Carl Degenkolb

Carl Degenkolb , also Karl Degenkolb , (born September 8, 1796 in Plauen , † 1862 in Rottwerndorf ) was a German entrepreneur and politician who lived and worked in Eilenburg . He was a member of the Frankfurt National Assembly in 1848/1849 and is considered a pioneer in the creation of employee representation as a forerunner of today's works councils . He is the father of the legal scholar Heinrich Degenkolb .

Entrepreneurial and political activity

As the son-in-law of the entrepreneur Johann Jacob Bodemer , Degenkolb took over the calico factory Bodemer & Co. in Eilenburg after his retirement in 1830 . Under his leadership, the rise to the leading calico manufacturer in Prussia began until around 1860. Degenkolb had great influence in Eilenburg, in addition to his entrepreneurial activity, he belonged to the city parliament and was chairman of the Eilenburg trade council. With his promotion of the machine working method, however, he encountered opposition from the manual workers , of whom Anton Bernhardi was one of the spokesmen and against whose pamphlet The Manual Worker and His Nothstand (1847) he polemicized in the local press.

In 1848 Degenkolb was elected from his constituency of Delitzsch to the Frankfurt National Assembly, where he belonged to the national liberal Casino group. There he submitted, together with the MPs Wilhelm Adolf Lette , Moritz Veit and Friedrich Gottlieb Becker, the draft of a trade regulation which, among other things, provided for the obligation to set up factory committees, which he voluntarily introduced in his own company a little later. On May 20, 1849, Degenkolb resigned from the National Assembly with other Prussian MPs after all Austrian parliamentarians had resigned at the beginning of April. His closest friends included Karl August Jacob , Johann Gottfried Boltze and Ludwig Wucherer , with whom he founded the Werschen-Weißenfelser Braunkohlen AG in 1855 .

Social policy program

Degenkolb's social thinking was extremely progressive for the time; his actions are described as "social reforming". So he introduced a general ban on child labor in his factory that went beyond the Prussian Child Protection Act passed in 1839 . In 1847 Degenkolb bought large quantities of grain and had it processed in its own bakery in order to supply its workforce with inexpensive bread. In 1850, in the event of bad harvests and the associated food taxes, a storage facility was set up to guarantee the workers an affordable supply of basic food.

At Degenkolb's instigation, the four large textile manufacturers in Eilenburg decided to adopt a uniform approach to creating factory regulations. Such an agreement was signed by the four manufacturers on July 1, 1850. In addition to the establishment of factory committees in each of the factories, it also included the creation of a joint factory council. This is the first real employee representation in Germany. The alliance of the four industrialists is also known as the "Eilenburg Agreement". The health insurance , which had existed in Degenkolb's factory since 1847 , was expanded to become a joint health and pension fund for the Eilenburg textile industry.

Factory rules

During his time in the Frankfurt parliament, Degenkolb drew up the minority draft for general factory regulations :

Factory regulations, art III

Factory committees

§42. Each factory elects a factory committee. The same thing consists of:

a) from one member of each independent group of factory workers and

b) from a foreman of each group, both elected by workers,

c) from the owner of the factory or the representative appointed by him.

§43. The factory committees have the following powers:

1) Mediation in disputes between employers and employees,

2) Drafting and maintaining the special factory regulations,

3) Establishment and administration of the sick benefit fund,

4) supervision of factory children,

5) Representation of the factory in the factory councils.

Factory councils

§44. For each industrial district a factory council is elected by the factory committees, in which the branches of industry located in the district must be represented by both factory owners and factory workers, insofar as matters relating to the latter come into question.

§45. The factory rate is entitled to:

1) The approval of the special factory regulations and the supervision of their observation;

2) the determination and mediation of working hours and notice periods;

3) the determination of the number of apprentices ... and the examination of the apprentices;

4) the supervision of the health benefit funds;

5) drafting the statutes of the factory pension funds and their administration;

6) Representation of the district's factory interests at the district's Chamber of Commerce.

The paragraphs followed:
§46. Factory
arbitration tribunals §47. District
Chambers of Commerce §50. Central
Chamber of Commerce §51. General German Chamber of Commerce

Later Degenkolb put his ideas into practice with other local entrepreneurs in Eilenburg. The following rules applied to four companies:

§1. Each factory elects a factory committee consisting of:

a) the factory owner or the representative appointed by him,

b) a technical worker,

c) a day-wage worker from the class of manual workers, the latter both elected by the working classes concerned.

§ 2. The 4 factories jointly elect a factory council, consisting of:

a) 3 factory owners,

b) 1 technical worker,

c) 1 from the class of manual workers, the latter both elected by the relevant working classes.

§ 3. The factory committees have the following powers:

1) The maintenance and enforcement of factory regulations,

2) the supervision of the children working in the factories both morally and with regard to regular school attendance,

3) mediation of disputes between workers,

4) confiscation related to decision of penalties and fines,

5) Collection and delivery of contributions to the sickness benefit fund.

§ 4. The factory council has the following powers:

1) Resolving the complaints of factory workers against their employers,

2) resolving disputes between manufacturers among themselves,

3) Determination and mediation of working hours and notice periods,

4) Determination of the number of apprentices to be accepted for mold engravers and printers in relation to the self-employed workers,

5) Supervision and promotion of the moral and commercial training of the younger factory workers as well as supervision of all school matters,

6) Administration of the pension fund and supervision of the sickness benefit fund as well as decision on pension entitlements,

7) Promotion of the industry in general, the Eilenburg in particular, monitoring of the overall interests and decision of the related applications and measures,

8) Representation of overall interests at the local trade council as well as abroad.

literature

• Otto Ruhmer: History of the origins of the German cooperative system. (= Cooperative and social library. Volume 1). Johs. Krögers printing and publishing house, Hamburg-Blankenese 1937.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Otto Ruhmer: History of the origins of the German cooperative system. (= Cooperative and social library. Volume 1). Johs. Krögers Buchdruckerei and Verlag, Hamburg-Blankenese 1937, p. 47 ff.
2. ↑ Information on Carl Degenkolb in the catalog of the German National Library (accessed on December 2, 2012)
3. ↑ Erich Neuss: Karl August Jacob . Gebauer-Schwetschke printing and publishing house, 1929, p. 254.
4. ^ Hans Jürgen Teuteberg: On the history of the origins of the first company workers' representatives in Germany. In: social world . Volume 11 (1960), Issues 1-2, pp. 69-82. ( online as a PDF document with 11.5 MB)
5. ^ HJ Teuteberg: History of industrial co-determination. 1961, p. 108 f.
6. ^ HJ Teuteberg: History of industrial co-determination. 1961, p. 219.