Fritz grief

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Fritz Kummer, sitting on a camel.

Fritz Kummer (also: Friedrich Kummer, pseudonym : Chagrin; born June 1, 1875 in Albrechts , Province of Saxony ; † September 1937 in New York City ) was a German metal worker, social democratic unionist and travel writer.

Life and origin

Facsimile of the signature of Fritz Kummer under the "Appeal to British Fair Play" from 1920, p. 13

Fritz Kummer was born on June 1, 1875 in Albrechts as the son of a social-democratic nail blacksmith . He learned the locksmith trade in Suhl - according to other information: in Erfurt . He joined the labor movement early on. In 1898 the German workers' association in Geneva elected him its president. Kummer was a member of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). From 1900 to 1903 he was foreign correspondent for the social democratic newspaper “ Vorwärts ”. Kummer moved from Switzerland to Belgium, where he lived in 1902/1903 and where a. also wrote for the social democratic weekly newspaper “ Die Neue Zeit ”. He must have lived and worked temporarily in Austria and France ( before his world tour).

Probably between 1907 and 1911 - the exact period of his trip is no longer known today - Kummer undertook a three-year trip around the world, with longer stays mainly in the USA, but also in Japan. He set sail from Bremerhaven on the steamship Fidelia of the shipping company " Norddeutscher Lloyd " to New York City. and then crossed the United States from its east to west coast, where he u. a. passed through Pittsburg , Chicago , St. Louis , Denver and Salt Lake City , and finally reached San Francisco . Kummer then visited Hawaii , which at that time was not yet part of the United States and was also known as the (northern) Sandwich Islands.

There is evidence that Fritz Kummer arrived in Yokohama, Japan , on the British steamship Asia from San Francisco at the end of July 1909 . He visited Tokyo , Osaka and Nagasaki in Japan, Shanghai in China, the then British crown colonies Hong Kong and Singapore , Colombo in Sri Lanka (then: Ceylon; a British colony), Port Said and Cairo in the then British-ruled Egypt and Jerusalem , which at that time belonged to the Ottoman Empire . On the way home he also briefly visited Naples, Italy .

About his trip, Fritz Kummer wrote the book “Eine Arbeiters Weltreise”, the first edition of which was published in 1913 by the publishing house of Alexander Schlicke & Co. in Stuttgart , the publishing house of the metal industry union ( IG Metall ), which also runs the “metal workers newspaper “Relocated. The second edition (11th – 16th thousand) of his travelogue appeared in December 1924 in the Thuringian publishing house and printing house in Jena . A reprint, edited by Horst Groschopp , was published in 1984 by Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag with an edition of 8,000 copies. In his travel report, Kummer describes in detail the living conditions and way of life of the workers in the countries he has visited, as well as their political and trade union organization. In his report from the USA, he describes, among other things, the situation of German immigrants.

Kummer's travelogue is illustrated with more than a hundred photographs, most of which he took himself.

From 1900 until 1925, Kummer worked as an employee of various European and American workers' newspapers and magazines. He also wrote and sent articles on the way, some of which appeared under his pseudonym “Chagrin” (French for grief). Kummer had already mastered the French language before starting his trip and learned English at the latest during the trip . After returning from his world tour, Kummer was an assessor in Frankfurt am Main from 1911 to 1913 on the board of the metalworkers' association . Little is known about Kummer's whereabouts during the First World War . He may have worked as a locksmith in a metalworking company that made grenades .

Kummer was one of the signatories of the "Appeal to British fair play" from 1920, which was directed against individual provisions of the Versailles Peace Treaty . In October 1921, Kummer became editor of the high-circulation "Metallarbeiter-Zeitung". With the “ seizure of power ” by the National Socialists in January 1933, the political situation in Germany became dangerous for the social democratic trade unionist Kummer. In May 1933 he was taken into “ protective custody ” for two months and was taken to a concentration camp in the quarry near Bad Sulza . After that, Kummer was able to flee to the Czechoslovak Republic (ČSR). After a brief activity as an editor in Prague , he fled to the USA in 1934. In September 1937 Fritz Kummer was killed in a traffic accident in his New York exile. In 1938 he was sentenced to death in absentia by the Nazis.

Publications (selection)

"A Worker's World Tour", by Fritz Kummer, cover, 2nd edition, Jena 1924
  • Kummer, Fritz, The Successes of the Belgian Socialists: The Belgian Elections
  • Kummer, Fritz, The Belgian Trade Union Movement
  • Chagrin [= grief, Fritz], on the art of metalworking
  • Chagrin [= grief, Fritz], class struggles on the Sandwich Islands
  • Chagrin [= Kummer, Fritz], living conditions of the lower classes in China
  • Chagrin [= Kummer, Fritz], industry and workers in Japan
  • Kummer, Fritz, forays into the English industrial districts
  • Kummer, Fritz, The large industrial enterprise
  • Kummer, Fritz, Critical consideration of the Stuttgart mayoral election
  • Sorrow, Fritz, Au pays du Soleil Levant. Lettres sur le Japon (German: In the land of the rising sun - letters about Japan )
  • Sorrow, Fritz, Crime and Criminals in America
  • Kummer, Fritz, The Story of Great American Fortunes
  • Kummer, Fritz, The History of Great American Fortunes (End)
  • Sorrow, Fritz, Progress and Poverty in Japan
  • Kummer, Fritz, Zu Nogis Tod (about Kiten Nogi , a Japanese field marshal who passed away on September 12, 1912 by ritual suicide at the funeral service for the Japanese emperor Mutsuhito ).
  • Kummer, Fritz, a worker's trip around the world

swell

  • Horst Groschopp, the "proletarian globetrotter" F. Kummer. On German workers' travel literature until 1933
  • Kummer, Fritz, pseud. Chagrin
  • Horst Groschopp, Kummer, Fritz (Ps. Chagrin)
  • Regine Mathias, Fritz Kummer: A German worker in Japan before the First World War
  • Horst Groschopp, epilogue to: A worker's trip around the world
  • Obituary for Fritz Kummer
  • Almanac for art and culture in the Suhl district

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Horst Groschopp, "The" proletarian globetrotter "F. Kummer. On German workers' travel literature until 1933 ”, in: Weimarer contributions (WB), Aufbau-Verlag 1985, no. 12, p. 2030
  2. ^ Kummer, Fritz , in: Rudolf Vierhaus (ed.), Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie (DBE) Vol .: Kraatz - Menges, Verlag Walter de Gruyter, 2011, p. 152 in the Google book search
  3. ↑ Horst Groschopp, epilogue, in: Fritz Kummer. A Worker's World Tour, Leipzig 1986, p. 398–415, p. 402, e = 5
  4. ↑ An indication (if not proof) of this is the fact that Fritz Kummer published articles about elections and trade unions in Belgium in the social democratic weekly newspaper “Die Neue Zeit” in 1902 and 1903
  5. ↑ “Generally speaking, the dwellings of the foreign proletarians in the Pennsylvanian industrial area are better than their reputation. I lived in Belgium, Austria and Germany in worse places. ”, Fritz Kummer writes in: A Worker's World Tour , 2nd edition, Jena 1924, Thuringian publishing house and printing company GmbH, in the chapter Die Koysten der Weltreise on page 98
  6. ↑ "In France, the friendliness of my vice colleagues turned the stupid aversion to the» hereditary enemy «, which was inoculated in the Prussian school, into affection for him; ..." writes Fritz Kummer in: Eine Arbeiters Weltreise , 2nd edition, Jena 1924 , Thüringer Verlagsanstalt und Druckerei GmbH, in the chapter Die Koysten der Weltreise on page 417
  7. ↑ Horst Groschopp, "Fritz Kummer"
  8. ↑ Fritz Kummer, A Worker's World Tour, Jena 1924
  9. ^ The Japan Daily Mail, Yokohama, July 31, 1909, p. 147, publisher: A. H. Blackwell
  10. ↑ see: The Federal Archives, BStU, Ministry of Culture [of the GDR] - Part 3: HV publishers and book trade - Printing approval processes - 1 Printing approval processes for publications by publishers in the GDR 1947 - 1991 - 1.4 alphabetically by publishers 1953 - 1991 (including alphabetically by Authors or by title) - 1.4.1 Fiction publishers (digitized) - 1.4.1.7 Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag Leipzig and Weimar - DR 1/3704 Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag Leipzig and Weimar, 1987 https://www.bundesarchiv.de/digitalisate/dr1_druck /DR_1_3704/DR_1_3704_177.png
  11. ↑ a b Horst Groschopp, epilogue, in: Fritz Kummer. A worker's trip around the world. Leipzig 1986, pp. 398-415, p. 402
  12. ↑ Horst Groschopp, epilogue, in: Fritz Kummer. A worker's trip around the world. New edition, Leipzig 1986, pp. 398–415, p. 403
  13. ↑ Horst Groschopp, epilogue, in: Fritz Kummer, Eine Arbeiters Weltreise, new edition, Leipzig 1986, pp. 398–415, pp. 408 f.
  14. ↑ Fritz Kummer was a signatory No. 50 of “An appeal to British fair play”, 1920, p. 24. He is referred to there as: “Editor of the Metallarbeiter-Zeitung, Official Organ of German Metal Workers Union; Member of the Social Democratic Party "
  15. ↑ Facsimile of Fritz Kummer's signature there on p. 13
  16. ↑ Horst Groschopp, epilogue, in: Fritz Kummer. A worker's trip around the world. New edition, Leipzig 1986, pp. 398–415, p. 403
  17. ↑ a b Horst Groschopp, "Kummer, Fritz (Ps. Chagrin)", in: Simone Barck, Silvia Schlenstedt, Tanja Bürgel, Volker Giel, Dieter Schiller (ed.), Lexicon of socialist literature: Your story in Germany until 1945, Springer -Verlag, 2016, 580 pages, p. 272 in the Google book search
  18. ↑ in: The new time - weekly of the German social democracy. (1902), pp. 20, 1901-1902, 2nd vol. (1902), H. 10 = 36, pp. 301-305
  19. ↑ in: Die neue Zeit - Wochenschrift der deutschen Sozialdemokratie, (1903), p. 21, 1902-1903, 2nd volume (1903), H. 30, pp. 109-116
  20. ^ In: Metallarbeiter-Zeitung, Stuttgart 27 (May 29, 1909) 22, p. 171 f. (1st chapter); (June 5, 1909) 23, p. 178 (2nd part)
  21. ↑ in: The new time - weekly of the German social democracy. (1910), pp. 28, 1909-1910, 1st Vol. (1910), H. 1, pp. 17-21
  22. ↑ in: The new time - weekly of the German social democracy. (1910), pp. 28, 1909-1910, 1. Vol. (1910), H. 15, pp. 534-539
  23. ↑ Oe.M. 1910. XX. Pp. 27-33
  24. ↑ Oe. M. 1910. XX. Pp. 50-52; 1911. XXI. Pp. 1-8, 2041
  25. ↑ in: The new time - weekly of the German social democracy. (1911), p. 29, 1910-1911, 2nd Vol. (1911), H. 27, pp. 26-28
  26. ↑ in: The new time - weekly of the German social democracy. (1911), pp. 29, 1910-1911, 2nd Vol. (1911), H. 35, pp. 285-293
  27. ^ Les Documents du Socialisme, IV) Paris, Rivière, 1911. Translated by Léon Rémy
  28. ↑ in: The new time - weekly of the German social democracy. (1912), pp. 30, 1911-1912, 1. Vol. (1912), H. 1, pp. 22-29
  29. ↑ (1st part), in: The new time - weekly journal of the German social democracy. (1912), pp. 30.1911-1912, 2nd Vol. (1912), H. 28, pp. 37-48
  30. ↑ in: The new time - weekly of the German social democracy. (1912), pp. 30, 1911-1912, 2nd Vol. (1912), H. 31, pp. 167-176
  31. ↑ in: The new time - weekly of the German social democracy. (1912), pp. 30, 1911-1912, 2nd Vol. (1912), H. 52, pp. 1007-1015
  32. ↑ in: The new time - weekly of the German social democracy. (1913), pp. 31, 1912-1913, 1. Vol. (1913), H. 2, pp. 64-67
  33. ↑ 1st edition: 1913 published by Alexander Schlicke & Co. in Stuttgart 1913; 2nd edition (11th – 16th thousand): December 1924 in the Thuringian publishing house and printing house in Jena 1924. Reprint, published by Horst Groschopp, in Gustav Kiepenheuer Verlag, Berlin and Weimar, 1986
  34. ↑ in: Weimar Contributions, 1985, no.12
  35. ^ Rudolf Vierhaus (ed.), Deutsche Biographische Enzyklopädie (DBE) vol .: Kraatz - Menges, Walter de Gruyter 2011, 927 pages in the Google book search
  36. ^ Simone Barck, Silvia Schlenstedt, Tanja Bürgel, Volker Giel, Dieter Schiller, Lexicon of socialist literature: Your story in Germany until 1945, p. 272 in the Google book search
  37. ↑ in: Mathias, Regine; Kudō, Akira; Tajima, Nobuo; Pauer, Erich (Ed.), Japan and Germany: two latecomers to the world stage, 1890 - 1945 , (3 volumes), Publisher: Global Oriental, Kent 2009, ISBN 9789004217881 , pp. 406-430
  38. ^ New edition from 1986 by Verlag Gustav Kiepenheuer, Berlin and Weimar, 1986, from p. 398, On Fritz Kummer's biography from p. 402 (p. 5 of the PDF file)
  39. ↑ in: Communication from the International Metalworkers' Union, Bern 14, January 1, 1938, p. 1
  40. ↑ ed. from the Suhl District Council, Culture Department, Issue No. 7, 1986, p. 5
personal data
SURNAME Grief, Fritz
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Chagrin (pseudonym); Grief, Friedrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German metal worker, social democratic trade unionist and travel writer
DATE OF BIRTH June 1, 1875
PLACE OF BIRTH Albrechts
DATE OF DEATH September 1937
Place of death New York City