Social and Economic Background

At the time of the collapse of the Second German Empire the country to the north of the river Ruhr had passed through half a century of rapid industrial expansion and was a leading example of Germany’s industrial development. ¹ Following a tradition going back to the middle ages a small amount of coal-mining was undertaken here by the middle of the nineteenth century. The miners were normally Kötters, which meant that they also worked small farm holdings. The industry then employed about 12,700 men. ² The old Hanseatic trading cities of Duisburg, Essen, Bochum and Dortmund around the Hellweg ³ accounted for the region’s few urban settlements but up to the mid 1850s the Ruhr, like most of Germany, was predominantly rural. At this stage a handful of entrepreneurs encouraged industrial development by financing coal-mining. ⁴ The rise in coal output in turn encouraged the establishment of iron- and steel-works. Liberal trade laws enacted in Prussia from 1850 onward, the introduction of coke for smelting and the improvement of the railways fostered the process of rapid industrialisation. The invention of the Thomas process of steel-making in the 1870s was a milestone in the history of the region. It led to a vast increase in steel production and consequently an increase in the demand for coal. Coal-fields now began to spread to the north, first into the valley of the river Emscher, until they reached the river Lippe, where mining development came to a halt.