The economic situation of the population was rapidly deteriorating and by autumn 1923 hyperinflation was at its peak, which brought gains in popularity to the Communist Party (KPD).

[2] A demonstration of several thousand unemployed stormed the "no-protest zone" (Bannmeile) around the Hamburg city hall, an action which, during this period, risked death at the hands of the police and right-wing paramilitaries.

Leon Trotsky and other influential members of the Soviet Politburo and the Comintern advanced the idea, but Heinrich Brandler, head of the KPD, felt it was premature.

The exact motives of the small Hamburg group led by Hugo Urbahns and Hans Kippenberger, who planned the uprising, remain unknown.

According to Russian historian Vadim Rogovin, the leadership of the German Communist party had requested that Moscow send Leon Trotsky to Germany to direct the 1923 insurrection.

However, this proposal was rejected by the Politburo which was controlled by Stalin, Zinoviev and Kamenev who decided to send a commission of lower-ranking Russian Communist party members.

[3] Late on 22 October 1923, the military leader of the KP Wasserkante, one of the most militant sections of the Hamburg KPD, received orders via the regional party leadership to begin the rebellion.

[7] Only in Barmbek, where the KPD had received some 20% of the vote in the previous election, the insurgents were supported by residents, who helped them build barricades and brought them food.

As a result, in the 1924 Hamburg Reichstag election, the German National People's Party saw their share of the votes rise from 12% to about 20%, though it quickly dropped back to around 12% in 1928.