Workers library

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The workers' library was initially an attempt by the socialist and ecclesiastical-social movements after 1840 to alleviate the mass misery in the industrial centers through increased educational offerings, in accordance with their image of man shaped by the Enlightenment, and at the same time to curb the influence of the fiction of commercial lending libraries, which was perceived as harmful . That is why, in addition to technical and political writings, upscale entertainment literature was also included. An extraordinarily successful workers' library system developed from the experiment.

The workers' libraries were destroyed during the Nazi era and were not revived after the Second World War .

Workers' libraries before 1878

The Gewerbliche Bildungsverein founded in Leipzig in February 1861 opened a library on April 11, 1861, which initially consisted of 350 bound and 100 paperback books and 13 magazines. August Bebel was elected chairman of the association's library commission in 1862. In 1865, the library had 904 books that had been checked out 1,391 times. The Leipzig Workers' Education Association formulated the goal of extracting from the existing knowledge that which would benefit the working class's own revolutionary struggle for emancipation . As his influence grew, he also expanded his library. Its inventory grew steadily and in 1876 counted 2,040 books, which were loaned 2,017 times to 185 readers. After the " Bismarck " socialist law came into force in 1878, the association was also disbanded and the library was confiscated when the Social Democratic Workers' Party was banned .

Individual industrial unions were also responsible for workers' libraries:

  • The oldest trade union library in Leipzig belonged to the book printers association . In 1864 it owned 940 volumes, in 1906 over 38,000, 1,600 of which were non-fiction volumes .
  • In 1884 the bookbinding association also opened its library.
  • In 1906 the metal workers' association had z. B. 1,350 volumes, 100 of which are non-fiction.
  • In addition to the three large union libraries mentioned above, a further 21 unions with 34,400 members had their own libraries.

Library of the training and workers' association

The Socialist Law could not completely shut down the labor movement. On February 17, 1879, the training association for workers was founded. His efforts to acquire the confiscated library holdings from the Workers' Education Association failed, so he had to build up new holdings. With donations from the workers, a new library was established, which in 1881 had 574 volumes, and after the repeal of the Socialist Law in 1890, over 1,800 volumes. The Leipzig library was located in "Deutrichs Hof" (Reichsstrasse 8) from 1894 to 1907.

Workers 'libraries under the Workers' Education Institute

After the Mannheim SPD party convention, the General Workers' Education Institute (ABI) was founded in 1907 . It centralized libraries of the SPD and almost all industrial unions, the shoemakers union combined their holdings with the central library in 1909. The three large libraries of the book printer, bookbinder and metalworkers 'association remained independent until 1933, but worked with the other workers' libraries under the guidance of the ABI together.

In addition to the organizational centralization of the library system, the ABI also provided specialist training for the librarians of the local association libraries , the three trade union libraries and the newly created central library. From 1907 to 1919 Gustav Hennig was the head of the ABI and above all the committee for the library system. He wrote theoretical writings on the workers' librarianship and from 1909 to 1921 published the international journal "Der Bibliothekar".

The central library was opened on April 21, 1907 in the Leipziger Volkshaus. Politically and unionized workers could borrow the 4,000 volumes free of charge; in 1933 there were around 10,000 volumes. In Leipzig alone there were more than 60,000 books and magazines in the 59 library locations in 1913, which were borrowed 215,000 times that year. After this peak, further development was hampered by the outbreak of the First World War (1914–1918).

The KPD , founded in 1918 , later had a few workers' libraries. In Leipzig she ran the UNS-Produktivgenossenschaft with a publishing house , a bookstore and a small library, the UNS-Bucherstube . But even in those years, the workers' library system throughout Germany was politically and organizationally directed exclusively by the SPD and the trade unions.

A workers' library was built early on in the Bümplitz district of Bern . To this end, the small library of the Social Democratic membership in Bümplitz was merged with the book holdings of the Grütliverein in 1916 . The library was open for a few hours a week.

The end of the workers' libraries in 1933

After the seizure of power in 1933 went Nazis alongside the personal persecution of political opponents rigorous action against Communist, Socialist and trade union organizations and institutions. Their libraries were also initially confiscated. Valuable stocks were later stolen, "harmless" writings were auctioned off in the eyes of the Nazis, and "dangerous" literature was burned. All of the 2,500 SPD and trade union libraries in 1933 with around 1.5 million volumes were destroyed.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Horst Gebauer: Workers' libraries in Leipzig in "Leihbibliotheken Arbeiterbibliotheken Buchhallen" of the Leipzig City and District Library 1989, ISSN 0863-2049, ISBN 3-86061-001-5 , pp. 31-44.
  2. ↑ https://www.bezg.ch/img/publikation/16_1/anliker.pdf

literature

  • Reinhard Buchwald: Socialist educational work in "Die Tat", Jena 6 (1914/1915) 1.
  • Gustav Hennig: The libraries in "Leipziger Volkszeitung", Leipzig 17 (1910-01-22) 17
  • Othmar Feyl: On the role of the socialist workers' movement in Germany in library history in "Library work today: essays and contributions to discussions, Part II", Verlag für Buch- und Bibliothekswesen Leipzig 1960, pp. 42–63.
  • Horst Gebauer: Workers' libraries and trade unions in "Der Bibliothekar", Leipzig 18 (1964) 11

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