Louis Lingg

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Louis Lingg 1886

Louis Lingg (born September 9, 1864 in Schwetzingen or Mannheim , † November 10, 1887 in Chicago ) was a German anarchist and trade unionist who died in prison under unexplained circumstances and according to official reports by suicide after he was after the Haymarket Riot had been arrested.

Life

Louis Lingg was born as Ludwig Höfler, son of Regina Höfler. In 1868, the day laborer Friedrich Link (1813–1877) from Leimen recognized the child as his son. The parents got married and settled in the square city of Mannheim in square F 5, house number 14. There the family called themselves Lingg . Sister Rosina was born on August 26, 1870. The small family lived very modestly on the father's income as a worker in a wood factory on the Neckar and in the mother's laundry. Friedrich Lingg had an accident at work . It collapsed while hauling in tree trunks in the icy Neckar . He only barely survived and suffered serious health problems. Thereupon he was fired by the entrepreneur on the grounds that he no longer had any work for him. Friedrich Lingg died three years later. Louis Lingg wrote in his autobiography: "At that time I was 13 years old, my sister was seven, and it was at this age that I first got an impression of the prevailing social injustice and, in particular, of the exploitation of man by man".

After attending elementary school, Lingg completed an apprenticeship as a carpenter with master carpenter Würmell in Mannheim, which he completed in 1882. Then, as was customary at the time, he went on a journey to Strasbourg and later to Freiburg , where he joined the socialist organization Arbeiterbildungsverein . To avoid compulsory military service, he went to Switzerland , from where he was to be deported in 1885 at the urging of the Baden government. From his stepfather Johann Gaddum, whom his mother had married in 1884, he received the money for the crossing and emigrated to the United States. In July 1885, he reached New York City , went to Chicago, worked in construction as a carpenter, and joined the International Builders' Union. Soon he was a union official and liaison to the Central Labor Union.

Haymarket

This section of the anarchists of Chicago by Walter Crane circulated widely among anarchists, socialists and trade unionists.

On the evening of May 1, 1886, a workers' meeting was held in Chicago's Haymarket. The Haymarket meeting was followed by a strike that lasted several days in Chicago. On May 4, 1886, the situation in Haymarket Square escalated when two hundred police officers ran from the side streets towards the remaining 200 to 300 demonstrators and someone threw a bomb into the crowd. Twelve people, including the policeman Mathias J. Degan, died on the spot. Six other police officers later died from their injuries. Police then randomly opened fire, killing and injuring an unknown number of protesters.

At the time, Lingg was one of the editors of the anarchist magazine The Anarchist . Since some of the speakers that day were anarchists , it was believed that an anarchist had dropped the bomb. However, no proof of such a connection could be provided. Louis Lingg was demonstrably absent from the Haymarket massacre on May 4, 1886 , but was searched and arrested by the police as a result of the incident.

Trial and death

Memorial plaque for Lingg and the others

Together with six other anarchists, Louis Lingg was sentenced to death on June 21, 1887 without evidence in connection with the bomb at Haymarket, for criminal conspiracy, Oscar Neebe received 15 years in prison . The court believed that the anarchist writings instigated the bomb thrower. Lingg commented on the verdict with the words

“I will die happily on the gallows because I am convinced that the hundreds and thousands I have spoken to will remember my words. When they've hanged us, then they'll do the bombing. In this hope I say to them: I despise you, I despise your mandate, your laws, your tyranny. Hang me for it. "

Four bombs were reportedly discovered in his cell during his detention. On November 10, the day before his scheduled execution, a dynamite-coated cigar exploded in his mouth when lit. According to the official version, he committed suicide with sticks of dynamite that are said to have been smuggled into the secured and guarded prison. Louis Lingg did not die until around 3 p.m. after long hours of agony with a tattered face. All Louis Lingg left behind were gold cufflinks and a tie pin. It had been his wish to give these belongings to his girlfriend after his death, but one of the corrupt police officers appropriated the remains.

Lingg was buried at the Haymarket Martyrs Monument in Waldheim Cemetery (now Forest Home Cemetery) in Forest Park , Chicago in 1893. One day after the unveiling of the monument to the martyrs of the first days of May on June 26, 1893, the new governor John Peter Altgeld rehabilitated the eight anarchists. He said, "In all the centuries of human-ruled governments and crimes punished, no judge in a civilized country has ever passed such a verdict." Altgeld was not re-elected, the alleged perpetrators Oscar Neebe, Samuel Fielden and Michael Schwab but set free.

literature

  • Horst Karasek (ed.): 1886, Haymarket, speeches and résumés. Wagenbach-Verlag, Berlin 1975, ISBN 3-8031-2011-X .
  • Friederike Hausmann: The German anarchists of Chicago, or why America doesn't know May 1st . Wagenbach-Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-8031-2320-8
  • Inge Marßolek (Ed.): 100 Years of the Future, on the history of May 1st . Frankfurt am Main / Vienna 1990
  • Andreas Essl: Carnations for anarchism . In: Der Standard , Vienna, May 1, 2000
  • Harry M. Siegert: Also a son of Mannheim: Louis Lingg and May 1st . In: Michael Caroli, Ulrich Nieß (eds.): History of the City of Mannheim , Volume 2. City Archives Mannheim 2007, Verlag Regionalkultur Heidelberg, Ubstadt-Weiher / Basel, ISBN 978-3-89735-471-5 .
  • Harry M. Siegert: How Labor Day came into the world . In: Schwetzinger Zeitung , April 30, 2008 and Viernheimer Tageblatt , April 30, 2011 (extended version).
  • Harry M. Siegert: Also a son of Mannheim: Louis Lingg . Lecture with new research results, Weinheim adBergstraße / Mannheim 2008, Karlsruhe 2010, Viernheim 2012 (unpublished).
  • Frank Harris : The Bomb. , Feral House 1908, ISBN 0-92291537-7 , German: Die Bombe (Üs: Antonina Vallentin), E. Laubsche Verlagshandlung. Berlin 1927; New edition: Die Bombe , Edition Av, 2011, ISBN 978-3868410532

Web links

Commons : Louis Lingg  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MARCHIVUM: Findstar
  2. ^ PS Foner: The Autobiographies of the Haymarket Martyrs . Humanities Press, New York 1969. pp. 169-178. quoted n. Biography of Louis Lingg in the Anarchy Archives , accessed June 25, 2008
  3. ^ Autobiography on Wikisource
  4. ↑ Bombs In Lingg's Cell; A Startling Discovery By The Chicago Sheriff. Four Dynamite Bomb Found Concealed With One Of The Condemned Anarchists , New York Times . November 7, 1887. Retrieved October 31, 2007. "Chicago, November 6, 1887. Four bombs were taken this morning from the cell of Louis Lingg, the condemned anarchist, in Cook County Jail. They were found under his cot, hidden beneath a mass of papers and odd and ends of various kinds, and were enclosed in a harmless-looking ... " 
  5. ↑ Haymarket Martyrs Monument . In: Findagrave.com . Retrieved May 5, 2008.
personal data
SURNAME Lingg, Louis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ludwig Link
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German anarchist
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1864
PLACE OF BIRTH Schwetzingen or Mannheim
DATE OF DEATH November 10, 1887
Place of death Chicago