Georg Bassler

Georg Bassler (born July 1, 1857 in Stuttgart , † April 16, 1900 in Heslach, Stuttgart-Süd ) was a German social democrat , printer of social democratic magazines in Stuttgart and temporarily editor in chief of the satirical magazine Der Wahre Jacob .

Life

Georg Bassler was the son of a freight conductor and was raised pietistically . He did an apprenticeship as a typesetter and took part as an apprentice in the three-month strike of the printing unions in 1872. The strike was successful insofar as the demands for a 20% wage increase and the 10-hour day could be enforced.

In 1874 he went on the roll . A handwritten travel diary - a socio-historical rarity - has been preserved: My first stroll abroad: from August 24th to September 28th, 1874; Travel diary from Stuttgart via Hanover to Leipzig. The House of History Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart has a copy . While imprisoned in 1881, Bassler completed the writing and concluded with the sentence: "Finished on March 7th (1881) in the Stuttgart Palace of Justice".

In it, Bassler professes to atheism , to the labor movement and its ideals “internationalism, solidarity, brotherhood” - although he harbored a deep dislike for North Germans in general and Prussia in particular. Hatred of Prussia was not uncommon in the South German Social Democrats; it was directed primarily against Bismarck , the initiator of the Socialist Law , and against the Prussian form of government.

In 1880 Bassler and his bride Caroline Frank were sentenced to several weeks in prison: he had sent several copies of the banned magazine Der Sozialdemokrat to his brother Christian, who had emigrated to the USA . In fact, Bassler was also one of the liaisons who organized the illegal distribution of the magazine, which was printed abroad and smuggled into the country.

In 1882, Bassler founded the Schwäbisches Wochenblatt , the third press organ of the Württemberg social democracy under the Socialist Act, which, unlike its two predecessors, did not fall victim to a socialist law ban. The publisher was JHW Dietz , who had been expelled from Hamburg and had relocated his business to Stuttgart in 1882. On April 1, 1882, the first issue appeared in an edition of 1200 copies; until 1888 Bassler was an editor himself. From 1881 he also worked as a typesetter in Dietz 'printing house, which produced Karl Kautsky's Die Neue Zeit . From 1885 Neue Zeit appeared in Bassler's own print shop, where Der Wahre Jacob also appeared from 1888 . From 1890 until his death in 1900 he was responsible for the Wahren Jacob as editor, where he was possibly only the seat editor - in any case, no articles signed by his name can be proven.

In Stuttgart, Bassler was one of the most politically active social democrats. He was active in SAP by 1877 at the latest . The more liberal Stuttgart has been a reservoir for trade unions and social democrats since the Socialist Law was passed in 1878. During this time, the social democratic associations Bassler co-founded often posed as dance and entertainment clubs. After 1890 Bassler was able to agitate publicly again. In 1895 Bassler ran for the state parliament, but was defeated in the second ballot after presumably manipulated elections. When Bassler died in 1900, he had the reputation of an important labor leader in Württemberg.

literature

• Georg Baßler † . In: The True Jacob . No. 360 of May 8, 1900, p. 3244 digitized
• Ege, Konrad: Caricature and pictorial satire in the German Empire: The "True Jacob", Hamburg 1879/80, Stuttgart 1884-1914; Media history, employees, editors-in-chief, graphics. Muenster; Hamburg: Lit 1992. ISBN 3-88660-807-7
• Graf, Angela: JHW Dietz 1843-1922. Publisher of the Social Democrats , Bonn 1998
• Rieber, Christof: The Socialist Law and Social Democracy . Stuttgart 1984