Commercial educational association
On February 19, 1861, at the suggestion of the Polytechnic Society and some liberals, the Industrial Education Association in Leipzig was founded.
history
Commercial educational association
The founding ceremony took place in the Wiener Saal der Blauen Mütze , a restaurant near the Rosental . The 21-year-old apprentice wood turner August Bebel was among the participants . When the association was founded, there were already different views. It was planned to found the new association as a department of the Polytechnic Society and under the auspices of the same, and to make the education of workers a priority. This plan was vehemently opposed by the former Frankfurt parliamentarian Emil Adolf Roßmaessler , as well as Julius Vahlteich and FW Fritzsche . They even demanded the full independence of the association and were of the opinion that it should not be the task of a workers' association to fill in the gaps in elementary school education, but rather that the aim should be to introduce the workers to politics and public life. The great majority of the participants could not warm to these views and the opposition was prudent enough to submit to the majority. When the association was founded, it had an impressive 400 members.
On February 26, 1861, the election of the administrative committee took place, a curriculum was drawn up, which came into effect on March 5. The architect Oscar Mothes was elected as chairman of the committee . From March 9, 1861 lectures were held, lecturers were u. a. the physician Carl Ernst Bock , the natural scientist Emil Adolf Roßmaessler and the historian Heinrich Wuttke . A lecture by Wuttke on March 19 about the peasant unrest in the 16th century caused waves to hit the top floors of the Saxon State Ministry. The association was threatened with dissolution. This shows how exactly the association was monitored by the Leipzig Police Office in order to be able to pursue burgeoning political tendencies in a democratic direction. On March 30th, the educational association moved into its new domicile, a leased bar called the “Leipziger Salon”. Lessons in arithmetic, calligraphy, bookkeeping, drawing, speaking exercises and singing took place three times a week. Various gymnastics equipment was purchased for the gymnastics lessons. At the request of Roßäßler, the establishment of a nuturhistorical (forerunner of the Leipzig Natural History Museum ) and, at the suggestion of Mothes, a technological collection was tackled. At the end of the year, lessons in Gabelsberg shorthand were introduced .
The industrial education association celebrated its first foundation festival on February 22nd, 1862 in the Centralhalle . The foundation speech was given by Christoph Heinrich Hirzel , chairman of the Polytechnic Society. Another speech by Vahlteich let the existing differences break up again and both parties were equally strong. The new election of the committee took place on March 9th, at which August Bebel was elected as head of the club library and the department for amusements of the industrial education club, Mothes won the chairmanship before Roßäßler. A new election of the committee took place on April 2nd. Again Rossäßler lost with one vote because Mothes had chosen himself.
The opposition now carried the fight to the General Assembly, which took place on April 18, 1862. The opposition again put forward their old demand to make the association a purely political one and to exclude teaching from it. The application by J. Vahlteich and FW Fritzsche was rejected by the government and also by August Bebel. Thereupon the association split, the opposition founded on August 11, 1862 in the Hôtel de Saxe the " Association Forward ", which dealt only with political and social issues. As a result of this split, the number of members of the industrial training association dropped from 463 to 320 in 1862.
At the 2nd foundation festival on February 21, 1863, the foundation speech was given by Christoph Heinrich Hirzel, as in the previous year in the Centralhalle. The master shoemaker Christian Friedrich Heinrich Rudloff was elected as the new chairman , he looked back on the past year of the association. Then the then 23-year-old Bebel spoke. In his speech he stuck to his opinion to keep politics out of the educational association in order to concentrate entirely on the further training of the workers. Bebel concluded with the wish that everywhere, but especially at a decisive point, the conviction should be gained that the working class is not striving for revolutions but for further training. In addition to the professional lectures that took place regularly, other subjects such as commercial business, orthography and style, as well as French were introduced.
In order to escape from the guardianship of the Polytechnic Society, the decision was made to seek separation from it. The "parent company" was only too happy to get rid of the supervisory duties imposed by the authorities on the industrial training association. The petition for separation was made on August 19, 1863, and on December 14, the Ministry of the Interior approved the application.
The 3rd foundation festival of the industrial education association took place on February 27, 1864 again in the Centralhalle. Karl Biedermann gave the speech . On April 1, 1864, the lease for the "Leipziger Salon" expired. After a long search, new accommodation was found in the Hôtel de Bavière . All attempts to build their own house for the educational association failed due to funding. With losses, a property that had already been bought had to be sold again.
Workers' education association
In 1865 there were union negotiations between the commercial educational association and the "Vorwärts association". Representatives of the forward agreed to recognize the statutes and the administration of the industrial education association, but demanded the maintenance of their savings and credit funds as well as the consumer association and they demanded a name change. The designation "workers' association" was discarded due to confusion and instead adopted as the new common name of the Arbeiterbildungsverein . The 4th foundation celebration of the industrial education association was combined with the celebration of the association with the “Association Forward”. The official merger of the two associations took place on March 20, 1865.
We
are pleased to announce to our German brother associations that the
“Gewerbl. Bildungsverein "and" Verein Vorwärts "
have united under the name
" Arbeiterbildungsverein zu Leipzig "
.
We therefore ask that all mailings be sent to the
undersigned board from now on .
Leipzig, March 20, 1865.
The board of the workers'
education association Dr. Reyher, chairman.
M. Germann, secretary.
The board of the industrial training association became de facto the board of the workers' education association. This also applied to the 2nd chairman August Bebel and the main cashier Max Epstein. Bebel was elected 1st chairman in the summer of 1865, and he held this position until 1872. When Liebknecht settled in Leipzig in 1865, he met August Bebel, who was 14 years his junior, in the workers' education association. In the period that followed, Liebknecht and Bebel developed not only close political cooperation, but also a lifelong personal friendship.
Like its two predecessors, the Arbeiterbildungsverein (ABV) was organized in an exemplary manner. It offered an extensive and high-quality teaching and lecture program, had a well-stocked library and an extensive range of newspapers. In addition there were the institutions founded by the association, such as the Sparkasse des Konsumvereins and the credit cooperative.
The premises in the Hôtel de Bavière were too limited, after a long search the workers' education association was able to find a suitable club location in Ritterstr. 43 rent. The complex move took place at the beginning of January 1866. The workers' education association found a permanent home here until 1877. On April 9, 1866, Bebel married his Julie Otto in the workers' education association, he met her at the 2nd foundation festival of the industrial education association in 1863.
Bebel was elected to the constituent Reichstag in February 1867 . In the Saxon constituency of Glauchau- Meerane , he won against the Lassallean Friedrich Wilhelm Fritzsche. At the 6th Foundation Festival of the Workers' Education Association in 1867, Bebel, as a newly elected member of the Reichstag, presented the activity report. In the eighth year of foundation of the Bildungsverein, in 1869, Bebel and Liebknecht founded the Social Democratic Workers' Party (SDAP) .
At the foundation festivals, which were attended by numerous participants, often also by individual city councilors and city councilors, a celebratory speech was always given, often by a well-known personality, until 1867, followed by the statement of accounts. The chairman Bebel made it clear in a speech that the association had never neglected its educational purposes, despite the further development in the political and social field. The association stuck to its tasks to enlighten its members in every respect and to make them spiritually independent. A traditional speech given by Wilhelm Liebknecht in 1872 deserves special mention. He put it under the motto "Knowledge is power - power is knowledge". This brilliant speech became one of the great speeches of the 19th century.
The annual report never lacked the obligatory overview of the association's activities, such as the attendance of the lessons and the financial situation of the association. The extensive teaching and lecture program came up, as well as the number of club members, the library, with a variety of books and the numerous newspapers that were on display in the club. New subjects were added, English in 1866, and speech practice (rhetoric) in 1875. Statistics from 1877 say that out of 4,371 members, 133 professions were represented. The association was financed by membership fees, donations and the income from festivities. There was no need to worry about the sociability in the workers' association, there were events all year round, from Christmas, the foundation celebration, the summer festival and the autumn festival, there were amusements in every season.
A large number of lectures were given in the workers' education association, e.g. B. in history, natural science, medicine, commercial lectures, law and law and physical experiments. Teachers and people from various professions acted as speakers. The association was able to inform the members about interesting topics such as witch trials and the German royal courts in the last century, from Kaufmann Cramer , about materialism from editor Geiser , about "the German song" from student phil. Wittich , Hans Blum , lecture on the German constitution and Wolfgang Eras , the principles of Lassalle and the term “work”, to name just a few. Many lectures were given free of charge.
The 10th Foundation Festival in 1871 was not under a good star.August Bebel, who was re-elected 1st Chairman, was unable to take part because of his conviction in the Leipzig high treason trial to two years in prison at the Hubertusburg , the soul of the association was missing for the first time at a foundation festival . In his place, the 2nd chairman, the chemist and writer Wilhelm Baer, gave the report. Baer denounced the cancellation of the annual subsidy; the city council had decided to grant the local workers' education association the support of 200 thalers. withdraw for educational purposes.
In the spring of 1877, the workers' education association's long-term domicile in Ritterstrasse was terminated. The board found it difficult to find a new club location, it should be centrally located and just as spacious as the "old one". At the last moment a possibility came up at Querstraße 24. In the meantime, events took place in alternative quarters, where Liebknecht and Hasenclever also gave lectures in a restaurant.
On October 26th, 1878, less than a week after the Socialist Law came into force , the Leipzig District Headquarters ordered the suppression of the Leipzig Workers' Education Association. As a precaution, the most important works of socialist literature had been removed from the club library. Complaints against the ban on the workers' education association were unsuccessful.
The workers' education association was one of the first victims of Bismarck's exceptional legislation against workers. In the Leipzig bourgeoisie , news of the dissolution was greeted with joy and satisfaction. After all, the Workers' Education Association, which had been started with so much hope, carefully developed through municipal support and other means, had caused its fathers a lot of trouble. Over the years the association moved away from the liberal bourgeoisie towards social democracy.
Not only Bebel had developed into a social democrat in this association; Liebknecht, too, had found a well-prepared place for his teaching here. He had taken advantage of this with great diligence, not only giving lectures here, but also giving lessons in English and German. With all his efforts he worked on the realization of his ideal of training young men from the working class to such an extent that they would be able to do everything they could to shape their lives and that of their classmates. Many a comrade was active in the labor movement who had received the first suggestion, the first instruction, in the workers' education association in Leipzig. The association was seen as the birthplace of German social democracy.
Less than four months after the workers' education association was destroyed , on February 20, 1879 , a “ training association for workers ” was founded in the “Old Schützenhaus”, which later became the “ Krystallpalast ” . Advocate Emil Otto Freytag took over the chairmanship, the painter and varnisher Heinrich Christoph Friedrich Bosse acted as 2nd chairman , who soon moved to the top.
Foundation festivals of the industrial education association and the workers education association from 1862 to 1878.
| No. | year | month | Local | Celebratory speech | Chairman |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | 1862 | 22.2 |
Central Hall |
Dr. Hirzel, Julius Vahlteich | Mothes |
| 2. | 1863 | 21.2 | Central Hall | Dr. Hirzel, August Bebel | Rudloff |
| 3. | 1864 | 27.2 | Central Hall | Member Wilde, Prof. Biedermann | Dr. Reyher |
| 4th | 1865 | 25.2 | Central Hall | Charcoal burner | Dr. Reyher |
| 5. | 1866 | 24.2 | Central Hall | Dr. Burghardt | Bebel |
| 6th | 1867 | 23.2 | Central Hall | Dr. Ströbe (canceled due to death) | Bebel |
| 7th | 1868 | 22.2 | Central Hall | Robert Schweichel | Bebel |
| 8th. | 1869 | 27.2 | Central Hall | Association member Kühner | Bebel |
| 9. | 1870 | 19.2 | Central Hall | Julius Motteler | Bebel |
| 10. | 1871 | 18.2 |
Tivoli |
Dr. Wilhelm Baer (tenth anniversary) | Bebel |
| 11. | 1872 | 24.2 | Tivoli | Wilhelm Liebknecht | Bebel |
| 12. | 1873 | 22.2 |
Tonhalle |
Robert Schweichel | Heidemann |
| 13. | 1874 | 21.2 | Tonhalle | August Geib | - |
| 14th | 1875 | 27.2 | Tonhalle | Wilhelm Liebknecht | Judge |
| 15th | 1876 | 19.2 | Tonhalle | August Bebel | - |
| 16. | 1877 | 10.2 | Tonhalle | Johann Most | Witt |
| 17th | 1878 | 23.2 | Tonhalle | Julius Motteler | Witt |
literature
- August Bebel: From my life: Part one.
- Wolfgang Schröder : Leipzig - the cradle of the German labor movement. Roots and development of the workers' education association 1848/49 to 1878/81.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Schröder: Leipzig - the cradle of the German labor movement. Roots and development of the workers' education association 1848/49 to 1878/81. Page 120 ff.
Web links
- ZeitOnline, By Volker Ullrich: In spite of all this and all that. The correspondence between August Bebel and his wife Julie. digital
- Chamber Choir Leipziger Volkssingakademie eV Our history
- NDR: The establishment of the industrial education association in Leipzig. digital
- Brigitte Beier: The Chronicle of the Germans. digital