Eintracht Zurich

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Board on the former house of the German workers' education association Eintracht in Zurich, Neumarkt 5. Today the Theater am Neumarkt is in this house.

The German workers 'association Eintracht Zurich was a workers' education association in the city of Zurich that existed between 1840 and 1916.

Origins

As a result of the repression of the 1830s against politically organized groups and associations in the German Confederation , a large number of Germans emigrated to the neighboring states. In addition to Paris, the center of political emigration, Belgium, England and Switzerland were popular destinations for emigration. In addition, there was a tradition of cross-border migration of German craftspeople going back to the 14th century. The German journeymen often practiced the so-called waltz due to the high demand for skilled workers and the comparatively high wages in federal areas. In addition, the secret society Junge Deutschland had a considerable influence on the politicization of German craftsmen in Switzerland during this period .

history

The workers' association was founded in 1840 as a choral society by German craftspeople and developed into a reading and educational association in 1942. In addition to singing and educational opportunities, it offered its members numerous other offers, such as health insurance , a food cooperative, numerous discounts in associated shops, a dance and gymnastics club and a dramatic club. When it was founded, “Eintracht” was ideologically strongly influenced by the second Junge Deutschland. In addition to philosophical questions, from the mid-1840s the members of "Eintracht" also increasingly grappled with political and social issues of the day.

Between 1850 and the enactment of the Anti-Socialist Law in the German Empire in 1878, the "concord", developed by a Workers' Educational Association with bourgeois-liberal programmatic becoming an up-orienting the Marxist internationalism movement, posing as foreign organization of the Socialist Workers Party (SAP) understood . From 1879, members of Eintracht published Der Sozialdemokrat , the official SAP party newspaper, and smuggled it into the German Reich .

From the time it was founded, the association was closely associated with the Social Democratic Party of the City of Zurich. Within the social democracy, Eintracht was an important left-wing group of men ("unions"), in which alcohol and cigarette consumption was indulged. Numerous socialist leaders such as Trotsky , Lenin , Bernstein , Bebel and Liebknecht were members of "Eintracht" during their time in exile in Switzerland and organized public events under its umbrella.

By the outbreak of the First World War, Eintracht developed from an education and singing club to a socialist fighting club, the base of which consisted primarily of skilled German craftsmen. In addition to the large German base, Russian socialists also exerted influence in the Eintracht association from the 1860s onwards. Factory workers, Swiss and women remained a clear minority.

In 1916 "Eintracht" was dissolved and integrated into the Social Democratic Party (SP) of the city of Zurich. The reasons were the decline in membership due to comrades returning to their home countries during the First World War , internal conflicts about the orientation and merger efforts on the part of the SP in the city of Zurich. The association's president Mieczyslaw Brónski ended the dissolution meeting with the words: «The workers' education association Eintracht has fulfilled its historic mission. Go to your living quarters, join the social democratic district parties and continue working in the same way. "

meaning

With 76 years of history, the workers' association “Eintracht” has had an extraordinarily long existence. In addition, when it was founded in 1840, it is one of the oldest workers' associations in Switzerland. From 1840 to 1916, the “Eintracht” workers' association was one of the centers of political education in Zurich. From its early phase to its dissolution, the association helped shape the development of the Swiss labor movement.

The house in the old town of Zurich at Neumarkt 5 retained its importance for the labor movement even after the dissolution of the “Eintracht” association and became a historical place of remembrance for the international labor movement in Switzerland. In 1921, the Swiss Communist Party was founded on the premises . In 1928, the Social Democratic Party of the City of Zurich celebrated its victory in the city council elections in the building that it took over after the association was dissolved. The Theater am Neumarkt has been located in the house, which was acquired by the City of Zurich in 1933, since 1966 .

Four founding members of the «Eintracht» readers' association served Gottfried Keller as a template for the protagonists of his novella " The Little Flag of the Seven Upright ".

Prominent members

Literature and archive holdings

literature

  • Daniel Cusinay, Thomas Hauser, Matthias Schwank: German Social Democrats in Switzerland after the Socialists Act (1878–1890). In: Carsten Goehrke , Werner Zimmermann (ed.): "Refuge Switzerland": Dealing with asylum problems in the 19th and 20th centuries. Zurich 1994, pp. 121–172.
  • Karin Huser: place of education, nursery school, political fighting club: The German workers' association "Eintracht Zürich" (1840-1916). Zurich 2012.
  • Anina Gidkov: Exile as a lifeworld: shaping a generation of revolutionaries. In: Heiko Haumann (ed.): The Russian Revolution 1917. Cologne 2007, pp. 47–58.

Archives holdings

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Anina Gidkov: Exile as a lifeworld: shaping a generation of revolutionaries . In: Heiko Haumann (Ed.): The Russian Revolution 1917 . Cologne 2007, p. 51 .
  2. ↑ Karin Huser: place of education, nursery school, political combat club: The German workers' association "Eintracht Zürich" (1840-1916) . Zurich 2012, p. 23-52 .
  3. ↑ Daniel Cusinay, Thomas Hauser, Matthias Fluctuating: German Social Democrats in Switzerland after the adoption of the Anti-Socialist Law (1878-1890) . In: Carsten Goehrke (ed.): «Refuge Switzerland»: Dealing with asylum problems in the 19th and 20th centuries . Zurich 1994, p. 131 ff .
  4. ↑ Karin Huser: place of education, men’s day care center, political combat club: The German workers’s association "Eintracht Zürich" (1840-1916) . Zurich 2012, p. 255-265 .
  5. ↑ Karin Huser: place of education, nursery school, political combat club: The German workers' association "Eintracht Zürich" (1840-1916) . Zurich 2012, p. 289 .
  6. ↑ Karin Huser: place of education, nursery school, political combat club: The German workers' association "Eintracht Zürich" (1840-1916) . Zurich 2012, p. 268 .
  7. ↑ Karin Huser: place of education, nursery school, political combat club: The German workers' association "Eintracht Zürich" (1840-1916) . Zurich 2012, p. 14-15 .
  8. ↑ Karin Huser: place of education, nursery school, political combat club: The German workers' association "Eintracht Zürich" (1840-1916). Zurich 2012, p. 51 .
  9. ^ Workers' education association Eintracht Zurich. Retrieved May 12, 2017 .