Proletarian zeitgeist

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The Proletarian Zeitgeist (PZ) was a magazine from the area of ​​the General Workers Union Unity Organization (AAUE) with an anti-authoritarian and partly anarchist orientation. It was published from 1922 to 1933.

Proletarian zeitgeist

description Organ of the AAUE
Area of ​​Expertise Unionism, council communism, anarchism
language German
publishing company AAUE publishing house
First edition 1922
attitude 1933
Frequency of publication Weekly, later monthly
Sold edition 2000 copies on average
editor Ernst Hübler, Wilhelm Jelinek , Rudolf Lehnert
Web link In the DadA
Article archive In the holdings of the DNB
ZDB 1010112-3

history

The press organ of the General Workers Union around 1920 was the magazine Weltkampf , which was jointly recognized by the unionists . According to the guidelines of the AAUE from 1921, the ultimate goal of the AAU is a "domineering society". The way to this goal should lead through a “ dictatorship of the proletariat as a class”. In the mid-1920s, ideological disputes came to a head within the AAU, which led to the division into several groups, all of which retained the name AAUE. There were, among others:

- Zwickau direction with the magazine “Weltkampf”, which advocates participation in works council elections and adopted anarcho-syndicalist ideas. In 1923 she joined the Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD).

- Frankfurt-Breslau direction , this represented council communist ideas under the influence of Alfred Adler .

- 2. Zwickau direction around the magazines From Below Up (Hamburg) and Proletarischer Zeitgeist (Zwickau). These publications were open to anarchist positions.

meaning

The Proletarian Zeitgeist was, so the subtitle, the “Organ of the General Workers Union, Unit Organization District West Saxony” (No. 2, 2nd year) and up to No. 36 the “Organ of the AAUE for the economic districts of West Saxony and Central Germany”. From issue 39 onwards, the subtitle was “A newspaper written by workers for workers”.
The PZ was published by the AAUE publishing house, and Ernst Hübler, Wilhelm Jelinek and Rudolf Lehnert were the editors . The first issue appeared in November 1922 and the last with No. 10 in July 1933, illegally in hectographed format.

The majority of the unionists from the “Zwickauer Kreis” were excluded from the AAUE because of their participation in the works councils in mining and the railway workshops. The members who remained in the AA – Union decided to publish a new magazine, since the excluded unionists saw the world struggle as their press organ. In 1924, the "Zwickau direction" was excluded from the AAUE and the PZ. The magazine had separated from the AAUE's council communist line and became an opposition publication open to smaller unionist, council communist and anarchist groups. AAUE was also given as the publisher's name. A bulletin with the title “Information of the PZ Movement” was published for the “PZ groups” (also known as the PZ movement ) active throughout Germany . In 1930 “the first Reich meeting of the PZ movement took place in Pirna, in 1931 another followed in Ammendorf near Halle and the next one was already planned for Easter 1933, but this was prevented by the Nazi seizure of power”.

The "PZ" published articles by "everyone who saw himself as an anti-authoritarian " (Knut Bergbauer). The development of the magazine from an anti-parliamentary, Marxist council communism to an “anarchist community of ideas” (Knut Bergbauer) led in 1932 to the idea that the “PZ groups” could work together with the anarchist federation (AF), but this did not materialize. Only after the Second World War in 1945 did former AF members in the Soviet occupation zone merge with the information center in Zwickau and the “Zwickauer Rundbrief”, the driving force of which was the anarcho-syndicalist Wilhelm Jelinek . The anarcho-syndicalist Willy Huppertz was also active in the “PZ” . In December 1978 Otto Reimers published a “Zeitgeist special” in book format with contributions from, among others, Augustin Souchy , Ernst Friedrich and Ulrich Linse with a clear anarchist tendency.

According to the company, several PZ issues were confiscated. Until 1933 the contributions appeared without naming the authors. Otto Reimers organized the magazine's distribution. Initially, the "PZ" appeared weekly, later monthly with articles on international issues, information from companies, on meetings and book reviews. In 1932 the circulation was 2,400 copies and in 1933 1,850. As the successor to the “PZ”, the illegally published by O. Reimers magazine Mahnruf (also called “Mahnbrief”) appeared from 1933 to 1945. The 12-page publication was intended for former AAUE comrades who tended to be anarchist.

Archives

Archived in the International Institute for Social History (IISG):

literature

Books

Magazines

  • Knut Bergbauer, Die Zeitschrift Proletarischer Zeitgeist , in: espero No. 9, February 1997. Pages 12 to 15. ( online)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Guidelines of the AAUE 1921 . Retrieved October 5, 2012
  2. ↑ See: Knut Bergbauer in espero No. 9, February 1997, page 14