Red field post

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Distribution of socialist literature behind the police.

The Red Field Post was used during the Socialist Law from 1878 to 1890 to smuggle into Germany forbidden socialist literature that was printed abroad. It is mainly thanks to the "sales manager" Julius Motteler that z. B. " The Social Democrat " was illegally smuggled across the border every week by the "Rote Feldpost" and could thus be spread.

history

Two unsuccessful attacks by Max Hodel on May 11, 1878, Karl Nobiling on the June 2, 1878 I. Kaiser Wilhelm served Bismarck as a welcome opportunity with a socialist law against the socialist party to take action.

After the Bismarck Socialist Law had been enacted in October 1878, the party initially entered a phase of destabilization. It was only after Bismarck's attempt to deprive the Social Democrats of their active and passive voting rights and thus the Reichstag parliamentary group as a party-leading structure at the same time failed that some of its members founded the exiled party sheet Der Sozialdemokrat , die, which was printed in Switzerland at the end of 1879 was the most important internationally published German-language socialist - social democratic newspaper. From 1879 to 1880 Georg von Vollmar became editor-in-chief at the suggestion of August Bebel , and between 1880 and 1890 Eduard Bernstein was editor of the newspaper.

Motteler emigrated to Zurich in November 1879 and from 1880 to 1888, supported by Joseph Belli , as managing director, organized the smuggling of the weekly newspaper to Germany and the nationwide underground sales. He set up a smoothly functioning transport and distribution system for socialist German literature at home and abroad, which went down in history under the name of the Rote Feldpost .

The illegal distribution took place by smuggling from Switzerland across the Württemberg border and from there to the other parts of the German Empire . The threads came together in the so-called “Red Post Office”, and representatives of the “Red Field Post” distributed the newspapers via regional “field post stations”. To protect the members, secret scripts were developed and reliable cover addresses were used. Most of the shop stewards were proletarians who not only had long and hard work to do, but also found it difficult to write. The necessary correspondence with Zurich was twice as burdensome for her. The shop steward and workers who continued to distribute the socialist literature had to keep an eye not only on the police, but also on the entrepreneur, who could hit them and their family hard by firing them. Despite all skillful activity and hard work, the Red Field Post Office in Zurich was only able to fulfill its task with the help of hundreds of shop stewards and thousands of party members in Germany . This contributed a lot to the development and, despite the ban, even to the strengthening of the party's extensive local structures. Motteler was therefore praised among his party friends with the honorary name of the red field postmaster .

With the illegal transit of socialist literature and its distribution in Germany, a defense system was necessary against agents and informers of the German police, they tried to disorganize or even paralyze the Red Field Post. This is how the security service, the " black mask ", came into being. Julius Motteler, the red field postmaster , also became head of the revolutionary guards. He organized a defense service against counter-revolutionary agents, troublemakers, spies and saboteurs. Motteler had an extensive network of shop stewards inside and outside Germany. He could address questions about agents and counter-intelligence, and inquiries about them, at any time. This encompassed a whole range of simple findings about unknown buyers of socialist literature to complicated, lengthy and extensive research to expose agents.

From 1881 onwards, especially during the election campaigns, the party received substantial subsidies from the fund administered by Motteler. With the increase in the number of copies of socialist literature, the establishment of secret printing plants in Germany was absolutely necessary to relieve illegal transit. It is known that z. B. The Social Democrat was secretly printed for a while in Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Altenburg, Hamburg and Cologne. Instead of the printed numbers of the Social Democrats, the lead plates were sent to the secret printing works. After the fall of Bismarck in March 1890 and the repeal of the Socialist Law in October 1890, the Red Field Post was discontinued .

literature

  • Joseph Belli : The red field post under the Socialist Law. With an introduction: memories from my childhood, teaching and hiking days. JHW Dietz successor, Stuttgart 1912, ( online ).
  • Ernst Engelberg : Politics and Red Field Post 1878–1890. Akademie-Verlag, Berlin 1959.
  • Alfred Hintze: Julius Motteler, the red field postmaster. In: Collector Express , Berlin 1963, p. 364.
  • Friedrich Pospiech : Julius Motteler - the "red field postmaster". A journey through the early history of the labor movement and the great times of social democracy. Edited by the Marxist Workers Education Esslingen, information center "Hans Rueß". Selbstverlag, Esslingen 1977 (2nd edition Julius Motteler, the "red field postmaster". Comrade in arms of Bebel and W.Liebknecht. With Marx, Engels, Bebel and Liebknecht creators and designers of the German and international labor movement. Self-published, Esslingen 1998, ISBN 3 -00-007994-7 ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ernst Engelberg : Revolutionary Politics and "Red Field Post" 1878–1890 . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1959.
  2. ^ Friedrich Pospiech: Julius Motteler the 'red field postmaster'. Comrade in arms of Bebel and W. Liebknecht. Esslingen am Neckar 1977.
  3. ↑ Horst Heimann: "Red Field Post". In: Vorwärts , No. 6, 2003; Retrieved October 11, 2010
  4. ↑ About Julius Motteler. Friedrich Ebert Foundation ; Retrieved October 11, 2010.
  5. ↑ Cf. Maag, Gerhard, From the Socialist Law to the First World War, in: Working group history of the Nürtinger workers' movement, The other Nürtingen. A contribution to the local history of the 100th birthday of the Nürtingen SPD, ed. v. SPD local association Nürtingen, Nürtingen 1989, p. 33.
  6. ^ Ernst Engelberg : Revolutionary Politics and Red Field Post 1878–1890 . Akademie Verlag, Berlin 1959.