Johann Döring (trade unionist)

Johann Döring (born July 21, 1864 in Altona , † May 7, 1951 in Hamburg ) was a German trade union official .

Live and act

Johann Döring, whom his friends always called "Muskötel", attended elementary school and then got a job as a showman in the port of Hamburg . After serving in the military in Flensburg from 1885 to 1887 , he returned to Hamburg. On April 2, 1888, he became a member of the Association of Schauer People employed in Hamburg , which at the time of the Socialist Law was able to raise wages by means of a few strikes.

After the merger of the Hamburg shudderers with the Association of Dock Workers in Germany in 1891, most of Hamburg dock workers refused to join the Association of people involved in shipbuilding and shipping. Therefore they founded the association of the Schauer People employed in Hamburg from 1892 , called "the 1892er", which Johann Döring took over as chairman. During his time as chairman, he repeatedly quarreled with Georg Kellermann , who headed the Association of Dock Workers in Germany, whom Döring considered to be "too lukewarm". Both refused to cooperate with their organizations. After his resignation from the presidency in January 1895, Döring took over the office of first secretary.

In November 1896, the Hamburg port workers strike began , the leadership of which arose spontaneously and on a grassroots basis. As the elected chairman of a five-person committee, Johann Döring took over the management and negotiated together with Hermann Molkenbuhr , Carl Legien and Adolph von Elm as part of an arbitration commission with the Hamburg citizenship . During the strike, he examined the working hours, wages and working conditions of the employees, which later became the basis for the "Law on the Employment of a Port Inspector".

After the labor dispute, which was lost from the point of view of the showers, Döring officiated from the beginning of March 1897 to August 1898 as chairman of the united Hamburg showers. He was also a member of the Hamburg union cartel. In 1898, at first unpaid, he took over the chairmanship of the port workers' union from Georg Kellermann. He had to look after the newly established support fund for deaths. He also published the trade journal “Der Hafenarbeiter”. From 1899 to 1910 he worked as a full-time chairman.

From 1900 to 1905 Döring was a member of the cartel commission that organized the work of the Hamburg individual trade unions. From 1902 to 1904 he served as its second chairman. In 1905/06, Döring intended to merge the Association of Dock Workers with the German Seamen's Association, the Association of Railway Workers and that of Engineers, Stokers and related professionals in Germany, but failed. This did not happen until 1910 with the establishment of the German Transport Workers' Association (DTV), whose deputy chairman Döring held until 1928. As a liaison to the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), he participated in the 3rd ITF Congress in Stockholm in 1902 . After Albert Stormer's resignation in the early summer of 1903, Döring took over his position in the Central Council.

In 1904 the ITF relocated its tour known as the "International Trade Secretariat" to Hamburg. Döring did not accept a position offered to him as an international secretary. After that, the ITF lost its role among dock workers, who now questioned the dominance of German trade unionists. The outbreak of World War I prevented a reorganization of the unions.

During the war, the Central Council, which wanted to maintain contacts with foreign trade unionists, commented only cautiously on current events. Döring reacted aggressively in the interests of a large part of the union and said that the workers had "the greatest interest in the preservation of our fatherland". He was able to assert his positions at the DTV war conferences. Cooperation with British trade unions ended after hard conflicts.

After the end of the war, Döring took on many offices. In January 1919 he represented the transport workers in peace negotiations in the suburbs of Paris . In the spring of the same year he was a member of the general commission that discussed the new orientation of German trade unions after the war. Döring showed himself to be strictly anti-communist and in 1921 refused any attempts at cooperation with the KPD .

The trade unionist moved to Berlin , where he sat in Friedrichsfelde for the SPD on the municipal council from 1918 to 1920 . From 1918 to 1923 he was a member of the Reich Waterways Advisory Board. As a representative of the inland navigation operators, he represented the employees in the Provisional Reich Economic Council for the DTV . He was also a member of the Reich Railway Council and the joint seaman's commission of the International Labor Office . In September 1925 he took over the chairmanship of the administrative committee of the Faculty Insurance.

At the international level, the unions worked together again after the war. Döring played a major role in drafting new statutes and was a member of the ITF General Council from 1920 to 1930. At the constituent assembly of the General Association of Workers in Public Enterprises and the Movement of Persons and Goods, he was elected deputy chairman.

In July 1930 Döring retired. After the seizure of power , he moved back to Hamburg and had to make do with a significantly reduced pension. Due to illegal contacts with the ITF in 1933/34, the Gestapo repeatedly searched his house. After the end of the war, he attended the ITF Congress in Oslo in 1948 as a guest of honor and two years later in Stuttgart.

Web links

• Rüdiger Zimmermann : Döring, Johann (1864-1951) . in: Biographical Lexicon of ÖTV and its predecessor organizations, part 30.

literature

• Author: Döring, Johann . In: Franklin Kopitzsch, Dirk Brietzke (Hrsg.): Hamburgische Biographie . tape 5 . Wallstein, Göttingen 2010, ISBN 978-3-8353-0640-0 , p. 92-94 .