Leonhard Mahlein

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Leonhard ("Loni") Mahlein (born April 4, 1921 in Nuremberg ; † December 18, 1985 in Stuttgart ) was chairman of the IG Druck und Papier from 1968 to 1983 . The successor organization is ver.di .

biography

Mahlein came from a family of the labor movement. His father was an unskilled worker for the railroad in goods handling and was persecuted by the Nazi regime . After graduating from elementary school, Mahlein learned the profession of printer . He had to interrupt this because of "political unreliability". He was drafted into military service and wounded several times in 1941. He came home seriously injured after the end of the war and passed the master craftsman examination.

Professional background

After the war, Mahlein was a union secretary and a member of the KPD until 1952. From 1946 to 1949 Mahlein was the youth leader of the IG Druck und Papier in Nuremberg . From 1951 to 1956 he was employed as a subject teacher in Nuremberg. In 1965 Mahlein became the first chairman of IG Druck und Papier in Bavaria and a full-time trade union official. From 1968 to 1983 Mahlein was then federal chairman of the IG Druck und Papier. After the German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) decided that membership in the DGB and the KPD were incompatible, Mahlein became a member of the SPD in 1956 .

During his time as chairman, IG Druck und Papier led important labor disputes in 1973, 1976 and 1978. The labor dispute in 1973 ended with a 13 percent wage increase, with a disproportionate increase in the lower wage groups by up to 17% - a record value. Despite all the harshness in the labor dispute over wage percentages: Mahlein did not see the trade unions as a “wage machine”, but also as a political movement of employees who advocate a transformation of the economy and society. That is why he was also active in the peace movement and, as President of the International Graphic Federation (IGF), which he was from 1976 to 1985, stood up for overcoming the east-west divide.

In view of the heavy losses of the SPD in the state and local elections in 1982 , Mahlein blamed Federal Chancellor Helmut Schmidt for the poor performance of the Social Democrats. Mahlein literally wrote: "You can gamble away power by giving up your principles little by little, just to stay in power for a short time."

The trade union ver.di regularly awards the Leonhard Mahlein Medal.

literature

  • Munzinger Archive International Biographical Archive 08/1986 from February 10, 1986
  • Wilke, Manfred / Hertle, Hans.Hermann: The comrades cartel, The SED and the IG printing and paper / IG Medien, Berlin 1992 ISBN 3 548 36603 1
  • Hermann Zoller: Leonhard Mahlein 1921-1985. In: From the printing association to the unified union. 150 years of verdi. Berlin 2016, pp. 92–95.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hermann Zoller: Leonhard Mahlein 1921-1985, in From the German Book Printer Association to the Unified Trade Union, 150 years: verdi - Solidarity - Emancipation - Tarifkampf, Berlin 2016, p. 92
  2. ^ Hermann Zoller: Leonhard Mahlein 1921-1985, in From the German Book Printer Association to the Unified Trade Union, 150 years: verdi - Solidarity - Emancipation - Tarifkampf, Berlin 2016, p. 94
personal data
SURNAME Mahlein, Leonhard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Loni (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German trade unionist, chairman of the IG Druck und Papier (1968–1983)
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Nuremberg
DATE OF DEATH 18th December 1985
Place of death Stuttgart