Alfred Braunthal

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Alfred Braunthal (born February 10, 1897 in Vienna , Austria-Hungary ; died February 4, 1980 in Boston , Massachusetts , United States ) was an Austrian-American social democrat , trade unionist and social scientist . He dealt with questions of Marxism as well as with subjects of employment, trade union and wage policy . He was the father of the political scientist Gerard Braunthal .

Family and studies

Braunthal was the fifth of six children to Jewish parents. His brother Julius (1891–1972) and his sister Bertha (1887–1967) later also took on leading positions in the labor movement .

From 1917 to 1920 Braunthal studied philosophy , history and economics in Vienna and Berlin . In 1920 he obtained his doctorate in his hometown. phil. with a thesis on the philosophy of history of Karl Marx .

Engagement in the labor movement

In 1921 he took up a position in the social democratic Leipziger Volkszeitung and wrote on financial issues. In the same year he began teaching at the Heimvolkshochschule in Tinz near Gera . From 1925 to 1928 he headed this educational institution, which is closely related to social democracy. During this time Braunthal wrote a paper on the development tendencies of the world economy . It was used in socialist educational work, as was its publication from 1930, which was devoted to the economy of the present day and was conceived as a socialist textbook on economics .

Braunthal worked from 1929 at the Research Center for Economic Policy . This institution was supported by the three pillars of the social democratic labor movement in Germany - the SPD , the General German Trade Union Federation and consumer cooperatives .

After the National Socialist seizure of power Braunthal fled to Belgium . There he lived and worked - among other things as an assistant to the socialist theorist Hendrik de Man - until 1936, interrupted in 1935 by a study visit to the London School of Economics . In March 1936 he finally emigrated to the United States , where he first settled in New York City .

Braunthal was also active in the trade union movement in the New World . He served the United Hatters, Cap and Millinery Workers International Union , which the conservative union American Federation of Labor was one, as research director. In 1944 Braunthal became a research officer for the American Labor Conference on International Affairs . In addition, he participated in the German émigré organization German Labor Delegation . Braunthal's involvement in the American trade union movement lasted until 1949. After that, the newly founded International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) called him to Brussels , where he worked from 1949 to 1968 as head of the economic and social department. Towards the end of his professional career he was assistant to the ICFTU secretary there.

Development of his writings

Before emigrating, Braunthal formulated his considerations from a Marxist position. However , he rejected a dogmatic application of such theories. For example, he criticized the adherence to the impoverishment theory . It contradicts reality, but is not given up, but only reinterpreted over and over again. In this context he also criticized Rosa Luxemburg's theory of imperialism, claiming that it was only an artificial interpretation of individual Marxian thoughts.

After the emigration, the content and the thrust of his writings changed. Braunthal devoted himself more to the practical tasks and problems of trade union policy. Concrete issues of wage and employment policy came into focus. Braunthal oriented itself less towards Marx and more towards John Maynard Keynes . His economic policy demands became more moderate overall. The wage was now for Braunthal no longer just a demand, but also a cost factor. Braunthal also advised a moderate collective bargaining policy for phases of full employment , which strengthens the labor market position of employees and enables above-average wage increases .

Web links

literature

Remarks

  1. ↑ Werner Simsohn , Jews in Gera: a historical overview, Volume 1 , Hartung-Gorre Verlag, Konstanz 1997, ISBN 3-89649-112-1 , page 218
  2. ↑ See the introductory remarks in the posthumous archives of this hat makers' union , which are kept at New York University .
  3. ↑ See on this organization the Guide to the American Labor Conference on International Affairs Records 1939-1950 of New York University.
  4. ↑ Rebecca Anne Gumbrell-McCormick: The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions: Structure, Ideology and Capacity to Act (dissertation at the Department of Sociology of the University of Warwick , June 2001, p 225 (paper pagination ) and S. 236 (electronic Pagination)).
personal data
SURNAME Braunthal, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian social democrat, trade unionist and social scientist
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1897
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH 4th February 1980
Place of death Boston , Massachusetts , United States