ABSTRACT
Nowhere in the Ruhr was the strength of the SPD in the early days of the revolution so unchallenged as in the former Reichstag constituencies of Bochum-Gelsenkirchen and Dortmund. 1 Moderate socialists had been in fall control of the party and the unions before the war 2 and their position was strengthened further during the war when the opposition was ousted from the party. 3 By October 1918 the co-operation of the Majority Socialists with imperial Germany at last bore fruit. The Bergarbeiter-Zeitung, the Volksblatt in Bochum and the WAVZ were jubilant about the establishment of the government of Prince Max of Baden. The WAVZ selected an article by the leading party member Cunow to illustrate the success. The revolution has arrived’, stated the article,
not a bloody revolution [Keine Revolution mit wallenden Flammenhaar]... but a peaceful revolution, which nevertheless might perhaps be one day as important for the fortunes of the German working class as the Russian revolution is for that of the Russian workers. 4
