Karl Giebel (politician)

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Karl Giebel

Karl Giebel , also Carl Giebel (born May 26, 1878 in Burg (near Magdeburg) , † November 2, 1930 in Berlin ) was a German social democratic politician and trade unionist . He was union chairman and member of the Reichstag.

Life

Karl Giebel was born the son of a Protestant carpenter. From 1884 to 1888 he attended the citizens' school in Burg and from 1888 to 1892 the elementary school in Magdeburg -Neustadt, then from 1892 to 1895 Giebel completed an apprenticeship as an office assistant in Magdeburg. During his apprenticeship in January 1894, he joined the “Association of Administrative Officials of the Health Insurance Funds and Employers' Liability Insurance Associations in Germany”. This association rejected union weapons and tried to improve the social situation of the professional members solely through petitions to the legislature. In 1897/1898 he worked as the head of the office of a law firm and from 1898 to 1904 as an employee of a trade association and the Magdeburg local health insurance fund . In 1899 he joined the SPD .

Union and political activity up to the First World War

On January 19, 1902, Karl Giebel was elected as an assessor in the district group board of the "Association of administrative officials of the health insurance funds and employers' liability insurance associations in Germany". At the turn of the 20th century, trends emerged within the association that advocated joining the rest of the trade union movement. A center of these internal currents was next to Berlin Magdeburg. Above all, Giebel advocated making the association's popular journal for practical workers' insurance a fighting instrument and hiring a full-time editor for this purpose, but also supported demands from Berlin to join the general commission of the German trade unions . During the 5th day of the association from September 8th to 9th, 1902, Karl Giebel introduced a resolution of no confidence in the association's board, which was accepted. The application also submitted to join the General Commission narrowly missed its target. After the resignation of the old board, Giebel became the new honorary chairman of the association.

Giebel moved his association closer to the general commission of the trade unions, with his election the actual union activity of the association began. In January 1904 he was elected as 2nd chairman of the "Breslau Commission", which was supposed to report on the regulation of salary and employment relationships on the 1904 Health Insurance Day. From October 1, 1904 to December 31, 1905, he worked as a full-time workers secretary in Düsseldorf and ran the "Association of Administrative Officials of the German Health Insurance Funds and Employers' Liability Insurance Associations" from Düsseldorf, which had been based in Magdeburg since 1902. In 1905 he was re-elected full-time chairman of the association and was able to push through a draft resolution in favor of joining the general commission of the German trade unions. He then moved to Berlin. From 1906 he was also the publisher of the popular journal for practical workers' insurance . Also in 1906 Giebel was able to conclude the first collective agreement for the employees of the health insurance companies and professional colleagues.

With the approval of the General Commission of the Trade Unions, Karl Giebel pursued the goal of merging his association with the “Central Association of German Bureau Employees”. In February 1908 a merger agreement was reached, in which Giebel was intended as chairman of the larger association as chairman of the joint "Association of Office Employees". On the joint association day of the organized administrative officials and office employees from April 18 to 21, 1908, he was elected chairman of the organization, and Gustav Bauer was elected as his deputy . On the 2nd Association Day in 1911, he was unanimously re-elected. During his presidency he worked closely with the Social Democrats with the aim of improving the Reich Insurance Code and was considered an expert on insurance issues. He was a delegate at the congresses of the German trade unions in 1908, 1910, 1911, 1914 and 1915. In 1914 he was elected to the committee responsible for setting the salaries of union employees. He was a delegate at the SPD party congresses between 1910 and 1913. In 1912, Karl Giebel was elected to the Reichstag in the Cottbus-Spremberg constituency in the second ballot with 53.6% of the votes . In the Reichstag, he sat on the social policy committee and was considered the best parliamentary expert on social security issues.

Activity in the First World War and during the Weimar Republic

During the First World War , Karl Giebel was one of the trade unionists and politicians who represented the war policy of the General Commission and the majority of the Social Democrats. During the war, Giebel tried above all to ensure that workers and salaried employees can participate in the factories and that women have the right to vote for social security bodies in the Reichstag. He was a delegate of the party conference in 1916 and at the party congresses of 1917, 1919 and 1922. At the 3rd day of the “Association of German Bureau Employees” in early November 1918, he was unanimously re-elected, but had to admit that the war was lost.

On November 20, 1918 to January 20, 1919 he was commissioned by Friedrich Ebert to represent the now social democratic Reich government at the Supreme Army Command and then sent to the Reichsmarineamt as an assistant to the State Secretary . During and shortly after the war, negotiations were started with the “Central Association of Clerks” about a merger of the trade unions. The "Association of Bureau Employees" led by Karl Giebel had grown under his leadership from the merger of 1908 (around 4,500 members) to 27,804 members by the end of 1918, most recently mainly through entries from the military administration. Since the chairmanship of the “Central Association of Handlers” was too left-leaning from Giebel's point of view, the negotiations turned out to be a bit complicated. In the end, Giebel even issued an ultimatum that the merger should only be possible if the board member of the Central Association and editor of the organ of the “Central Association the clerk “ Paul Lange should no longer be a member of the executive committee, as this was a prominent functionary of the KPD . A compromise was reached after Lange remained editor, but was no longer elected to the board. On October 1, 1919, it was decided to merge the two organizations to form the “Central Association of Employees”. Giebel was elected one of the equal chairmen of the central association with a total of over 300,000 members. He was re-elected to this office on the first day of the association in 1921.

After the 2nd World Congress of the Communist International had made fundamental decisions on how to deal with trade unions, including the formation of communist cells, Giebel, this time with the participation of Paul Lange, pushed through a resolution that membership in the Communist Party for paid employees of the association incompatible with working for the union. In this context, Lange joined the SPD.

Giebel was elected in the Reichstag elections in 1919, 1920 and in December 1924 in constituency 6 ( Frankfurt an der Oder ) as a member of the SPD in the Reichstag , as he was a member of the Social Policy Committee there, as before and during the war. Due to his post-war experience, he was also involved in military-political matters. Mainly he concentrated on a “Labor Evidence Act”, which laid the foundations for a more modern labor administration in Germany.

Karl Giebel suffered a stroke in March 1924 , was re-elected as chairman at the 2nd Association Day of the “Central Association of Employees” in June 1924, but finally resigned at the 3rd Association Day in May 1927 and in 1927 also resigned from his Reichstag mandate.

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personal data
SURNAME Gable, Karl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gable, Carl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German politician (SPD), MdR and trade unionist
DATE OF BIRTH May 26, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Castle (near Magdeburg)
DATE OF DEATH November 2, 1930
Place of death Berlin