the following days, similar events took place in Koblenz, Bonn, Wiesbaden and Mainz with the occupation of public buildings. In mid-November 1923, the separatist movement was successful in the Palatinate, where the autonomous “Palatinate Republic” was proclaimed, following the example of the Rhenish like-minded people.

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The several thousand armed putschists received material and propaganda support from the French authorities. By establishing a Rhineland-Palatinate “buffer state” under French rule, France aimed to control West German economic resources and weaken Germany in the long term. Due to the demilitarization of the Rhineland stipulated in the Treaty of Versailles, the Reich government was forbidden to intervene militarily against the putschists. However, they were met with rejection and determined resistance from the majority of the Rhineland and Palatinate population. In the “Battle of Ägidienberg” on November 16, 1923, national vigilantes won the decisive victory over the Rhenish separatists. While the “Rhenish Republic” collapsed as a result, the Palatinate Republic was able to hold on until February 1924.