Louis Pio

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Louis Pio was the founder of the Social Democratic Party in Denmark in 1871 and its chairman in 1876/77.

Louis Albert François Pio (born December 14, 1841 in Roskilde , † June 27, 1894 in Chicago ) was a Danish socialist leader and is considered the founder of the labor movement in Denmark .

youth

Louis Pio was born in Roskilde in 1841 as the son of the French-born immigrant Captain Vilhelm Emil Laurent Pio and Anna Marie Brix. His older brother Jean was a well-known educator. After graduating from high school in 1859, Louis Pio worked as a teacher.

He took part as an officer in the German-Danish War of 1864. In 1870/71 he worked for the Danish Post and made a proposal for an improved mailbox. He resigned this position in order to devote himself entirely to socialist agitation.

Socialist movement

Pio was strongly influenced by the Paris Commune and the literary work of Henri Rochefort . In 1871 he published a number of pamphlets entitled Socialistiske Blade . In the same year he was editor of the weekly newspaper Socialisten (Der Sozialist) together with his cousin Harald Brix . Although his first articles were only rough adaptations of German writings and had hardly been adapted to Danish conditions, it was here that he laid the foundation for the socialist movement in Denmark.

In 1871 he founded the Danish Social Democratic Party with Blix and Paul Geleff under the name Den internationale Arbejderforening for Danmark (International Workers' Association for Denmark). A few months later it had 9,000 members, 5,000 of them in Copenhagen.

At the same time was Pio tutor at a chamber mistress Berling and traveled in December 1871 its cost to Geneva in order there to Catholicism to study. There, however, he rejected his wish to become a monk and instead made connections with Marxist revolutionary circles. On his way home he got to know the leaders of the German socialists .

After his return in February 1872, he appeared as "Grand Master" of the Danish department of the International, speaking of a new edition of the Paris Commune and a subsequent revolution in Germany. Pio himself then hoped for a leading position in Denmark.

From 1872 socialists appeared daily, and Pio's polemical attacks against the authorities and the upper classes intensified. On May 4, 1872, Pio was arrested when he did not want to cancel a prohibited workers' meeting on May 5, which he had previously called with the article "Målet er fuldt" (The measure is full). The violent clashes between police and workers became known as “ Slaget på Fælleden ” (Battle of the Commons). In March 1873, Pio was sentenced to six years in prison, but in the last instance the sentence was reduced to five years by the Supreme Court in August. In 1875 Pio was pardoned because of his threatening health.

In the same year he became editor of the newspaper Social-Demokrats , which replaced Socialists in 1874 . In 1876 Pio was unanimously elected chairman of the so-called Gimle Congress of the Social Democrats in Frederiksberg . But his high-handed leadership style was soon criticized because he found it difficult to consult with the elected party bodies.

In the Folketing election in 1876 , Pio ran in the 5th district in Copenhagen and received a third of the votes.

During this period Denmark went through an economic crisis, unemployment rose, real wages fell, and the labor movement suffered several defeats. The newspaper Social Democrats lost many readers. Pio got into debt. In the spring of 1877 he and Geleff received 10,000 crowns from the police to emigrate to the USA. The money came from a. from the Burmeister & Wain shipyard . This process was then generally seen as a combination of threats and bribery to oust Pio from Danish politics. It would be years before the Danish labor movement recovered from this double defeat.

exile

In the US, Pio's attempt to establish a socialist rural commune in Kansas failed . He then worked in Chicago as a lecturer and journalist for various newspapers of Scandinavian immigrants, but these never existed for long. 1886-88 he got a job as a customs officer through the mediation of the Democratic Party . In his final years he was a land agent for establishing a Danish settlement in Florida . He died of typhus in 1894 .

Publications

literature

  • Benito Scocozza, Grethe Jensen: Politics Étbinds Danmarkshistorie . 3rd edition. Politikens Forlag, Copenhagen 2004, ISBN 87-567-7064-2 ( Politikens Håndbøger ), p. 513.
  • Jens Engberg: Til work! Liv eller død! Louis Pio og arbejderbevægelsen . Gyldendal, Copenhagen 1979, ISBN 87-01-93033-8 (biography, 393 pages).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ E. Gigas: Pio, Jean Frédéric Guillaume Emile . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 13 : Pelli – Reravius . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1899, p. 122-123 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
  2. ^ A b c d Emil Elberling: Pio, Louis Albert François . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 13 : Pelli – Reravius . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1899, p. 123 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
  3. ↑ a b Danmarkshistorie , 2005, p. 257
  4. ↑ a b c Danmarkshistorie 2005, p. 259
  5. ↑ The Dansk Biografisk Leksikon 1887–1905 still speaks of 4,000 kr.
  6. ↑ Emil Elberling: Pio, Louis Albert François . In: Carl Frederik Bricka (Ed.): Dansk biografisk Lexikon. Tillige omfattende Norge for Tidsrummet 1537-1814. 1st edition. tape 13 : Pelli – Reravius . Gyldendalske Boghandels Forlag, Copenhagen 1899, p. 124 (Danish, runeberg.org ).
personal data
SURNAME Pio, Louis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pio, Louis Albert François (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Danish socialist leader and founder of the labor movement in Denmark
DATE OF BIRTH December 14, 1841
PLACE OF BIRTH Roskilde
DATE OF DEATH June 27, 1894
Place of death Chicago