Paul Thränert

Paul Thränert (born November 15, 1875 in Friedrichswalde , † March 26, 1960 in Berlin ) was a German trade unionist .

Life and work at the time of the monarchy

Born on November 15, 1875 in Friedrichswalde, married, Protestant. The trained book printer joined the Gutenberg Association on November 15, 1895 , which had been founded three years earlier as a “moderate” competitor to the Association of German Book Printers after the lost book printer strike in 1891/1892 . The federal government initially had the character of a support organization, stood on the "soil of the existing economic and social order" and rejected any ideas of socialist transformation.

In 1900, Thränert began to play an important “visible” role in the Berlin organization. Election as a delegate to the 6th General Assembly of the Gutenberg Association in April 1902. With Thränert's support, the Association Day in 1902 deleted the so-called neutrality paragraph; This cleared the way from a support association to a “real” union .

After the return of the large free trade union association of German book printers to the collective bargaining community in 1896, it excluded the unpopular competition organization from all organs and institutions of the collective collective bargaining system with the support of the employers. The Gutenberg Association got into a serious crisis. As a politically active Protestant, Thränert actively supported the connection to the Catholic-dominated Christian trade union movement from 1903 , which was also realized in 1906 after member surveys.

Election of the second chairman of his union at the 8th General Assembly from March 29th to 31st, 1907. After the death of the 1st chairman Carl Illig (October 10th, 1909) Thränert took over the leadership of the Christian union; confirmed in this office at the 9th General Assembly in July 1910. Since then he has held the office full-time. Unanimous re-election as association chairman on all trade union days until the end of the Weimar Republic .

As chairman, Thränert did a lot for the internal trade union professionalization of the association (central membership card file, meaningful statement of accounts, club badges etc.). His main focus, however, was on the equal participation of his union in the collective bargaining community in the printing industry. In 1911, the Gutenberg Association (represented by its chairman) took part in the meetings of the collective bargaining committee as a guest for the first time. In future, Thränert represented his organization in collective bargaining and gained a lot of respect for his objectivity.

Elected to the committee of Christian trade unions at the 8th Congress of Christian Trade Unions in Germany in 1912, he held this office until 1933.

Immediately after the outbreak of war, Thränert also took over the editing of the association organ “Der Typograph”. Until October 1916, Thränert was spared military service due to the concession of the substitute authorities. Called up in October 1916, discharged from the army in December 1917. Like the free trade union book printer organization, the man from Brandenburg fought vigorously against the use of women as “substitute workers” during the war.

The chairman of the Gutenberg Association was a member of the Christian Social Party during the German Empire and was close to the MP Reinhard Mumm , who took part in the federal board meetings several times.

During the Weimar Republic

Like many trade unionists from the evangelical social camp, Thränert relied on the formation of a large national and non-denominational workers' party after the November Revolution. When these plans failed, he followed the call of the chairman of the Christian agricultural workers' union and Reichstag member Franz Behrens and signed the founding call of the German National People's Party (DNVP), which largely conformed to the goals of the general association of Christian trade unions in Germany. Election of Thränert to the Reich Workers 'Committee of the DNVP on the occasion of the party's first congress in July 1919. In addition to Thränert, Franz Behrens and the chairwoman of the home workers ' union , Margarete Behm , represented the Christian union element in the German national gathering movement. Thränert's political involvement in the German National Workers 'Committee (since 1921: German National Workers' Union) brought him clear criticism within the Gutenberg Association.

With the DNVP's clear shift to the right and Alfred Hugenberg's election as party chairman, Thränert left the DNVP with many other prominent Christian trade unionists in December 1929 and joined the Christian Social People's Service (CSVD).

After the November revolution in 1918, Thränert stood for a moderate course within the union towards the Association of German Book Printers and differed only gradually from the free trade union association in terms of collective bargaining issues.

In 1920, the union chairman led the merger negotiations with the organization of Christian bookbinders, lithographers and graphic laborers ( Graphischer Zentralverband ), but slowed down the efforts of unification and only allowed them to result in the establishment of a "head association" between the two organizations. He himself took over the chairmanship of the "Graphic Industry Association", whose competencies gradually declined until the end of the Weimar Republic.

Co-founder of the "International Federation of Christian Trade Unions in the Graphic Industry"; Election as chairman of the Christian trade secretariat at the constituent meeting in Stuttgart in August 1921 . With the help of the Christian trade union international, the Gutenberg Association managed to survive the inflation crisis relatively unscathed. 1925 election as managing director of the asset management of the Gutenberg Federation.

Thränert stood for the evangelical-social "national" wing of the German trade union movement, which distanced itself from its own political past at the end of the Weimar Republic and warned emphatically against a national reaction at the last trade union day of the Christian trade unions in 1932.

National Socialism and the Post-War Period

Released from office in 1933, he lived as a social pensioner in Berlin-Wilhelmshagen . After 1945 he moved from the FDGB to the Graphic Industry Association, Gau Berlin of the Independent Trade Union Organization (UGO) and, as an East Berliner, was honored with the Golden Badge of Honor on his 80th birthday by the Gau Berlin of the IG Druck und Papier . Paul Thränert died on March 26, 1960 in Berlin-Wilhelmshagen.

literature

• 25 years of the Gutenberg Association. Historical review of the 25th anniversary of the Gutenberg Association. Gutenberg-Bund publishing house, Berlin 1919.
• Loyalty for loyalty. For Paul Thränert's 50th birthday. In: The Typographer. Volume 34, No. 49, November 13, 1925.
• The German national labor movement, its becoming and growing. German National Font Distribution Agency, Berlin 1925.
• We greet our anniversaries. In: Graphic News. Volume 6, No. 12, December 12, 1955.
• Amrei Stupperich: Volksgemeinschaft or workers solidarity . Studies on employee policy in the German National People's Party (1918–1933) Muster-Schmidt, 1982, ISBN 3-7881-1054-6 .
• Rüdiger Zimmermann : The German National: Paul Thränert (1875-1960). In: thought leaders and strategists. The trade union press in the graphic industry and its editors since 1863. Berlin 2016, pp. 208–212.

Web links

• Splitters, class traitors or unrecognized trade unionists? History and legacy of the Gutenberg Association 1893–1933. Retrieved June 8, 2010 .