Otto Sillier

Otto Sillier (born November 7, 1857 in Berlin , † March 4, 1925 there ) was chairman of a German skilled workers' union and chairman of an international trade union organization.

Life and work in the empire

After graduating from elementary school, Sillier learned the profession of lithographer and went on a journey in 1877, which took him to several European countries. In 1883 he returned to his hometown Berlin .

The young lithographer first joined the Senefelder Bund . The federal government was founded in November 1873 as a union fighting organization aimed at transforming the existing conditions. The Socialist Law put an abrupt end to organizational efforts. In order not to be dissolved, the federal government gave up its combat character and mutated into an apolitical support organization.

Various local strikes in the industry from the mid-1880s gave the union idea new impetus; first local professional associations were formed. In 1885 Sillier immediately joined the Berlin Association of Lithographers and Stone Printers. Parallel to his trade union work, Sillier was involved in the illegally operating German social democracy . After the fall of the Socialist Law in 1891, the various professional associations in the graphic centers of Germany formed the basis for the foundation of the association of lithographers, lithographers and professional colleagues, which, after various renaming in 1904, gave itself the name under which it went down in the history books: Association of Lithographers , Lithographer and related professions .

Otto Sillier was elected 1st chairman at the founding congress in 1891; In 1893 he was employed full-time as a union official. A re-election of Sillier as chairman took place unanimously at all trade union congresses until 1919. Recruited Silliers organization lithographer, lithographer, Formstecher (for wallpaper printing), engravers , Chemigraphen , light printer , Xylographen , copper printers and gravure printers . Similar to the Association of German Book Printers , Sillier's organization as a union of skilled workers did not initially recruit women. Women were not accepted into the organization until 1907. In 1905 the union had around 11,500 members. In 1911 80% of the lithographers and 65.8% of the lithographers confessed to the association. With this level of organization, flat printers were far above that of other German skilled workers' unions.

Labor disputes and outbreak of war

Sillier's union, with its highly specialized skilled workers, whose wages were at the top of the German wage scale, was militant. The chairman led his organization into several major labor disputes to improve wages and employment in the trade. A major strike in 1896 ended in disastrous defeat. The big tariff movement in 1905/1906 resulted in a ten-week lockout . However, Sillier's organization was able to achieve a remarkable partial success with the achievement of the nine-hour day.

A major breakthrough in achieving the eight-hour day was supposed to be brought about by a labor dispute initiated by Sillier and his organization in late summer 1911. The labor dispute lasted 4 ½ months, and the business community locked out Germany-wide. The strike was one of the most violent in German trade union history. The strike was completely lost. The excellent organization of the employers, the influx of German-speaking strikebreakers from Bohemia , poor communication and a completely unsatisfactory strike vote with friendly trade unions in the graphics industry contributed to the defeat of the strike. Sillier and his colleagues underestimated revolutionary new technological developments in the industry. The large high-speed printing presses could also be operated by auxiliary workers during the strike, who undermined the power of Sillier's highly specialized trade union. The financial disaster remained unmistakable. The strike cost 1,762 million marks and completely emptied the main treasury. The union was only able to act with a loan of 600,000 marks.

As chairman, Sillier had initiated the strike and negotiated with the business community with his board. Immediately after the strike ended in 1912, Sillier suffered a nervous breakdown from which he recovered slowly. Things got even worse for Sillier's health: the “years of mourning 1914-1918”, “in which he saw his hope for peace dissolve”, literally gave him “the rest”. The health of the highly respected trade unionist was so shattered that "an improvement was out of the question". De facto, the leadership of the union passed since 1913 to the board member Johannes Hass , who later became the head of the city council of Berlin, without the membership noticing the serious change at the management level. Because sillier published still in the dressing sheet "Graphic Press" and was responsible for the publication of all publications in Eigenverlag responsible Otto sillier.

Functional at national and international level

Since 1891 Otto Sillier received mandates for all trade union days of the general commission of the trade unions in Germany . From 1903 the so-called “Board Conference” filled the vacuum between the umbrella organization and the individual trade unions as the actual bearer of trade union activities. In 1914, the Munich Trade Union Congress sanctioned the actually existing supervisory body and anchored it in the statuary. Sillier was a member of the committee until 1919 and participated intensively in the discussions until he was mentally ill.

Sillier assumed a respected role as a union leader immediately after his appointment as a full-time functionary on the international stage. The first efforts to establish international cooperation between the unionized planographic printers date back to the 1890s, because the international contacts of the "working-class artists" exceeded those of other professional groups considerably. At that time, Europe was one big job market and skilled workers could cross all borders without a passport. A good number of the lithographers and lithographers and the professions related to them had worked in foreign countries.

In August 1896, Sillier launched the International Trade Secretariat for Lithographers and Book Printers (“International Association of Lithographers, Stone Printers and Related Professions”) with 13 associations from seven countries. The English union chairman Charles Harrap initially took over the management. Sillier took part as a delegate at all international congresses. At the 1907 Congress, voices were raised to move the headquarters of the Union International from England to the Continent. The dissatisfaction emanated from the influential Swiss trade union , which brought Germany into play as the new seat. The move to Germany was highly controversial. However, Otto Sillier was then elected almost unanimously as the new secretary.

Sillier first implemented the decision to publish an international newsletter in three languages. With the Bulletin, the Berliner followed the classic path of German trade union chairmen, who almost always headed the international trade secretariats as a “part-time”. The “Bulletin of the International Association of Lithographers, Lithographers and Related Professions” also served as an information and documentation organ across national borders and provided information on working conditions and wage issues and provided information on strikes and lockouts.

Despite a trip to the USA in the fall of 1909, Sillier did not succeed in winning the American flat printing trade unions to international membership. However, agreements were made with the aim of avoiding transatlantic “dirt competition”. However, Sillier was very successful in persuading isolated trade unions in the Netherlands in the lithography and stone printing industry to merge into a unified association. During the war Otto Sillier and Johannes Hass tried the difficult balancing act: On the one hand, they tried to do justice to the truce policy of the German trade unions; on the other hand, both did everything possible to have the international newsletter appear by August 1918, so that international connections would not be completely disrupted. A “neutral” apolitical tone prevailed in the bulletin so as not to hurt the feelings of any of the members. Nonetheless, as early as 1915, the French colleagues applied for the secretariat to be relocated to a neutral country, which the Germans rejected for constitutional reasons and were able to assert this point of view.

Resignation, death, remembrance

The first post-war association day of unionized flat printers said goodbye to the old chairman in November 1919 in Magdeburg. Many delegates only now noticed Sillier's serious illness. In May 1920, Sillier gave his last official mandate. The International Federation of Lithographers, Lithographers and Related Professions met for the first time after the World War from May 13th to 15th in the Swiss capital and relocated the headquarters of the International Trade Union to Belgium. The international trade union secretary, who was still in office, was able to hand in his accountability report. His appearance contributed a lot to the fact that there was a conciliatory mood towards “the Germans” at the conference. The German association suspended a lifelong pension for its resigned chairman. As an invalid, Sillier was able to experience that his union, with around 20,000 members, was able to organize well over 90% of those employed in the trade.

Otto Sillier died on March 4, 1925 in Berlin . The burial took place as a large demonstration in the cemetery of the free religious community in Berlin. His national association and many international organizations recognized his pioneering union work. Later standard works on the history of the trade unions in the graphics industry usually focused on the history of the printer and only just underlined Sillier's life's work.

literature

• Hermann Müller: The organizations of lithographers, lithographers and related professions . With an introduction to the reprint by Willy Albrecht. 2nd edition Reprint of the 1st edition published in 1917. JHW Dietz, Berlin, Bonn 1978. ISBN 3-8012-2078-8 ( reprints on social history ).

Web links

• Graphic press 1889-1925. Retrieved January 15, 2016 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Rüdiger Zimmermann : Senefelder festivals of the workers . In: 1971-2011. History of lithography and lithography. 40 years of the Senefelder Foundation in Offenbach . International Senefelder Foundation, Offenbach 2011. ISBN 978-3-00-035653-7 , p. 135.
2. ^ Hanns Ronger: Association of lithographers, lithographers and related professions . In: International Concise Dictionary of Trade Unions . Verlag Werk und Wirtschafts Verlagsaktiengesellschaft, Berlin 1932, pp. 1849 f.
3. ↑ The history of the wage struggle 1911/1912 in the lithography and stone printing trade . Sillier, Berlin 1916. pp. 90 f.
4. ↑ You fell - We hold the banner . In: Graphische Presse , vol. 38, March 13, 1925, No. 11.
5. ↑ Otto Sillier 1857-1925 . In: Bulletin of the International Association of Lithographers, Stone Printers and Related Professions , Vol. 18, April 1925, No. 64.
6. ^ C. Harrap: Contribution to the history of the international lithographers . In: Bulletin of the International Association of Lithographers, Stone Printers and Related Professions , vol. 23, August 1, 1930, No. 76.
7. ^ Annual reports of the association of lithographers, lithographers and related professions from 1909 . Sillier, Berlin 1909. p. 9.
8. ↑ The International of Lithographers, Stone Printers and Allied Professions . In: Graphische Presse , vol. 28, October 29, 1915, No. 44.
9. ↑ Accountability reports and minutes of the Association Day in Magdeburg . Hass, Berlin 1920, p. 228.
10. ↑ Otto Sillier's departure . In: Graphische Presse , vol. 38, March 20, 1925, No. 12.
11. ^ Gerhard Beier: Black Art and Class Struggle . Vol. 1: From the secret society to the royal Prussian trade union (1830-1890) . Book guild Gutenberg, Frankfurt am Main 1966, p. 79 ( history of the industrial union printing and paper and its predecessor organizations since the beginning of the modern labor movement , vol. 1).