New-York tribune., 1921-03-25
Cermany's Biggest Indus
tries Menaced by Upris-
ing; Thousands Idle as
Rioters Seize Plants
Numerous Strikes
Still in Progress
Labor Unions Denounce
+ 1nsurrection as Trick:
Many Killed in Rioss
By wireless to The Tribune


BERLIN, March "a (4:1O p. n.y..
Terror still grips Eisleben and
some of the other industrial cities
Of the Elbe Valley in central Ger
many, where Communist disorders
broke out yesterday. In Hamburg
and other affected areas the police
appear to have gained control again.
although strikes are still in progress,
and in several places there was
severe street fighting lasting far into
the night. Thirty persons were
killed and fifty severely wounded
yesterday in Hamburg alone, and in
other cities casualties resulted when
police clashed with groups of
strikers who were seeking to foment
trouble.
1t is believed to have been def
nitely established that the Russian
Soviet government precipitated the
disorders with demand that all
Communists in Germany join at this
time in demonstrations against the
capitalist" government. The labor
unions of the country have issued
an appeal to the workers, denounc-
ing the Reds for beginning an in
dustrial strike without cause and
charging that they are attempting
a political overthrow.
The appeal says that the Strikes are
not in support of union aims, but were
called for the sole purpose of bring
ing catastrophe on Germany at a time
when the country's fate is in the
balance.
Strike Movement Continues
Strikes and movements of unrest
continue in the affected areas. Toward
evening last night the police in Ham
burg began to get the situation there
in hand and the Reds lost considerable
ground after the street battles. In
several cities in central Germany, how
ever, the Communists still dominate
the situation.
The center of the strike region is west
W ei'S A1tOS 1SAvClt 1Ou MtlSS SOuL0WGSs
Of Berlin. In Eisleben, twenty-three
miles west of Halle, the Reds are In
complete control. They drove the
police off the streets last night. threw
hand grenades into the police station
and Town Hall, wrecking them, and
then looted the chief buildings of the
city. The Communists ended the
nights orgy by stopping railway ex-
press train with hail of missiles and
looting it.
Mansfield, which lies Two miles north
west of Eisleben, is without police pro
lection. Strikers there opened the city
prison and liberated all the criminals.
Several persons have been killed and
others wounded in fighting at Mansfield
and Eisleben
A Vorwarts dispatch from Naumburg
reports that Communist workmen at
the great nitrogen plant at Lauena.
southwest of Merseberg, which employs
$4,000 men, armed themselves with
rifles and hand grenades, took posses
sion of the factory and stopped all
work there. The dispatch adds that at
tacks on the jails at Naumburg and in
Halle are feared.
Most of the newspapers assert that
all work in the factories at Halle is
continuing, but,the Red Flag, organ Of
the Communists, prints dispatch from
Halle saying that a meeting of $4,000
workmen there yesterday afternoon
voted unanimously to join the strike
movement.
Reds and Unemployed Unite
The trouble in the Hamburg area be-
gan when an army of unemployed
forced its way in.o the Bland & Voss
shipyards across the river from the
city. The Communist workers in the
q~rtc IL k.,<,
idlers and compelled the yards to shut
down. When the workers who didn't
want to strike were leaving the yards
fight developed in which eight persons
were killed. Toward evening the police
surrounded the yards. The 1900 Com
munists who had taken possession,
pulled down their red flags and spent
the night at the yards The police es-
tsblished d blockade around them. pre-
venting their obtaining food supplies
or reinforceTnents, and the whole Red
force was finally driven out.
In fighting at The Vulcan shipyard.
tour We're killed End many wounded.
Martial law was established BY thc
municipal authorities. Fighting con-
tlnued, however, in different parts al
the city. Fifteen civilians and two
Loiacemen were shot dead in these en-
counters. ~ K
The connection of the Moscow rov-
eminent with the disorders and strikes
was believed to have been established
py the arrest of several Communists
Mho confessed their part in the plot
The persistent sympathetic campaign of
agitation carried on by the Red Flag, the
prociamations published by Communist
newspapers in different cities cali
Ing on the workers to rise against the
present government. and Red documents
that have fallen into the hands Of the
bourgeois press all lend color to the
belief that the disorders were planned
IN Moscow and carried cut through 4
central directing power in Berlin. The
Rsa Flag says this morning: "The
white, terror has begun. The blood
hounds of counter revolution are ram.
pant in central Germany
Ine Communists who are now being
held. were arrested in connection with
an attempt to blow up the Victory mon
umens' Several members Of the gang