German Workers Chess Federation

The German Workers Chess Federation (DAS) was the umbrella organization of the German workers chess clubs from 1912 to 1933 . At times it had more than 10,000 members and was able to compete with the "bourgeois" German Chess Federation in terms of size .

Workers' chess clubs

The first workers' chess club was founded in Brandenburg by Robert Oehlschläger (Berlin-Wedding) in 1903 to distract workers from drinking beer and playing cards and to encourage them to think . In 1911 there were already 27 workers' chess clubs in Europe, most of them in Germany. The total of 1066 members were mostly members of a trade union or a workers' party. Since 1909 Max Wingefeld (master carpenter from Munich) published the German workers chess newspaper .

founding

On April 7, 1912, the German Workers' Chess Federation (DAS) was founded in Nuremberg. The initiative came from Robert Oehlschläger, who was also elected 1st chairman. The following controversial passage was added to the statutes: Membership is dependent on membership of the social democratic party or a free trade union organization. Board members must belong to both. Max Wingefeld in particular criticized this passage, but could not prevail. As a result, from July 1912 the Arbeiter-Schachzeitung was published as an organ of the DAS in Berlin. The slogan of the covenant was chess into the people .

Further development

During the First World War , many members of the workers' chess clubs died or were wounded, including Oehlschläger and Wingefeld, who returned sick from the war.

At the Federal Assembly in Chemnitz in 1919, Oehlschläger proposed further requirements for membership, such as the requirement that right- wing socialists are excluded . This was rejected by a majority. Oehlschläger was no longer elected; Alfred Gläser (Chemnitz) succeeded him as 1st Chairman.

The defeated Oehlschläger nevertheless continued to work constructively with Alfred Gläser, Arthur Klinke (Eppendorf) and Oskar Fölber (Berlin).

In 1925, a Workers' Olympiad was held in Frankfurt am Main , in which chess players also took part.

The end

In 1933 the German Workers 'Chess Federation (like all workers' sports clubs and associations in the German Reich) was dissolved. Oskar Fölber, for example, was then active in the resistance and helped Jewish fellow citizens to flee to Switzerland.

Workers' chess in Switzerland

The workers chess movement was strongly represented in Switzerland. The Swiss Workers' Chess Federation was founded by Heinrich Diggelmann from Zurich in 1925 and existed until 1995 (see Swiss Chess Federation ). Even today some Swiss chess clubs refer to themselves as "workers ' clubs ", such as the workers' chess club Gurten in Bern or the workers' chess club in Winterthur .

Workers' chess in Austria

From 1924 to 1938 there was also a workers' chess federation in Austria.

Workers' chess in the USSR

In 1925, the All-Russian Workers' Chess Commission decided to only play against proletarian associations in future. He forced workers' chess in Austria and Switzerland to organize itself independently in order to be able to continue playing against the superior Russians. This strict separation corresponded to the policy that the USSR also represented in workers' sport.

Magazines

Head of the Arbeiter-Chesszeitung from August 1927

German workers chess newspaper, from 1909 to 1914 by Max Wingefeld
Arbeiter-Schachzeitung , organ of the German Workers' Chess Federation, from July 1912 to 1933
Swiss workers' chess, from 1932
Promadas: Problem magazine of the problem association in the German Workers Chess Federation. Four issues from 1928 to 1930 appeared. Editing: Arthur Klinke (chairman), Wilhelm Hagemann , Willy Roscher (each assessor).
Free chess: Organ of the Greater Berlin workers' chess clubs, from November 1928

literature

Gerhard Willeke: History of the German Workers Chess, Nightrider Unlimited (PDF; 19.7 MB), Treuenhagen 2002

Joachim Petzold : The struggle for the political location of workers chess , magazine Schach , 1989, No. 3, p. 7 ISSN 0048-9328 .

Joachim Petzold: The workers chess movement in Germany . In: Contributions to the history of the labor movement , 32, 1990, 4, pp. 458-471 ISSN 0942-3060 .

Burkhalter Matthias: Swiss workers' chess and politics , licentiate thesis (University of Bern), self-published (without location) 1984

Web links

Frei Schach, Issue 1, 1928 ( Memento from October 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) from the archive of the Berlin Chess Association
Frei Schach, Heft 4, 1929 ( Memento from February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) from the archive of the Berlin Chess Association
Frei Schach, Issue 10, 1929 ( Memento from February 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today ) from the archive of the Berlin Chess Association

Individual evidence

↑ Figures on the chess organizations in Germany around 1933
^ Workers' chess newspaper. Organ of the German Workers Chess Federation , No. 1., July 1912, pp. 2ff.
^ Arthur Klinke: Olympics competitions and Olympics of work . Arbeiter-Schachzeitung August 1925, pp. 233-237.
^ Arnd Krüger & James Riordan : The story of worker sport. Human Kinetics, Champaign, Ill., 1996, ISBN 0-87322-874-X .

[1] Figures on the chess organizations in Germany around 1933

[2] Workers' chess newspaper. Organ of the German Workers Chess Federation , No. 1., July 1912, pp. 2ff.

[3] Arthur Klinke: Olympics competitions and Olympics of work . Arbeiter-Schachzeitung August 1925, pp. 233-237.

[4] Arnd Krüger & James Riordan : The story of worker sport. Human Kinetics, Champaign, Ill., 1996, ISBN 0-87322-874-X .