Miners strike of 1889

Call to the meeting

Decision of May 24, 1889

The miners' strike of 1889 was the first organized mass strike in the Ruhr mining industry .

background

The workers wanted to share in the profitability of the entrepreneurs. It was about a wage increase of 15%, against over-shifting, for eight hours of work including the entrances and exits, better weather management, a covered (covered) walk from the wash house to the shaft and delivery of the wood into the pit.

course

The strike had started in Bochum (April 24th, Zeche President ) and Essen (May 1st). Numerous other employees spontaneously joined this. At times around 90% of the 104,000 miners at the time took part in the area. A central strike committee was formed.

As the strike continued, the fronts hardened; To protect their facilities and miners willing to work ("Streickbrecher"), many pits requested police or even military protection, the tense atmosphere in some places resulted in violence and the use of weapons (for example at the Schleswig colliery in Dortmund-Neuasseln).

The fact that the strike committee sent a deputation to Wilhelm II shows that the old government tradition in mining was not forgotten . On May 14, 1889, the "Imperial Delegates" Friedrich Bunte , Ludwig Schröder , and August Siegel were received in Berlin by the Kaiser, whom they wanted to call as the highest mountain lord. Although the latter criticized the strike, he admitted to having the complaints officially examined. The audience with the emperor brought the strikers a lot of attention, also and especially in the middle classes of the empire.

With the mediation of Friedrich Hammacher , member of the Reichstag and honorary member of the Mining Association , the Berlin Protocol was drawn up the following day , in which a working time of eight hours was set for the miners, including half an hour driving in and out. In addition, overlaying should only be carried out after prior agreement between the mine management and workers' committees. On May 16, Kaiser Wilhelm expressed his satisfaction with a delegation from the mining association about the outcome of the negotiations.

In order for the association to signal concession for the mining interests, the strike initially subsided. However, it was resumed on May 21, as the mining companies ignored the Berlin agreement and even blacklisted the names of striking miners to deny them employment in the mining industry. At the beginning of June 1889 the strike was finally broken off without any lasting result for the miners being achieved.

Results

The strike triggered the founding of the Old Association , the starting point for the breakthrough of the trade union movement in the Ruhr mining industry . The memory of the strike and the strength of standing together was kept alive in the Ruhr area through speeches on May 1st and in songs.

Indirectly, the labor dispute can also be seen as a cause for the enactment of the Workers Protection Act of June 1, 1891 (23rd amendment to the Reich Trade Order). In addition to regulations for the protection of women, restricted night work and child protection, it also contained provisions for a 24-hour Sunday rest for all workers in factories, workshops, mines, construction sites and shipyards.

Cinematic representation

In the first season of the 1983 television series Rote Erde , which tells the story of the Ruhr mining industry, two episodes take place during the strike. The circumstances before and during it are presented in detail here. One of the protagonists (played by Dominic Raacke ) belongs to the delegation that is received by Wilhelm II in Berlin. While the events shown actually played out like this or similar, the characters in the series are fictional.

literature

Friedrich Engels : The miners' strike on the Ruhr in 1889 . In: Marx-Engels works . tape 21 , p. 376–378 ( mlwerke.de [accessed on January 17, 2013] Original title: The Ruhr Miners' Strike of 1889 in: The Labor Leader, Vol. I, No. 5. ).
Wolfgang Köllmann (Ed.): The miners' strike of 1889 and the founding of the "Old Association" in selected documents of the time . Berg, Bochum 1969 (with the collaboration of Albin Gladen; published on behalf of the Mining and Energy Industrial Union).
Albin Gladen: The miners' strikes in the Ruhr area in 1889, 1905 and 1912 . In: Jürgen Reulecke (ed.): Workers' movement on the Rhine and Ruhr . Contributions to the history of the labor movement in Rhineland-Westphalia. Hammer, Wuppertal 1974, ISBN 3-87294-054-6 , p. 111-148 .
Josef Büscher: They recognized their power . A piece from the miners' strike in 1889. Ed .: Arbeitskreis Progressive Kunst Oberhausen. Asso, Oberhausen 1976, ISBN 3-921541-12-3 (text book, with lyrics by Heinrich Kämpchen).
Up to the steps of the throne . Petitions and complaints from miners. In: Klaus Tenfelde , Helmuth Trischler (Hrsg.): Mining and mining . CH Beck'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung (Oscar Beck), Munich 1986, p. 275-280, 371-376 .
H. Peter Rose: Common interests and solidarity. Gelsenkirchen Social Democrats and the miners' strike of 1889 . In: Heinz-Jürgen Priamus, Stefan Goch (ed.): Social and democratic . a reader on the history of the social democratic movement in Gelsenkirchen. tape 1 . vd Linnepe, Hagen 1988, ISBN 3-924984-20-4 , p. 48–63 (collection of articles, edited by the Association for the History of the Workers' Movement in Gelsenkirchen).
Karl Ditt , Dagmar Kift (ed.): 1889 - Miners' strike and the Wilhelmine Society . vd Linnepe, Hagen 1989, ISBN 3-921297-95-8 (Arbeiterreferat, edited on behalf of the Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe. Westphalian Industrial Museum).
Stefan Goch (arr.): The great miners' strike of 1889 . Analyzes and documents on the events in Gelsenkirchen. In: Association for the History of the Labor Movement in Gelsenkirchen e. V. (Ed.): Contributions to the history of the Gelsenkirchen labor movement . tape 3 . Gelsenkirchen 1989.

Web links

Wikisource: Invitation to the meeting on May 24, 1889 in the Schützenhofe in Bochum - sources and full texts

Wikisource: Decision of the miners' delegates from Rhineland and Westphalia on May 24th in the Schützenhofe in Bochum - sources and full texts

Dieter Schuster: Course of the strike in 1889. In: Chronology of the German trade union movement from 1794 to 1918. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung , accessed on January 17, 2013 .

Individual evidence

↑ On the government's processing of the strike, cf. Collection of sources on the history of German social policy from 1867 to 1914 . Section II: From the Imperial Social Message to the February Decrees of Wilhelm II (1881–1890) , Volume 1, Basic Issues of Social Policy. The discussion of the workers question on the government side and in public , edited by Wolfgang Ayaß , Florian Tennstedt and Heidi Winter, Darmstadt 2003, No. 92.
^ A song about the miners' strike in 1889 . In: Martin Geck , Antoinette Hellkuhl: Bergmannslieder (= music in the Ruhr area , vol. 3). Klett, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-12-177520-0 , pp. 20-21.

[1] On the government's processing of the strike, cf. Collection of sources on the history of German social policy from 1867 to 1914 . Section II: From the Imperial Social Message to the February Decrees of Wilhelm II (1881–1890) , Volume 1, Basic Issues of Social Policy. The discussion of the workers question on the government side and in public , edited by Wolfgang Ayaß , Florian Tennstedt and Heidi Winter, Darmstadt 2003, No. 92.

[2] A song about the miners' strike in 1889 . In: Martin Geck , Antoinette Hellkuhl: Bergmannslieder (= music in the Ruhr area , vol. 3). Klett, Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3-12-177520-0 , pp. 20-21.