Franz Schuhmeier

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Franz Schuhmeier (born October 11, 1864 in Vienna , † February 11, 1913 there ) was an Austrian politician and social democratic workers leader.

Franz Schuhmeier around 1900

Youth and origin

Franz Schuhmeier at a young age (1890)

The son of the laundress Theresia and Eduard Schuhmeier from Ottakring , who was repeatedly unemployed, grew up in poor conditions. With an alcoholic father, he had to do heavy work in a horse-drawn cart at the age of six. That and the fatal work accident of his older brother at the age of 13 were a major reason why Schuhmeier later specifically fought against child labor , which is very widespread in Vienna .

Since he was a good student, his elementary school teacher found him a free place in the seminary in St. Pölten , at that time one of the few opportunities for the poor to get a good education. Since the family could not even afford the prescribed “proper clothing”, Schuhmeier was denied this option.

He therefore began to learn the profession of chaser in 1877, but had to break off the apprenticeship due to an eye injury. While working as an unskilled worker at the Goppold und Schmiedl colored paper factory in Gumpendorf , Schuhmeier came into contact with the social democratic movement. On August 22, 1886, he married his colleague Cilli Ditz.

politics

Since there was a state of emergency in Cisleithanien , the Austrian half of the Habsburg Monarchy , since 1884 , workers' education associations could only exist under cover names. That is why Schuhmeier founded an illegal workers' education club disguised as the Apollo smoking club in 1886 , which brought him to prison several times. Therefore he was prevented from attending the founding congress of the Social Democratic Workers' Party in Hainfeld from December 30, 1888 to January 1, 1889. In Hainfeld, the workers 'education associations were grouped together to form the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP today: Social Democratic Party of Austria ). After his imprisonment, because of which he had lost his job, Schuhmeier joined the administration of the Arbeiter-Zeitung .

The social democratic district organization Ottakring was to develop from what was now the Apollo workers' education association , which had its headquarters in Neulerchenfeld . In October 1891 the Volkstribüne , co-founded by Schuhmeier, appeared for the first time and became the official organ of the Lower Austrian (and Viennese) SPAP. He later became their publisher and, in 1894, editor-in-chief .

In 1892 Schuhmeier published the brochure In Eleventh Hour , in which his unshakable belief in overcoming the capitalist system can be seen. It states that

“Socialism cannot be stopped, the hour will and must strike! ... With the twelfth stroke, the workers must be that power and have that knowledge in order to be able to seize control ... It is our task to enlighten the people in all things! "

He remained so agitating as the Ottakring tribune and rousing speaker in the memories of the Viennese workers. At first belonging to the radical “anarchist” direction, he took on more and more reformist positions and became an advocate of party unity. He belonged to the German national, democratic and anti-Habsburg section of the Social Democrats, who occasionally also represented ostensible anti-Semitism.

Schuhmeier was Reich Party Secretary of the Social Democratic Workers' Party from 1896 to 1898 and thus a member of the party leadership. Together with Albert Sever and Anton David , he developed the internal organizational structure of Austrian social democracy that still exists today, such as the system of confidants . In 1900 he was elected to the Vienna City Council because for the first time there was also a general curia for the non-privileged male population. He and the future mayor of Vienna Jakob Reumann were the first social democratic councilors in Vienna. There he fought “legendary speech duels” with Mayor Lueger. Schuhmeier was also the author of the Social Democrats' first local program. He devoted himself to social and educational policy , housing and the struggle for universal suffrage . Schuhmeier demanded the construction of houses and public baths as well as the expansion of welfare . Together with the historian and university professor Ludo Hartmann , he built the first adult education center , the Ottakring Volksheim . In 1901 Schuhmeier became one of the first two social democratic members of the Reichsrat , and in 1910 also a member of the Lower Austrian state parliament . Education and electoral law issues were in the foreground in his parliamentary work.

With his crude, drastic way of speaking (he spoke the dialect of the Viennese suburbs), Schuhmeier was often in opposition to party chairman Victor Adler , also because he usually called for a more offensive approach, such as street demonstrations. Schuhmeier also polemicized in internal party disputes against other Jewish party colleagues such as Friedrich Austerlitz , whom he denigrated as "Jews of the workers newspaper".

Schuhmeiers party friend Wilhelm Ellenbogen described Schuhmeiers attitude not without reason as "coquetry with anti-Semitism ". At the same time he fought anti-Semitic agitation in the people's gallery after the murder of the girl Anezka Hruzova in Bohemia. Adler found Schuhmeiers “Radau-Opportunismus” outside of the “Wild West”, the western Viennese suburbs, “quite impossible”. Outwardly, however, Schuhmeier was also perceived as an ideological opponent to the equally populist mayor Karl Lueger . Schuhmeier became the best-hated social democrat in Vienna. He was famous for his quick-wittedness, his eloquence based on the Viennese local tone, his hardness in giving and taking, with which he often pushed himself to the limit of demagoguery .

Memorial of Franz Schuhmeier on his grave at the Ottakringer Friedhof

attack

On his return from an election rally in Stockerau , Franz Schuhmeier was shot dead on February 11, 1913 by Paul Kunschak, the mentally confused, unemployed brother of the founder of the Christian labor movement and later President of the National Council, Leopold Kunschak , in the hall of the Vienna Northwest Station.

The burial of the popular workers' leader at the Ottakringer Friedhof in an honorary grave (group 14, row 1, number 1/2) took on a dimension previously unknown for Vienna. There were - the information varies - up to half a million mourners. This mass manifestation on February 16, 1913 was Vienna's largest demonstration to date.

Paul Kunschak was sentenced to death. After Schuhmeier had always opposed the death penalty, his widow Cilli joined a petition for clemency. The sentence was then commuted to 20 years imprisonment. On November 20, 1918, Kunschak was pardoned in the general political amnesty after the First World War .

Honors

Schuhmeierhof
Schuhmeierbrücke in Vienna-Penzing

After the murdered politician were shoe Meier Square (to 1919 Habsburgerplatz ) and near it the 1925-1927 built public housing Shoe Meierhof in Ottakring and Franz Meier Shoe Lane in the 23rd district named. In Penzing the Schuhmeierbrücke and in Purkersdorf the adjoining Schuhmeierstrasse were named after him.

In 1925, a bronze bust of Schuhmeier created by Siegfried Bauer was set up in the Schuhmeierhof. After the Austrian Civil War , it was dismantled in 1934 and melted down during World War II . In 1948, on the 35th anniversary of Schuhmeier's death, a replica was installed. In 1933 Robert Ascher set him a literary monument with the novel Der Schuhmeier .

Fonts (selection)

  • In the eleventh hour. To all workers . Publishers of the Volkstribüne and the Arbeiter-Zeitung, Vienna 1892.
  • From an Austro-Hungarian military hospital. The Hangler case is presented according to the stenographic minutes of the House of Representatives . Verlag der Wiener Volksbuchhandlung, Vienna 1905.
  • From the workshop of clericalism. Against Jesuitism, Pfäfferei and superstition! Speech given at the 72nd session of the XV. Session of the Austrian House of Representatives . Brand Publishing House, Vienna 1913.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Wolfgang Maderthaner:  Schuhmeier Franz. In: Austrian Biographical Lexicon 1815–1950 (ÖBL). Volume 11, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Vienna 1999, ISBN 3-7001-2803-7 , p. 311 f. (Direct links on p. 311 , p. 312 ).
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Maderthaner , Lutz Musner: The anarchy of the suburb. The other Vienna around 1900 . Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-593-36334-8 , pp. 193f.
  3. ↑ Helga Schmidt, Felix Czeike: Franz Schuhmeier . Europe publishing house. Vienna 1964. p. 11f. As well as Christine Klusacek, Kurt Stimmer: Ottakring. From the Brunnenmarkt to the Liebhartstal. Verlag Mohl, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-900272-37-9 , p. 116.
  4. ^ Franz Schuhmeier. In: dasrotewien.at - Web dictionary of the Viennese social democracy. SPÖ Vienna (Ed.)
  5. ↑ Christine Klusacek, Kurt tuner: Ottakring. From the Brunnenmarkt to the Liebhartstal. Verlag Mohl, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-900272-37-9 , p. 117; and Helga Schmidt, Felix Czeike : Franz Schuhmeier . Europa-Verlag, Vienna 1964, p. 14.
  6. ↑ hellmut andics : Luegerzeit. Black Vienna until 1918 . Verlag Jugend u. Volk, Vienna 1984, ISBN 3-714-16542-8 , p. 63ff. and 272.
  7. ↑ Helga Schmidt, Felix Czeike: Franz Schuhmeier . Europa-Verlag, Vienna 1964, p. 17.
  8. ↑ Christine Klusacek, Kurt tuner: Ottakring. From the Brunnenmarkt to the Liebhartstal. Verlag Mohl, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-900272-37-9 , p. 115ff.
  9. ↑ Christine Klusacek, Kurt tuner: Ottakring. From the Brunnenmarkt to the Liebhartstal. Verlag Mohl, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-900272-37-9 , p. 117; and Karl R. Stadler: Franz Schuhmeier . In: Walter Pollak (Ed.): A thousand years of Austria. A biographical chronicle . Volume 3: Parliamentarism and the Two Republics . Verlag Jugend u. Volk, Vienna 1974, ISBN 3-7141-6523-1 , pp. 60–64, here p. 61.
  10. ^ Peter Schöffer: The struggle for electoral rights of the Austrian social democracy 1888 / 89-1897. From the Hainfeld Unification Party Congress to Badeni's electoral reform and the entry of the first Social Democrats into the Reichsrat . Verlag Steiner, Stuttgart 1986, ISBN 3-515-04622-4 , pp. 356f.
  11. ↑ a b Vienna's street names since 1860 as “Political Places of Remembrance” (PDF; 4.4 MB), p. 246ff, final research project report, Vienna, July 2013
  12. ^ Karl R. Stadler: Franz Schuhmeier . In: Walter Pollak (Ed.): A thousand years of Austria. A biographical chronicle . Volume 3: Parliamentarism and the Two Republics . Verlag Jugend u. Volk, Vienna 1974, ISBN 3-7141-6523-1 , pp. 60–64, here p. 61.
  13. ↑ Helga Schmidt, Felix Czeike: Franz Schuhmeier . Europa-Verlag, Vienna 1964, p. 93; and Christine Klusacek, Kurt Stimmer: Ottakring. From the Brunnenmarkt to the Liebhartstal. Verlag Mohl, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-900272-37-9 , pp. 117f.
  14. ↑ Wolfgang Maderthaner, Lutz Musner: The anarchy of the suburb. The other Vienna around 1900 . Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-593-36334-8 , pp. 176ff. Film: The funeral of Franz Schuhmeier, member of the Reichstag. CityFilmVienna.
    Video: A beautiful corpse: Franz Schuhmeiers last way among hundreds of thousands. The standard of March 17, 2014.
  15. ↑ Christine Klusacek, Kurt tuner: Ottakring. From the Brunnenmarkt to the Liebhartstal. Verlag Mohl, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-900272-37-9 , p. 120.
  16. ↑ Photo of the unveiling of the monument. In:  Wiener Bilder , May 31, 1925, p. 17 (online at ANNO ).Template: ANNO / Maintenance / wrb
  17. ↑ Christine Klusacek, Kurt tuner: Ottakring. From the Brunnenmarkt to the Liebhartstal. Verlag Mohl, Vienna 1983, ISBN 3-900272-37-9 , p. 120.
    wien.gv.at: Vienna 1948
  18. ↑ Robert Maximilian Ascher: The Shoe Meier. Roman, Vienna 1933.
    Harald D. Gröller: In the field of tension between Klio and Kalliope - The Schuhmeier novel by Robert Ascher . (PDF; 1.4 MB) Dissertation, Debrecen 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Schuhmeier, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian social democratic politician
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Vienna
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1913
Place of death Vienna