Brotherhood of Vagabonds

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The Brotherhood of Vagabonds was founded by Gregor Gog in 1927 and was an international movement of the homeless and vagabonds . The brotherhood was close to the anarchist worldview and had connections to the Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD). The movement was crushed by the NSDAP in 1933 .

history

prehistory

In the mid-1920s there were around 70,000 homeless people in Germany; by 1933 the number had risen to around 450,000 at the time of the global economic crisis . The unemployed, known as “tramps”, were largely despised, and not just by the bourgeoisie. Already Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote about the "fifth state" in the Communist Manifesto (1848): "The lumpenproletariat, that passively rotting of the lowest layers of the old society is, in places inside by a proletarian revolution in the movement, its conditions of life afterwards it will be more willing to allow oneself to be bought for reactionary machinations. "

The former sailor and gardener Gregor Gog (1891–1945) came under the influence of the vagabond poet Gusto Gräser in 1919, together with his friends Theodor Plievier and Karl Raichle , in the commune on Grüner Weg near Bad Urach . As a result, Gog also became a vagabond for a time. He processed his experiences in his “diary sheets” and in a “philosophy of the country road”.

Foundation of the Brotherhood and the Vagabond Congress

In 1927 Gog founded the Brotherhood of Vagabonds in Stuttgart , whose patron saint was Till Eulenspiegel . At Pentecost 1929 he called for the first international vagabond congress on the Stuttgart Killesberg, which was attended by around 600 participants despite massive police bans. Among the speakers were Alfons Paquet , Willi Hammelrath , Gusto Gräser and Theodor Lessing . Erich Mühsam , Maxim Gorki , Knut Hamsun and Lewis Sinclair sent greetings. At this congress, Gog called for a “lifelong general strike” in his famous opening speech. Quote:

“Society, represented by its authorities, speaks of their care. The law cares for me, for society, for the full, so that the victims of their tyranny do not touch them. Your 'care' is policeman humanity! Is 'precaution'! [...] The virtuous philistines speak of the vagabonds as a work-shy rabble. What does (sic!) This society know about the route and destination of the country road? [...] General strike for life! Life sentence general strike! "

As the driving force of the international vagabond movement, Gog, the "king of the vagabonds" as the press called him, campaigned for the rights of the homeless. The “reserve army of the fighting proletariat” of “Tippel brothers, outsiders” and “outcasts” had organized to the horror of the authorities for a “world congress of vagabonds”, of real international attention and hunger marches.

Goals and Activities

The aim of the brotherhood was mutual help , solidarity, the awareness of one's own situation in society, the promotion of self-confidence and self-help. Church and government organizations for social welfare were rejected. In order to evade the control of the state and the " civil society ", the vagabonds should take the initiative to build hostels and other accommodations themselves. A classless, free society was strived for in the sense of anarchism and anarcho-syndicalism.

The organ of the brotherhood was the magazine Der Kunde, originally published by Gustav Brügel in 1927 . The first edition was confiscated. Then Gog took over the editing. The articles in the magazine contained both socially critical protest “as well as a utopian exaggeration of vagabond existence”. About the situation of the homeless, Gog wrote articles on Two million on the country road , The Tramp Tombrock and Streets Without End . The magazine should give the vagabonds the opportunity to publish their experiences and opinions. It was also published in other anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist papers. Gerhard Siegismund published in Reflection and Awakening , Gregor Gog in Der Syndikalist .

Gog and his wife Anni Geiger-Gog were close to FAUD , as were Theodor Plivier and Helmut Klose . By Artur champion , Hermann Giesau, Karlheinz Bodensieck and Helmut Klose the connection to Berlin FAUD and came liberal guild booklovers about. The influence of the vagabond movement on anarcho-syndicalism and the FAUD, however, was small.

In 1933 the Brotherhood of Vagabonds was broken up by the National Socialists . The Brotherhood archives maintained by Gog were confiscated. However, Gog and other vagabonds managed to save some of the Brotherhood's writings and works of art into exile.

Vagabonds artist group

The brotherhood was also an artist movement. Hans Tombrock (1895–1966) got to know Gog in 1928, together with Hans Bönnighausen and Gerhart Bettermann they founded the “Artists' Group of the Brotherhood of Vagabonds”. Thousands of drawings, watercolors, woodcuts and linocuts were created and some were printed. In 1929 the first art exhibition was organized and a “vagabond folder” was published by the “Verlag der Vagabunden”.

Cinematic reception

In 1929 the Austrian Fritz Weiß shot the 49-minute silent film Vagabund with the advice of Gregor Gog , which revolves around the everyday lives of people who have decided to live on the street. For a journalist, a dead homeless person becomes the hook for successful articles on the subject.

A two-part film documentary, “General Strike for Life” and “Skills in Rags”, was shown in 2008 in the House of Democracy and Human Rights in Berlin - a contemporary testimony to the artists of Landstrasse and the brotherhood of the vagabonds.

Graphic novel

  • The graphic novel Der König der Vagabunden was published in autumn 2019 by the Berlin-based avant-Verlag , which specializes in comics . Gregor Gog and his brotherhood , written by Patrick Spät (text and scenario) and Bea Davies (drawings).

Appreciation

  • The Geißstrasse Sieben Foundation in Stuttgart published a "Gregor Gog Memorial Sheet" in 2004 on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the first Vagabond Congress (Pentecost 1929).
  • In addition to its work for the homeless, the Berlin street newspaper Motz runs a “Gregor Gog Antiquarian Book”.

Web links

further reading

  • Hans-Dier Mück: Red Conspiratorial Corner on the Green Way. The “Uracher Kreis” Karl Raichles: Summer retreat for revolutionaries of the word, 1918-1931 . Bad Urach 1991.
  • Gregor Gog: On the go. Diary sheets of the prodigal son . Verlag des Bund der Brüder, Stuttgart 1926.
  • Gregor Gog: Prelude to a philosophy of the country road. From a vagabond's notes . Verlag der Vagabunden, Stuttgart 1928.
  • Harry Wilde : Theodor Plievier. Zero point of freedom. Kurt Desch Verlag, Munich et al. 1965.
  • Walter Fähnders (Ed.): Nomadic Existences. Vagabondage and Boheme in 20th Century Literature and Culture . Writings of the Fritz-Hüser-Institut 16. Klartext Verlag, Essen 2007. ISBN 978-3-89861-814-4
  • Walter Fähnders, Henning Zimpel (ed.): The era of the vagabonds . Klartext Verlag (writings from the Fritz Hüser Institute). Essen 2009, ISBN 978-3-89861-655-3 .
  • Klaus Trappmann (ed.): Landstrasse, customers, vagabonds. Gregor Gog's League of the Homeless . Gerhardt Verlag, Berlin 1980.
  • Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Ed.): Residence: Nirgendwo. About life and survival on the country road . Frölich & Kaufmann, Berlin 1982, ISBN 3-88725-070-2 .
  • Hartmut Rübner: Freedom and Bread. The Free Workers' Union of Germany. A Study of the History of Anarcho-Syndicalism . Page 294. Libertad Verlag , Potsdam 1994, ISBN 3-922226-21-3 .
  • Rolf Jessewitsch, Gerhard Schneider (Ed.): Ostracized - Forgotten - Rediscovered. Art of expressive representationalism from the Gerhard Schneider Collection . Page 481. On the occasion of the exhibition Ostracized, Forgotten, Rediscovered. Kunstverein Südsauerland Olpe, July 4th to August 8th 1999 and July 23rd to August 2000. Museum Baden, Solingen-Gräfrath. Wienand Verlag, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-87909-665-1 .
  • Elvira Reith (Ed.): Catalog: Hans Bönnighausen - a painter's drift . Edition Karo Dame , Dortmund, ISBN 3-00-010141-1 .
  • Hanneliese Palm, Christoph Steker (Ed.): Artists, customers, vagabonds . CW Leske Verlag, Düsseldorf 2020, ISBN 978-3-946595-08-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On the history of contemporary terms cf. Wolfgang Ayaß : "Vagabonds, hikers, homeless and non-sedentary": a short history of the concept of help for the homeless , in: Archive for Science and Practice of Social Work 44 (2013), pp. 90-102.
  2. ↑ Information from the magazine Graswurzelrevolution , No. 295 (2005)
  3. ↑ Quoted from the grassroots revolution no. 295 . Source: K. Marx, F. Engels, selected writings in 2 volumes . Volume 1, page 33.Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1959. Retrieved on May 26, 2010
  4. ^ Green Youth Berlin ( Memento from October 27, 2017 in the Internet Archive ). General strike for a lifetime . Retrieved October 26, 2017
  5. ^ Gregor Gog: General strike for life! Life sentence general strike. Stuttgart 1929 . Call for the Congress of Vagabonds in Stuttgart in 1929
  6. ^ Gregor Gog: Rebel and Revolutionary . Retrieved May 23, 2010
  7. ^ Author: Karsten Krampitz . In: Berliner Zeitung of October 7, 2005. Retrieved April 28, 2013
  8. ↑ Syndicalism research. Introduction . Under section: “The vagabond movement” (4.3.3.2.). Retrieved May 23, 2010
  9. ^ Ruhr University Bochum . About G. Gog. PDF, 71 kB. Accessed on May 27, 2010 [website no longer accessible]
  10. ↑ The Vagabond Movement and the FAUD . Retrieved May 27, 2010
  11. ↑ Newspaper article by Baga Gam, quote: “In 1933 a 'beggar raid' by the National Socialists ended the 'Brotherhood of Vagabonds'. In 1938 Heinrich Himmler had more than 1,500 'work-shy', 'anti-social' and homeless people brought to the Buchenwald concentration camp. ”In: Straßenfeger , No. 18, August 2010 ( Memento from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ). Retrieved August 24, 2012
  12. ^ Text accompanying the graphic portfolio: Hans Bönnighausen. Karo Dame cultural projects ( Memento from April 4, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ Brief information on the film Der Vagabund  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Director: Fritz Weiß. Austria 1930. Distributor: Erdeka-Film GmbH, Berlin.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.filmportal.de  
  14. ↑ Patrick Spät, Bea Davies: The King of the Vagabonds. Gregor Gog and his brotherhood. avant-verlag, Berlin 2019, ISBN 978-3-96445-015-9 ( avant-verlag.de ).