Karl Kloß

Karl Kloß.

Karl August Kloß (born April 13, 1847 in Berlin , † February 12, 1908 in Hamburg ) was a German carpenter , trade unionist , socialist and politician of the Socialist Workers' Party of Germany (SAP) and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) . He was a member of the Stuttgart Citizens' Committee and Municipal Council , as well as the Württemberg Landtag and from 1898 to 1903 the first social democratic member of the Reichstag from Württemberg . The Karl-Kloß youth education center was named after him.

Life

Kloß initially worked as a carpenter in Stuttgart . He had been a leading functionary in the Carpenters' Association in Stuttgart since 1874 and thus before the Socialist Act . Here he was also co-founder and chairman of the professional association of carpenters in November 1880 . In this function he was largely responsible for the successful implementation of the Stuttgart carpenter's strike in the summer of 1883. As a result, Kloß became chairman of the on 27./29. Central association of carpenters' associations in Germany founded on December 1883, with its seat in Stuttgart. The central association was an umbrella organization of 39 professional associations and local organizations. Kloß used the experience gained in the industrial action to support wage movements in other occupational groups and thus promoted the development of the Württemberg labor movement. In an appeal in February 1886 , the Nürtingen corset weavers called Kloß an important helper in their labor dispute . The Württemberg corset weavers entered a wage war for the first time in August 1883, which, after protracted disputes, ended nationwide in 1885 with the promise of wage increases of between 25 and 33%. After the transformation of the umbrella association, Kloß became chairman of the newly founded German Carpenter's Association in 1886 . Kloß was a delegate at the International Workers' Congress on the 100th anniversary of the storm on the Bastille , which took place from July 14th to 20th, 1889 in Paris , as a union representative of the German carpenters. From 1893 until his death he was chairman of the German Woodworkers Association (DHV) based in Stuttgart. The DHV was founded at the first German woodworking congress (April 4th to 7th, 1893 in Kassel ) as an amalgamation of all woodworking unions in Germany. Kloß was a member of the General Commission of the German Trade Unions between 1890 and 1893 . He was also International Secretary of Woodworkers from 1893 and 1908.

Grave site in the Heslach cemetery

In 1876 he became a member of the SAP, the SPD's predecessor party. In Stuttgart Kloß was a member of the citizens' committee between 1891 and 1896 and of the municipal council from 1897 to 1908. He was a member of the Württemberg state parliament from 1895 to 1908. In 1890 and 1893 he ran for the Reichstag, but was narrowly defeated by his national liberal rival candidate in runoff elections . In 1898 he succeeded in winning an absolute majority in the first ballot. From 1898 to 1903 Kloß was a member of the Reichstag and represented the constituency of Württemberg 1 (Stuttgart city and office ).

He died in Hamburg in 1908 while on a lecture tour. Karl Kloß enjoyed a high reputation and popularity among the population. On the occasion of his funeral, one of the largest funeral procession in the history of Stuttgart took place: When his coffin had already arrived at the crematorium in the Prague cemetery in Stuttgart , the last participants marched off in the Heslach district . He was later buried in section 15 of the Heslach cemetery .

literature

• BH: Karl Kloß † . In: The True Jacob . No. 564 of March 3, 1908, p. 5722 digitized
• Maag, Gerhard, From the Socialist Law to the First World War, in: Working Group History of the Nürtingen Workers' Movement, The Other Nürtingen. A contribution to the local history of the 100th birthday of the Nürtingen SPD, ed. v. SPD local association Nürtingen, Nürtingen 1989, pp. 23–62.
• Wolfgang Schmierer : Karl Kloß (1847–1908). In: Siegfried Bassler (ed.): With us for freedom. 100 years of the SPD in Stuttgart. Thienemann, Stuttgart et al. 1987, ISBN 3-522-62570-6 , pp. 168-170.
• Frank Raberg : Biographical handbook of the Württemberg state parliament members 1815-1933 . On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016604-2 , p. 449 .

Web links

• Chronology of the German trade union movement from its beginnings to 1918
• Chronicle of the German Social Democracy
• Gravestone in the Heslach cemetery
• Karl Kloß youth education center
• Kloß, Carl in the database of members of the Reichstag
• Karl Kloss biography . In: Heinrich Best : database of the members of the Reichstag of the Empire 1867/71 to 1918 (Biorab - Kaiserreich)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cf. Maag, Gerhard, From the Socialist Law to the First World War, in: Working group history of the Nürtinger workers' movement, The other Nürtingen. A contribution to the local history of the 100th birthday of the Nürtingen SPD, ed. v. SPD local association Nürtingen, Nürtingen 1989, pp. 23–62, p. 31.
2. ↑ See ibid., Pp. 31–32.
3. ^ Carl-Wilhelm Reibel: Handbook of the Reichstag elections 1890-1918. Alliances, results, candidates (= handbooks on the history of parliamentarism and political parties. Volume 15). Half volume 2, Droste, Düsseldorf 2007, ISBN 978-3-7700-5284-4 , pp. 1204-1207.