Friedrich Himpel

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Friedrich Himpel (born October 18, 1864 in Wolfen , † November 10, 1926 in Berlin ) was a German trade union official .

Work in Hamburg

Friedrich Himpel was the son of a day laborer. He attended elementary school and then worked as a house servant. In 1883 he went to Hamburg , where he found a job as an assistant in a factory. In July 1890 he became a member of the recently founded association of factory, agricultural and industrial unskilled workers in Germany , which appeared a few months later as the association of factory, agricultural and unskilled workers .

In October 1891, Himpel went to Altona , where he worked as a salesman. For this reason, in 1893 he became a member of the Association of House Servants and Comptorboten Hamburg , which merged in 1894 with the Association of Carriers of Hamburg and Suburbs in 1890 to form the new association of all unskilled workers in the transport and trade . Friedrich Himpel was a member of the board of directors, who was elected when the company was founded. In addition, he was elected to a commission that was supposed to inform the commission for workers' statistics, located at the Reich Office of the Interior , about the situation of Hamburg's commercial aid workers. Himpel, who was considered gifted, wrote for the first time in 1896 on the living and working conditions of transport and trade workers in Hamburg. He also described in detail the social areas from which workers were recruited. Himpel committed himself to support the unemployed from the association, which he regarded as an essential means of “approaching indifferent colleagues.” He tried to link the aid workers' association closely with social democracy and to organize the union in a centralized manner. For this, the union received a single management and a treasurer.

In May 1896, Himpel traveled as a Hamburg delegate to Halberstadt , where the second congress of all unskilled workers in Germany who worked in the trade and transport industry took place. Himpel gave a lecture to the “trade press” and then repeatedly chaired the press commission . Since the Berlin organization continued to publish the trade journal Handelshilfsarbeiter , Himpel's influence in this position was limited. At the general assembly of the Hamburg local organization he was elected chairman in 1896. In the following years, Himpel argued controversially with Carl Alboldt . He was a shop steward for the whole of Germany and headed the districts of Berlin, Brandenburg, Pomerania, Lausitz and Altmark. The conflicts concerned the best possible organization of the German trade unions. In December 1896, Himpel founded the central association of trade, transport and traffic workers in Altenburg together with 17 other delegates . Here, too, he repeatedly took over the chairmanship of the press commission that published the new association magazine Der Courier . In addition to chairing the Hamburg local association, Himpel represented the association's interests in the Hamburg trade union cartel, in which he quickly became a leader. In 1902 he became a member of the Cartel Commission, its second cashier in 1903 and second secretary in 1904.

From the beginning of January 1898, Himpel worked as a permanent treasurer at the Hamburg association headquarters. He had previously given up the position of First Chairman. Himpel was the first person to get a paid job with the association. After the “centralists” and “localists” of the organization had united in 1900, Himpel took over the chairmanship again, this time for a fee. In return, he should also advocate the association's goals in the Gau Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg. Since he could not cope with this workload, he gave up these tasks again in mid-1901.

In July 1897, Himpel became a Hamburg citizen and acquired Hamburg citizenship . Himpel, who had founded a small milk cooperative in the 1890s, tried to encourage cooperative thinking in the Hamburg union cartel as well. Therefore, at the end of 1898, he supported the establishment of the Hamburg consumer cooperatives in a leading position . He participated in several strikes starting in June 1898, during which he appeared as a tough negotiating partner. The trade unionist promoted the principle of extensive assembly democracy and sometimes spoke to an audience every other day.

Years in Berlin

In 1905 the 4th General Assembly of the Central Association of Trade, Transport and Traffic Workers in Germany took place, which Himpel elected to the main board. He got a job as a salaried secretary. Since the office was in Karlshorst near Berlin, Himpel left Hamburg; his mandate in the Hamburg Cartel Commission thus expired. Himpel took over responsibility for the statistics and wage movement departments. Together with Oswald Schumann he traveled to the 5th International Transport Workers Congress, which was held in Milan in 1906 .

At that time, Himpel was also involved in tariff policy. He was involved in a collective agreement with the Central Association of German Consumers, which was concluded in 1906. During the 5th General Assembly in Berlin in 1907, Himpel suggested that collective bargaining policy should be comprehensively centralized. His statements stood in contrast to his earlier views during the time in Hamburg, when he had expressly and for a long time rejected collective agreements. Since the consumer cooperatives with the collective bargaining agreement only accepted the work records of the cooperatives as a basis for negotiations, this was a significant step forward for the unions. The participation in this collective agreement can be seen as Himpels greatest achievement.

In close cooperation with the Reich Statistics Office, Himpel had hoped since 1906 to be able to precisely document the working conditions of the employees. He compiled the statistical sections of the association yearbook, which produced the most reliable data collections within the free trade unions. Together with four other trade unionists, he attended the conference of the central boards of the associations of railway workers, port workers, trade, transport and traffic workers, machinists, stokers and seafarers in 1906. At the meeting in Hamburg, the first agreements on cooperation between individual trade union organizations were reached. After the November Revolution, Himpel appeared as an expert in collective bargaining agreements: in 1920 his central association had concluded 2,117 collective bargaining agreements in 63,486 companies with 687,025 employees.

In July 1921 the union official returned to Hamburg for a short time. He temporarily headed the Reich Seafarers' Department as the successor to Paul Müller . Himpel, who had worked for the SPD in local politics since 1924, was also involved in the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold since 1924 .

Friedrich Himpel died as a result of severe pneumonia.

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personal data
SURNAME Himpel, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German trade union official
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Wolfen
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 1926
Place of death Berlin