Fritz Köster (anarchist)

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Fritz Köster , real name: Friedrich Köster (born February 13, 1855 in Rodenberg ; † 1934 ), was a German author, editor , locksmith , tiler , trade unionist, anti-militarist and anarcho-syndicalist .

Life

Fritz Köster, who was named "Leader of the Zurich Anarchists" in police reports at the time because of his numerous activities, was active in the social democratic party in the second half of the 1880s. In 1885 he came to Groß Ottersleben during the time of the socialist laws .

The chairman of the trade union professional association for all professional groups for Groß Ottersleben and the surrounding area, Max Sendig, emigrated to America because of a criminal case against him . A short time later, Köster became chairman of the association and was illegally involved in activities of the social democratic movement. “In Groß Ottersleben”, wrote Köster, “I initially found everything that was necessary for my intellectual, agitational, organizational and economic needs ...”.

In 1886 Köster was sentenced to three months in prison for "anti-militarist propaganda". In 1887 he illegally distributed leaflets for which he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. He was active in the Magdeburg Social Democracy in 1890/1891 and was editor of the Magdeburg Volksstimme during this time . He was sentenced to several prison terms for some offending articles. To avoid this, Köster fled to Switzerland in 1891. He became a member of the “Independent Socialists” in Zurich and was active as a trade unionist. In Switzerland he "finally joined the anarchist movement" (Ludwig Unruh). After the statute of limitations for his prison sentences, Köster returned to Groß Ottersleben in 1910 and tried, together with Gustav Landauer, to win over the farm workers for the anarchist movement. Köster took part in a strike by the Groß Ottersleben farm workers and appeared at public meetings in Magdeburg and the surrounding area. In 1911 he moved to Berlin and in 1912 to Dresden. For the Free Association of German Trade Unions (FVdG) he represented the Dresden construction workers as a delegate in Magdeburg in 1912. Before the First World War he gave several lecture tours on behalf of the FVdG. From the successor organization of the FVdG, the Free Workers Union of Germany (FAUD), Köster was elected to the business commission in 1920. Even after he later resigned from the business commission, he was active for the anarcho-syndicalist movement.

Editor and editor

Fritz Köster was the editor of the left-wing political weekly newspaper Die Tribüne around 1911 . In Berlin he worked in the editorial department of the magazine Der Pionier . As the editor in charge, he was imprisoned for three months on various criminal proceedings. In 1912 he resigned as an editor. He was also the publisher of the anarcho-syndicalist daily newspaper The Creation . The creation was the organ of the FAUD (anarcho-syndicalists) and published articles about the syndicalist women's associations, educational and settler projects as well as about individualistic anarchism . In the magazine, Köster primarily promoted rural communes and settlement cooperatives.

Together with Helmut Rüdiger , Augustin Souchy , Max Winkler and Gerhard Wartenberg , he worked as an editor for the magazine Der Syndikalist .

Via Köster there was a connection to the women's magazine Die schaffende Frau , which was published by his wife Aimée Köster.

Fritz Köster also published under the pseudonym "Fridolin Cyclop".

Fonts (selection)

  • Fight and victory of the approx. 1000 field workers from Groß Ottersleben and the surrounding area in May 1910
  • The nameless. Memories of a German proletarian. In the magazine “Die Tribüne”, 1911/1912 (more than 20 episodes).

further reading

  • Hartmut Rübner : Freedom and Bread. The Free Workers' Union of Germany. A Study of the History of Anarcho-Syndicalism. Pp. 80, 83, 84, 87, 161, 172, 177, 186. Libertad Verlag , Potsdam 1994. ISBN 3-922226-21-3 .
  • Hans Bursian, Willi Mader: Collection of sources on the history of the Magdeburg labor movement from its beginnings to the present. Part 2. Series of publications by the Chair of History at the Pedagogical Institute Magdeburg. Issue 4. Magdeburg 1966.
  • Hans-Manfred Bock: Anarcho-Syndicalism in Germany. An interim balance. In: "International scientific correspondence on the history of the German labor movement". Issue 3, pp. 293 to 358. Free University of Berlin, Department of Political and Social Sciences. Basisdruck Verlag, Berlin 1989
  • Max Nettlau (Ed.), History of Anarchy . In collaboration with the International Institute for Social History (IISG, Amsterdam). Newly published by Heiner Becker. Library Thélème, Münster 1993, 1st edition, reprint of the Berlin edition, Verlag Der Syndikalist , 1927.
    • History of Anarchy , Vol. 5, p. 237
  • Dieter Fricke, Rudolf Knaak: Documents from secret archives. Overviews by the Berlin political police on the general situation of the social democratic and anarchist movement, 1907-1913 . Berliner Wissenschaftsverlag, 1983. ISBN 978-3-8305-0163-3

Web links

Brief information in the database of German-speaking anarchism (DadA) about magazines in which Fritz Köster had worked:

Individual evidence

  1. FAU Düsseldorf . Biographical information about Fritz Köster. Retrieved November 24, 2012
  2. ^ Author: Ludwig Unruh . Biography. University of Magdeburg. Last modified on September 26, 2005. Accessed November 20, 2012
  3. ^ Anti-authoritarian socialism in Magdeburg . Anarchists, syndicalists and social revolutionaries in the Börde (1878-1945) . Part 1: The Beginnings (1878–1887). Retrieved November 20, 2012
  4. Cf. on this: Dieter Fricke, Rudolf Knaak: Documents from secret archives . P. 625
  5. See on this: Hans Manfred Bock: Anarcho-Syndikalismus in Deutschland. A balance sheet . In: "International Scientific Correspondence on the History of the German Labor Movement". S. 303. Berlin 1989. Quotation: "The propaganda activity was reinforced in addition to the more moderate" unity "by the publisher of the anarchist-syndicalist weekly newspaper" Der Pionier "with one of 4,500 copies by the anarchist Fritz Köster from 1911 to 1914" .
  6. See on this: Hartmut Rübner, Freiheit und Brot .
  7. Ulrich Linse - The Black Crowds . "An anti-fascist struggle organization of German anarchists". From: Archives for the history of resistance and work. No. 9, Germinal Verlag, 1989. Quote: “It is true that the anarcho-syndicalists, supported primarily by Fritz Köster and his Düsseldorf daily newspaper“ Die Schöpf. Social Revolutionary Organ for New Socialist Land ”, experiments with rural communes and settlement cooperatives took place in the post-war inflationary years; but the FAUD business commission rejected precisely this new path to utopia as incompatible with the basic principles of syndicalism ” .
  8. Biographical information about Aimée Köster . Retrieved November 20, 2012