The Hamburg Uprising of 1923

This awardwinning film documents the only uprising of communists ever to occur in Germany During the postWorld War I period Germany suffered from hyperinflation and the nearstarvation of many working people Working conditions were extremely bad and there was a very vocal socialist movement Despite fears that communists of one sort or another might take over the country there was only one communistled uprising in 1923 and it was brutally suppressed The uprising was a useful stick for governmental forces seeking greater social control however and it strengthened the tendency of the already weak Weimar regime to govern by emergency decree An additional consequence was that the use of private militias was legitimized These tendencies laid the groundwork for Hitlers takeover of power not too many years later This documentary uses rare and neverbefore seen film footage from the strike and from that era