Alfred Jahn (publisher)

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Robert Alfred Jahn , called "Der Rote Jahn", (born January 14, 1886 in Leipzig ; † October 25, 1976 ) was a German publisher .

Life

Robert Alfred Jahn was born the second of four children in the family of Emilie Amalie Jahn, née Janche, and Karl August Jahn. Robert Alfred Jahn came from a humble background. His father was a manual worker and fireman in Leipzig. As an autodidact, as he called himself, he attended elementary school in Leipzig. He learned the trade of bookseller at Verlag L. Straakmann and made his labor available for the bookshop assistant section. Alfred Jahn became unemployed, earned his living as a swimming master in the summer and got a job as a bookseller in the “ Leipziger Volkszeitung ”.

Early years

The First World War witnessed Alfred Jahn to the Eastern Front . In his company there were clashes with reactionary officers who were defeated by the class-conscious workers in soldier's uniform - there was fraternization with Russian soldiers. His comrades elected Alfred Jahn to the soldiers' council .

The publisher Alfred Jahn

After the unsuccessful revolution in 1918, Alfred Jahn devoted himself entirely to the publishing profession. In 1910 Alfred Jahn founded the German Workers 'Stage Publishing House Alfred Jahn in Leipzig, which until 1933 was the most important publisher for socialist workers' dramas and singing plays in Germany. In 1919 he got a friend and comrade at his side, Fritz Jubisch , who as editor-in-chief and author in the publishing house acted as a good spirit. Alfred Jahn also belonged to an association of left-wing publishers in Leipzig and Berlin.

In addition to his publishing business, Alfred Jahn also ran a mail order business for festive items that he ran under the name "Jahn, Streller & Co. and Heinrich Lintzmeyer" in Leipzig at 30 Elisenstrasse. He financed the socialist speaking choir from the sale of carnival hats, cardboard noses and especially badges with leaders of the labor movement such as Vladimir Ilyich Lenin , Karl Liebknecht , and Rosa Luxemburg . These were expelled in the annual LLL celebrations in January. Furthermore, badges with pictures of August Bebel and Ferdinand Lassalle were sold, party badges of the USPD and festival postcards that workers could put on their hats and thus received free entry to various celebrations. This income supported lay play troops with plays and writers with advances for the publication of their works.

Alfred Jahn also added holdings or parts of holdings from insolvent left-wing publishers to his program. There are the publications from the publishing house “Roter Türmer, Leipzig”, the illustrated by Max Schwimmer poetry book by the author Walter Steinbach “Rote Straßen”; from the publishing house "Rote Wölfe"; Bruno Vogel's anti-war book “Long live the war!”; from the “Arbeiterjugend-Verlag, Berlin” the series “Hamburger Liederblatt”; from the "Freidenker Verlag, Leipzig" "Celebrations and celebrations of free-thinking people" by Theo Meyer; from the “Verlag Proletarian Tribüne” the play “Wachtmeister Pieper” by Ernst Preczang .

Alfred Jahn joined the SPD in 1907 and supported its cultural policy in the sense of the Volksbühne movement according to which the stage was primarily seen as an educational institution and not as a militant, revolutionary agitation forum. Alfred Jahn also published pieces by Walter Troppenz "Der Holzwurm" and included the first political reviews in his publishing program. A total of 365 published works and pieces of music came together in his time. Other authors, some of whom have been published under pseudonyms, are A. Auerbach , Max Barthel , K. Dühring , M. Eulenberg , Lobo Frank, K. Frei , Hans from Saxony , B. Jacoby , A. Kern , W. Kluge , H. Lewandowsky , A. Mosegaard , PG Raspe , Erich et al. Felix Renker , O. Salter , J. Schönherr , H. Schönrock , P. Wille , B. Schönlank .

Alfred Jahn also kept a private diary in which he documented the addresses and pseudonyms of his authors. He used abbreviations for characterization:

I = idea bought

IGW = idea bought and is a comrade

W = factory bought

WWG = work bought and is a comrade

The names EH Bethge alias Lobo Frank, Emil Hallup , Hans Otto Henel and Alfred Ernst alias Alfred Kern were marked with WWG . The following were also mentioned in his diary: Alfred Döblin , Erich Mühsam , Friedrich Wolf , Ernst Toller and Georg W. Pijet.

Georg W. Pijet , a member of the KPD since 1925 , was a functionary of the Workers' Theater Association , which Alfred Jahn co-founded, and took part in the agitation movement there. From 1928 to 1931 Pijet headed the playgroup of the Proletarian Radio Association. Pijet, who later also made remarkable achievements as a radio play and youth book author, made his debut with Alfred Jahn. In a letter to Wolfgang U. Schütte of March 20, 1972, Pijet recalls: “In 1926 I became a member of the Berlin-Tiergarten district group of the German Workers' Theater Association. The membership consisted of blue-collar workers, white-collar workers and small business owners. The leader of this group was the worker functionary Fritz Thöns . ... Without Jahn's support I would have had no basis to ever publish my pieces. …. "

Alfred Jahn published the following pieces by Georg W. Pijet:

  • "Kreuzer unter Rot" sailor tragedy, 1927
  • "The Pals" miners drama, 1927
  • "D-Zug CK 3", revolutionary drama, 1928
  • "The Outrage", Social Drama, 1928
  • "The Mandate", German Citizens' Comedy, 1928
  • “Battle in the Tower”, revolutionary drama, 1928
  • “Die Zermalmten”, tragedy, 1929
  • "Treason in the Night", play, 1931

From 1924 to 1928 Alfred Jahn was chairman of the German Workers' Theater Association (DAThB). In 1928, Alfred Jahn's chairmanship was replaced by a decision made by Arthur Pieck's comrades . The "DAThB" sponsored amateur workers' stages on which workers performed the pieces that Alfred Jahn published for workers. Alfred Jahnn realized that the fascists would "run away" him. After taking power , Alfred Jahn realized that there was only one goal for him: to save his holdings! In January 1933, Alfred Jahn closed his publishing house and laconically informed the German Booksellers Association that his publishing house had ceased operations at the end of 1932 and that stocks were no longer available. In reality, however, Alfred Jahn had stored a mountain from his publishing house production. With the help of colleagues and book printers, Alfred Jahn brought his holdings to safety. The production was divided between different book printers in Leipzig. He built an unrecognizable intermediate deck into his camp and successfully hid a large part of his writings there from the Nazis. These camps remained undiscovered in several house searches by the SA . Unfortunately, two of the camps were destroyed by Allied bombing.

Alfred Jahn later said: “My ruse made it possible to save all of my book holdings and a lot of historical material, such as badges and postcards, from the Nazi era. As a former left-wing publisher, Germany's darkest times were difficult to endure: house searches, confiscation of various materials, interrogations at the police station. The SA, which I was still suspicious of, searched my rooms several times. I am not saying too much when I claim that it was a matter of life and death, because if the Nazis had only found part of my material, then my fate would inevitably have been sealed. "

A total of 146 boxes with Alfred Jahn's material were hidden in Leipzig. In 1940 Alfred Jahn had to destroy part of his writings in the camp. The danger of discovery had become too great. In 1945, after the Soviet troops marched into Leipzig, Alfred Jahn was able to present the Soviets with valuable gifts: Lenin badges. The Museum for the History of the City of Leipzig took over festive articles, amateur plays and music from Alfred Jahn in its holdings. The Academy of Arts of the GDR section “Workers' Song” took over music from Alfred Jahn. There was also a sound recording from 1974, “My way as a left-wing publisher”, which Alfred Jahn had made in Berlin. Georg W. Pijet wrote about Alfred Jahn: He understood how to become a ... "much sought-after and necessary campaigner on the side of the working class" ...

Private

Alfred Jahn performed his military service in Dresden (2nd Grenadier Regiment 101) between October 11, 1906 and February 23, 1907. Until 1907 he lived with his parents. On March 7, 1908, he married Minna Ida Dietrich, saleswoman at the Liebald bakery in Leipzig (* February 8, 1888 in Plagwitz, then near Leipzig; † May 4, 1964 there). Most recently he lived in Leipzig at Bernhard-Göring-Strasse 30 in the rear building. Robert Alfred Jahn died as a widower on October 25, 1976 at the age of 90. He worked until the end of his life, provided his health permitted it.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Leipzig City Archives - birth register, registry office Leipzig 1 - 263/1886
  2. ↑ a b Leipzig City Archives - (PoA No. 169, Bl. 68b, 124b)
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l Wolfgang U. Schütte "Der rote Jahn"
  4. ↑ a b c d e f https://www.zvab.com/ARBEITER-BÜHNEN-VERLAG-ALFRED-JAHN-SAMMLUNG-181-Rollenbücher/1256989868/bd
  5. ↑ Leipzig City Archives - death register, registry office Leipzig-Süd No. 1973/1976
personal data
SURNAME Jahn, Alfred
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jahn, Robert Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher
DATE OF BIRTH January 14, 1886
PLACE OF BIRTH Leipzig
DATE OF DEATH October 25, 1976