Johann Schwarz (trade unionist)

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Johann Schwarz (born February 29, 1852 in Lübeck , † November 28, 1928 in Hamburg ) was a German trade union official .

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Johann Schwarz was born the son of a worker in Lübeck. In 1868 he went to Hamburg, where he worked as a showman in the port of Hamburg from 1875 and became a Hamburg citizen in 1888. In March 1886 he was one of the founding members of the Association of Schauer People employed in Hamburg, whose statutes he helped to draw up. In May 1886 he took over the chairmanship of the Hamburg local organization, initially with 380 members.

At that time it was considered common for showers to find work through sleeping and hay bays , which made them vulnerable to blackmail. Schwarz tried to counter this with his own proof of work. After the dock workers had successfully struck several times for shorter working hours, almost half of the 3,000 to 4,000 dock workers joined the association. In 1889 and in May 1890, Schwarz helped organize further strikes in which he campaigned against piecework and Sunday work. From April 1887 he sat on the association's wages committee and in 1889 traveled as a delegate to the International Workers' Congress in Paris .

In early 1890, Schwarz visited all of the major port cities along the North and Baltic Seas. In August of the same year he initiated the first congress of German dock workers, which was originally supposed to take place in Hamburg. Since there was a little siege there, the event took place in Kiel instead. As a congress leader, his concept of a higher-level central management with local, independently managed sub-organizations was approved by the quay workers. Schwarz's organizational form determined the structures of the dockworkers' union for a long time. On behalf of the port workers, Schwarz and other Hamburg delegates founded the central association of port workers in Germany in January 1891. In many events recommended Black, the union also Baggerer, Ewerführer , Kaiarbeiter, stevedores, ship cleaners and storage workers to open. However, he did not agree to a union support fund; From his point of view, labor disputes were only possible as a defensive measure.

In 1890 Schwarz traveled as a delegate to the SPD party congress in Halle (Saale) and at the same time became a board member of the III. Hamburg's Reichstag constituency. At the first general assembly of the Hamburg trade union cartel, he called as a delegate to form unions based on the English model, i.e. an association of port and shipyard workers. Schwarz was given the chairmanship of a commission to prepare this project. At the conference of the central boards of the German trade union associations in September 1890 in Halberstadt , he was considered one of the most important personalities.

Schwarz, who had worked for the Hamburger Echo since 1888 , was accused of theft in late 1891. He lost his job with the newspaper and all union posts. After his conviction in August 1892, he served an 18-month prison term. He then worked for the Neue Hamburgische Zeitung and had to pay a fine in February 1901 for a false report. From 1906 he had a position as editor at the newspaper. Schwarz continued to be involved in the SPD and in 1924, four years before his death, became a member of the Reichsbanner Schwarz-Rot-Gold .

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personal data
SURNAME Black, Johann
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German trade union official
DATE OF BIRTH February 29, 1852
PLACE OF BIRTH Lübeck
DATE OF DEATH November 28, 1928
Place of death Hamburg