Ernestine Minna Simon

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Ernestine Minna Simon , née Reinitz, divorced Simon, later Ernestine Minna Bauer, (born November 4, 1845 in Chemnitz , † June 13, 1902 in Dresden ), was a Saxon textile worker and strike leader. She is considered to be the first woman to lead a major workers' strike.

Life

Nothing is known about Ernestine Minna Reinitz's childhood and youth. At the end of the 1870s she stayed in Augsburg, Nuremberg, Munich and Dresden. In 1875 she married the mason Louis Simon, in 1883 she divorced him and returned to Chemnitz. There she found a job as a weifer in the Chemnitz share spinning mill, which was then the largest spinning mill in Germany.

Chemnitz stock spinning mill (1893)

At that time, the Chemnitz share spinning mill employed around 700 women and 300 men. The company's management reacted to declining profits in the years 1882–1983 by hiring a new technical director, increasing the workload and longer working hours. The disagreements between company management and the workforce escalated when a new break regulation was introduced, which prohibited leaving the company premises during this time and particularly affected the female employees. For the women working in the spinning mill, the burden was particularly high anyway: with half the wages that their male colleagues received, they were also responsible for childcare and housekeeping after a twelve-hour working day.

The workers went on strike on June 7, 1883. At a staff meeting on June 9, 1883, Simon was elected to the strike committee as the strike leader. In addition to her, Johann Kollerung, Amalie Kutschke and Louise Bauer belonged to the committee. Minna Simon presented the strike demands, spoke at general meetings and collected donations for the families of the striking workforce.

The strike front slowly disintegrated from June 16, and the strike ended on June 25. Just under three weeks after it began, one of the largest workers' strikes in the German textile industry came to an end. For one thing, it was not possible to raise enough money to adequately support the families of the strikers. The Social Democratic Party , among others, called for donations to be collected . On the other hand, the company management had accepted some of the strike demands. After the strike, on June 27, 1883, Ernestine Minna Simon reported to the Chemnitz police and gave Dresden as his new whereabouts. On June 15, she announced that she would not resume work in the stock spinning mill even after the strike had ended. In Dresden their trail is lost.

According to a death certificate found in the Dresden City Archives, Minna Ernestine Bauer died on October 13, 1902 in Dresden.

Commemoration

To commemorate the work of Minna Simon, on March 8, 2000 in Chemnitz near the old spinning mill, Obere Aktienstraße was renamed Minna-Simon-Straße .

In addition, her memorial plaque on Schillerplatz in Chemnitz, opposite the Alte Aktienspinnerei, was the first to be installed in Saxony as part of the Women's Places in Saxony initiative . She was chosen from over 40 suggestions. The panel was presented on October 25, 2016 by the Landesfrauenrat Sachsen e. V. was officially inaugurated and is located between Georgstrasse and Strasse der Nations.

On the occasion of the 875th anniversary of the city of Chemnitz, a documentary film by the Chemnitz filmmaker Beate Kunath with the collaboration of Ursel Schmitz about women personalities who have shaped the city over the centuries was released under the title Hurray! It's a girl! It contains a biographical sketch of Ernestine Minna Simon, along with 24 other women in the city.

literature

  • Karlheinz Schaller: Women workers on strike. On the strike in the Chemnitz share spinning mill in 1883 . In: Karlheinz Schaller, Wolfgang Uhlmann (ed.): The strike in the stock spinning mill Chemnitz 1883, Chemnitz 2000, pp. 2–13. (Brochure)
  • Karlheinz Schaller: The time will come once. History of the Chemnitz workforce from the end of the 18th century to the First World War , Verlag für Regionalgeschichte, Bielefeld 2001, ISBN 978-3895344008 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hendrik Lasch: A stele for the strike leader. In: neue-deutschland.de. October 26, 2016, accessed March 6, 2020 .
  2. ↑ a b Jessica Bock: Women's Places Saxony: Ernestine Minna Simon. In: Frauenorte-sachsen.de. State Women's Council Saxony V., accessed on March 6, 2020 .
  3. ↑ MDR / al: Old stock spinning mill in Chemnitz opens its doors. In: mdr.de. June 30, 2019, accessed March 8, 2020 .
  4. ^ Lutz Sartor: Simon, Ernestine Minna. In: Saxon Biography - saebi.isgv.de. Institute for Saxon History and Folklore V., May 9, 2011, accessed March 6, 2020 .
  5. ↑ The committee elected by the striking workers of the Actien-Spinnerei in the meeting of June 9th: To the Administrative Council of the Actien-Spinnerei . In: Chemnitzer Tageblatt . No. 145 . Chemnitz June 10, 1883, p. 11 .
  6. ↑ Dr. Stephanie Pietsch: Textile workers' strike in the share spinning mill 1883. In: stark-fuer-chemnitz.de. SPD, Chemnitz subdistrict, July 18, 2013, accessed on March 6, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Heiderose Gläß: First FrauenOrt in Saxony inaugurated. In: dielinke-goerlitz.de. State Office Die Linke, Saxony, October 26, 2016, accessed on March 6, 2020 .
  8. ↑ Leena M. Peters: Women places Saxony: Ernestine Minna Simon. In: Frauenfiguren.de. December 6, 2018, accessed March 6, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Beate Kunath: Hurray! It's a girl! In: bk-productions.de. Retrieved March 6, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Simon, Ernestine Minna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bauer, Minna Ernestine; Reinitz, Minna Ernestine (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German textile worker and strike leader in Saxony
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1845
PLACE OF BIRTH Chemnitz
DATE OF DEATH June 13, 1902
Place of death Dresden