Cuno strikes

The Cuno strikes were nationwide strikes in Germany against the government of Reich chancellor Wilhelm Cuno in August 1923. The wave of strikes demanded and helped bring about the resignation of the Cuno government on 12 August 1923, just nine months after it began. The strikes also buoyed the hopes of the Communist International that a German revolution was imminent.

In January 1923, the Cuno government called for passive resistance of the Belgian and French occupation of the Ruhr region. At the same time, inflation in the Weimar Republic was racing out of control, whether the result of the reparations payments alone or from the costs of the passive resistance, in which local authorities and companies boycotted occupation forces while the government paid the wages of those administrations and compensated the coal and steel companies for their losses. The expenses caused the collapse of the Reichsmark, which had already been inflated. At the beginning of 1923, the mark traded at 21,000 to the U.S. dollar; at the end of 1923, it was nearly 6 trillion (twelve zeroes). For German society, the result was complete disaster, as people rushed out to buy things before their money lost its value and people who had had savings saw them evaporate overnight. Considerable portions of the labor movement were as—or more—opposed to the German government as they were to the French occupying forces. Their motto was "Beat Cuno and Poincaré at the Ruhr and at the Spree!"

A labor dispute in the Berlin printing industry triggered a wildcat strike. Instigated by the Communist Party (KPD), the Reich printing plant was also affected, causing the banknote presses to be stopped and before long, a noticeable lack of paper money. Workers from power stations, construction and the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe joined the strike. The wave of strikes demanded the resignation of the Cuno government. Against the will of KPD party chairwoman Ruth Fischer, Otto Wels, head of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) was able to forestall a general strike.

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