General workers' congress

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The General Workers 'Congress (sometimes referred to as the Workers' Parliament) took place between August 23 and September 3, 1848 against the background of the March Revolution in Berlin . It was the founding congress of the General German Workers' Brotherhood . It is to be distinguished from a congress with a similar name.

prehistory

In Berlin, a central workers' committee had been formed around Stephan Born . This had drawn up a number of programmatic demands. Even under the impression of strike movements among the book printers, new forms of a Germany-wide workers' organization were sought. In the journal Das Volk published by Born at the end of June 1848 an appeal to the "working classes of Germany" to elect delegates to a "workers' parliament" appeared. The appeal said: "Let us unite who have hitherto been weak and unconsidered in isolation and fragmentation. We count millions and form the great majority of the nation. Only united in the same endeavors will we be strong and attain that power, which is due to us as the producers of all wealth. Our voice is a heavy one and we do not fail to put it on the scale of social democracy. " The term social democracy or social democracy subsequently became a commonly used term of the movement under which the various demands could be subsumed. The aim was to discuss and decide on a "social people's chart of Germany".

Course and resolutions

40 delegates from the workers 'committees in Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig and from 32 workers' associations were represented . These included the united cigar workers from Hamburg, the typesetters, mechanical engineers, chair workers, calico printers and form engravers from Berlin, the yarn weavers and silk weavers from Köpenick , the calico printers and form engravers from Eilenburg . A representative of the journeyman's congress, which was held in Frankfurt at the same time, was also present. Wilhelm Weitling spoke at the opening . President of the assembly was the Democrat from Breslau Professor Christian Gottfried Daniel Nees von Esenbeck . Born acted as the second president.

At the beginning, the Congress passed a petition to the Frankfurt National Assembly . With this, one distanced oneself indirectly from the positions of Winkelblech , which were perceived as restorative and represented at the craftsmen's congress in Frankfurt.

Then the delegates debated the form of a future organization called the workers' fraternity. Among other things, the structure in local and district committees as well as a three-member central committee based in Leipzig was established. The local professional associations should be brought together in the local committees. This was an origin of the localist tradition in the German labor movement . At the district level, there should be separate women's committees to represent the interests of women workers. In addition to Born, Schweninger and Kick were elected to the Central Committee.

Social demands were grouped under the heading of self-help and political demands under the heading of state aid. Among other things, state unemployment benefits were required. Dismissals should only be allowed after a certain period of notice. The wages for equal work should be equal in one place. The amount should come about through an agreement between employer and employee as a collective agreement . The lowest wage should be sufficient for a living. Part of the wages should go to the local workers' associations, which should use it to set up a bank, productive associations with support from the state, and travel, health and disability insurance funds for self-help. Equal rights and duties were proclaimed for female workers.

The state should intervene regulating in various areas. A ten-hour working day or a ban on child labor were demanded. The general political demands called for the general, equal right to vote for the Reichstag, Landtag and municipality, the abolition of indirect taxes , the introduction of a progressive income tax and tax exemption for the less well-off. There was also a debate about popular education. A uniform free elementary school without religious instruction for all children as well as the granting of teaching materials and clothes to poor children was demanded.

The fraternization was designated as the organ of the workers' brotherhood . This was edited by Stephan Born. The results of the congress were published in a brochure.

meaning

Klaus Tenfelde judged that the congress was not one of the largest of the revolutionary times, but it had resonance and far-reaching consequences. In many ways, he pointed to the next hundred years of the labor movement. One of the distinguishing features was the distancing from the demands of liberalism . This separation was reinforced at the Berlin Democratic Congress .

literature

  • Klaus Tenfelde: The emergence of the German trade union movement. From the pre-March to the socialist law. In the S. u. a. : History of the German trade unions from the beginning to 1945. Cologne, 1987 p. 57f.

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