Gerhard Cammann

Gerhard Cammann (born December 5, 1875 in Rees , † January 8, 1955 in Düsseldorf ) was a German local politician of the German Center Party and a member of the Provisional Reich Economic Council during the Weimar Republic .

Life

Born the son of a day laborer, he learned the trade of a cigar maker after attending primary school in Rees on the Lower Rhine. Since 1905 he was married and co-founder of the local group Rees of the "Christian-Social Association of Tobacco and Cigarette Workers in Germany" founded in 1899. The organization traded under the name "Association of Christian Tobacco and Cigar Workers in Germany" since 1906 and renamed itself in 1911 to "Central Association of Christian Tobacco Workers in Germany". When the local group was founded, Cammann took on the post of shop steward, and a short time later his colleagues made him a local group cashier and chairman of the local group. In 1903 he took part in a course organized by the Volksverein for Catholic Germany in Mönchengladbach . In the same year the general assembly of the association elected him as the main cashier and in 1904 as the association chairman. In this office Cammann was confirmed until 1933 on all national trade union days. The election as union chairman was combined with a full-time position since July 1, 1904.

In 1903 the Christian trade union mustered 920 members in 117 local groups; 1912 7,172 members in 124 local groups. In 1921 the "Central Association of Christian Tobacco Workers in Germany", like almost all other unions in the Weimar Republic , also reached its highest level with 41,179 members in 502 local groups. At the end of 1930 the association had only 21,702 members in 330 local groups. Of these, 4,431 were male and 17,271 female members. At the end of the Weimar Republic, the Christian tobacco workers' union had organized around 15% of those employed in the tobacco industry . The focus of the organization was on the Lower Rhine , in northern Baden , in the East Westphalian region and in the Catholic Eichsfeld .

In addition to his work as chairman, from 1905 to 1909 and from 1914 to 1920, at the same time, Cammann edited the association organ "Deutsche Tabakarbeiter-Zeitung" (since 1914: "Tabakarbeiter-Zeitung"). Politically, Cammann was on the left wing of the Center Party . Its central association was opposed by the corporate side as well as the socialist free "German Tobacco Workers Association". Cammann played a central role in one of the largest labor disputes on the Lower Rhine , the 1901 tobacco workers lockout in Kaldenkirchen . The Christian association under Cammann's leadership was also involved in the major labor disputes in central Germany in 1927 with massive lockouts. Despite being close to the free trade unions on wage and collective bargaining issues, the Catholic rejected merger offers. He did not want to work with atheist organizations.

Cammann was chairman of a "women's union" because 80% of the employees in the German tobacco industry were female at the end of the Weimar Republic . At association days, he urged women to be better represented on union bodies. He was close to employers' associations in financial and tax matters. Together with the tobacco industrialists, he fought against higher tobacco taxes and levies. Cammann and his association made no concessions to National Socialism until the end of the Weimar Republic . In June 1933, under political pressure, he approved the integration of his association into the German Labor Front . Dismissed from all offices in the summer of 1933, he remained unemployed. In 1938 he lived as a social pensioner in Düsseldorf and died there.

Offices

From 1903 to 1909 until the relocation of the association's headquarters from Geldern to Düsseldorf, Cammann represented the Center Party as a city councilor in Rees . In response to the great tobacco workers' lockout in 1901 on the Lower Rhine , the Christian association founded its own cooperative cigar factory in Kaldenkirchen . Gerhard Cammann was appointed chairman of the supervisory board. After the cooperative cigar factory in the Weimar Republic passed into the possession of the Christian trade union " Gepag ", large purchasing and production stock corporation of German consumer associations, Cammann remained on the supervisory board of the "Gepag cigar factory" Kaldenkirchen.

After 1918, Cammann worked in the tobacco industry's trust committee to regulate tobacco consumption in the post-war period; he also worked as a member of the foreign trade office for the tobacco industry in the tobacco industry's expert advisory board of the delegates of the Reich Commissioner for export and import permits and the economic committee for the tobacco industry occupied territory. Member of the Provisional Reich Economic Council from 1920 to 1928, on which the trade unionists of all political directions, as "2nd Chamber", had high hopes.

In 1920 the " International Federation of Christian Tobacco Workers' Associations " was established with its seat in Düsseldorf (1920: 58,000 members in 5 countries). All meetings of the professional international unanimously confirmed Cammann as chairman until 1932. With the help of Belgian and Dutch sister associations, Cammann managed to mitigate the worst effects of inflation in 1923 for his association. Cammann was also a member of the "General Association of Christian Trade Unions" , the committee of the "General Association of Christian Trade Unions" and the committee of the German Federation of Trade Unions .

Works

• Home work in the tobacco industry. Central Association of Christian Tobacco Workers, Düsseldorf 1925.

literature

• Willy Buschak : From people who wanted to live like people. The history of the food-pleasure-restaurants union and its predecessors. Bund-Verl., Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-7663-0922-6 .
• Otto Bernhard: Cammann, Gerhard. In: Ludwig Heyde (Hrsg.): International dictionary of trade unions. Verlag Werk und Wissenschaft Verlagsges., Berlin 1932, p. 293.
• Gerhard Cammann 50 years. In: Tobacco Workers Newspaper. Volume 23, No. 49, December 3, 1926.
• Association chairman for 25 years! In: Tobacco Workers Newspaper. Volume 26, No. 20, May 17, 1929.