Guild of libertarian book lovers

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Edition of Staatsräson by Erich Mühsam from the Guild of Freedom Book Friends

The Guild of Freedom Book Friends existed from 1929 to 1933 as a book club , a cultural - political anarcho-syndicalist organization with the aim of making liberal literature available to the working population at low cost and promoting interest in art , culture and literature .

founding

The Guild of Freedom Book Friends (GfB) was founded in Berlin in 1929; an initiative of the Berlin Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD). In the Weimar Republic , organizations of the labor movement founded independent book clubs with different cultural and political orientations, namely:

During the five years of the guild's existence, local associations were also founded in other cities: in Heilbronn, Braunschweig, Leipzig, Potsdam, Dresden, Breslau, Hamburg, Nuremberg, Göppingen and other places. The various local guilds were affiliated with the Reichsgilden management based in Berlin. Here the business of the guild and the publishing house were done by a Reichsgildenleiter. The local guilds decided every two years on a Reichsgildentag about the organizational matters of the groups. On May 1, 1929, the Guild of Freedom Book Friends published a magazine entitled Contemplation and Awakening , in which it published its statutes and clearly expressed the guild's view: “ Today more than ever, the glowing spark of intellectual and to fan the social revolution to a bright flame ... We want to advertise the ideas of free socialism not only dryly and theoretically, but right into life ... ”(from: No. 1, 1929). The editor in charge since 1931 was Helmut Rüdiger , who emigrated to Spain in November 1932. The publisher Werner Henneberger was arrested by the Gestapo in 1933 . The ASY-Verlags GmbH was also founded in Berlin in 1929 and was basically identical to the GfB. The publisher and secretary was initially Willi Jadau, from 1931 W. Henneberger. Guild homes with their own library and reading room were set up in Leipzig and Berlin.

history

The activities of the Guild of Freedom Book Friends were not limited to the publishing and sale of books ; cultural and political events were organized in most of the local groups from the very beginning. These events were intended as a contrast to the educational institutes of the centrally controlled trade unions and the established parties. The FAUD newspaper Der Syndikalist , published from 1918 to 1932 by the Fritz Kater publishing house and was in direct contact with the business commission of the Reich Guild Management in Berlin. After a thorough investigation, it was found that management had stolen a substantial amount of money from the publisher's administrative costs. Thereupon it was decided at the FAUD Reich Congress in 1928 to separate the publishing house and the business commission, as debts of 30,000 marks had also arisen. In 1929 the ASY publishing house was founded as an alternative. As early as April 1929, before the GfB was officially founded, a group was set up in Leipzig, independent of the Berlin book club, with its own statutes. Co-founder Arthur Holke wrote about it, “ Our guild wanted to be more than a book broker. We wanted to take part in the cultural work of the Leipzig workers ”(from: Reflection and Awakening , 1929). The Leipzig guild went public with a lecture by Rudolf Rocker about Maxim Gorki . The Göppingen guild had eighty members between 1929 and 1930, 10 of them from the FAUD ( reflection and awakening, 5th year 1933 ). The Berlin Guild Center had 800 members. The activist in Göppingen was Karl Dingler, who was sentenced to one year in prison and three months in a concentration camp in 1935 (Helge Döhring, Syndikalismus im Ländle ). Dingler survived the concentration camp . The publisher Arthur Holke from the publishing house Der Anarchist and author in Gilden-Zeitschrift died in 1940 in a concentration camp. The FAUD magazine Internationale was banned in October 1932. On March 5, 1933, FAUD suffered the same fate; four days later the ASY-Verlag was searched by the police. The Gestapo arrested ten activists of the Guild of Freedom Book Friends , including Werner Henneberger , Max Büttner and Paul Brunn. The GfB's correspondence and mailing lists were confiscated, as were books to the value of around 100,000 Reichsmarks.

In 1936 the Asy publishing house continued its activity in Barcelona. In 1947, the Guild of Freedom Book Friends was re-established in Bremen and published a newsletter in January 1948 with the title "The Guild" under the direction of Bernhard Koch (1901–1983). On August 23 and 24, 1947, a conference of the liberal book lovers took place in Darmstadt; in later years the GfB had close contact with the Federation of Liberal Socialists (FFS). In addition, the newsletter Our Voice (1954–1956), edited by Hans Weigl , was published in cooperation with the FFS .

Cultural activities

The events of the local guilds had educational policy content with slide shows, school pedagogy, music, discussions about painting, films and went beyond purely anarchist statements, but always about freedom of view. Lectures on August Strindberg , memories of Leon Trotsky's Mein Leben and George Grosz , topics on nudity, Mahatma Gandhi's struggle for freedom of the Indian people, Rudolf Rocker on Jack London and Upton Sinclair or Knut Hamsun . Helene Stöcker gave a lecture on marriage as a psychological problem . In memory of Gustav Landauer , Rocker gave a commemorative speech. Political issues were by no means taboo. Erich Mühsam spoke about revolutionary art and artists and rebels ; there was talk of Benito Mussolini and fascism in Italy as well as the world economic crisis . Helmut Rüdiger gave a lecture on the subject of war and literature , as well as on the art of Frans Masereel . FAUD member Karl Preiss spoke about the worker and his literature . Readers of the GfB-Zeitschrift Besinnung und Aufbruch were informed about the events , some with caricatures and illustrations. Individual issues and brochures had the function of the mass media as well as the writers Theodor Plievier and Emma Goldmann . The GfB-Verlag took over the publishing house Der Syndikalist R. Rockers Behind Barbed Wire and Grid Johann Most , Das Leben eine Rebellen ; by Alexander Bergmann Die Tat. Anarchist prison memories .

The most active local guilds were in Berlin, Braunschweig, Leipzig and Göppingen. The monthly events met with little response in the socialist and communist press of the time . Advertisements and editorial advice were rejected. In cooperation with FAUD, lecture tours were held in 1932 by Theodor Plievier, who appeared in twenty cities, and Emma Goldmann, who spoke in more than twenty local guilds in March and April 1932. Since E. Goldmann was viewed as a radical anarchist and she was exposed to attacks by National Socialists with a Jewish background , her lectures could not always be publicly announced and were disguised as a general meeting. In Schweinfurt she gave a speech without being named, instead the name of Milly Witkop- Rocker was announced. In the Swabian town of Göppingen, Plievier attracted around 500 visitors.

Publishing house works of the Guild of Freedom Book Friends

May 1, 1929 to December 31, 1932. From the Guild of Freedom Book Friends, Göppingen

  • Volume 1 : Bruno Vogel : Alf . Berlin 1929
  • Volume 2 : Fritz Gross: The Last Hour. Legends of Death . Berlin 1929
  • Volume 3 : Han Ryner : Nelti . Science novel, translated by Augustin Souchy , Berlin 1930
  • Volume 4 : Emile Pataud and Émile Pouget : The Last Stand . Revolutionary novel, translated by Rudolf Rocker, illustrated by Fermin Rocker; in parallel in ASY-Verlag and as a guild book, Berlin 1930
  • Volume 5 : Karl Plättner : The Central German Gang Leader. My life behind dungeon walls . Berlin 1930
  • Volume 6: Max Nettlau : Anarchists and Social Revolutionaries. The historical development of anarchism in the years 1880–1886 . Berlin 1931
  • Volume 7 : William Godwin : Caleb Williams or The Things As They Are . Berlin 1931
  • Volume 8 : Isaak Nahaman Steinberg : Violence and Terror in the Revolution. October Revolution or Bolshevism . (Takeover from Rowohlt Verlag), Berlin 1931
  • Volume 9 : Robert von Radetzky : On the edge of the sidewalk . Berlin 1931
  • Volume 10 : Erich Mühsam: Collection 1898–1928 poems and prose . (Acquisition from JM Spaeth Verlag, Berlin), GfB, Berlin 1928
  • Instead of an 11th volume : Malik, original editions to choose from: Theodor Plievier: The emperor left, the generals stayed . Ernst Ottwald, peace and order . Ilja Ehrenburg: The conspiracy of equals
  • Volume 12 : John Henry Mackay's works in one volume . (Takeover from Stirner-Verlag, Berlin) Berlin 1933

The guild

The guild was a GfB magazine, published in Bremen in 1948. The paper was intended to support the re-establishment of the GfB after the Second World War and to "expand the guild into a comprehensive guild magazine and thereby bring the ideas of liberal socialism closer to ever more people ..." (in "The Guild", No. 1, 1948). The publisher was Bernhard Koch and probably only 6 issues appeared in the 1st year.

literature

  • Hartmut Rübner: Freedom and Bread. The Free Workers' Union of Germany. A Study of the History of Anarcho-Syndicalism . Chapter 11, The Guild of Liberal Book Lovers . Libertad Verlag , Potsdam 1994. ISBN 3-922226-21-3 .
  • Wolfgang Haug : On the subject of anarchism . Part 3: The Guild of Liberal Book Friends . In: Writings of the Erich-Mühsam-Gesellschaft , Heft 5, Lübeck 1994
  • Helge Döhring: Syndicalism in the Ländle. The Free Workers Union of Germany (FAUD) in Württemberg 1918 to 1933 . Contains a chapter about the work of the GfB, especially about the guild group in Göppingen and the activist Karl Dingler, as well as about the Stuttgart and Heilbronn guild of liberal book lovers. Verlag Edition AV , Lich / Hessen 2006, ISBN 3-936049-59-9 .
  • Helge Döhring: The press of the syndicalist labor movement in Germany 1918 to 1933 - pages 76-79, Edition Syfo 1, Moers 2010, ISBN 978-3-9810846-8-9
  • Günter Bartsch : Anarchism in Germany . Volume 1, 1945-1965. Fackelträger-Verlag, Hanover 1972. ISBN 3-7716-1331-0

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Author: Corinna Kaiser, in the journal Schwarzer Faden ( Memento of the original from November 23, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . " Spatial, personnel and publishing agreements indicate that ASY-Verlag and GfB were in principle identical". Retrieved May 28, 2009 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.anarchismus.at
  2. ↑ See this: Wolfgang Haug: On the subject of anarchism
  3. ↑ See the journal Schwarzer Faden . February 1994, No. 49
  4. ↑ See on this: Helge Döhring: Syndikalismus im Ländle. About the guild group in Göppingen