Rudolf Rocker

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Rudolf Rocker (born March 25, 1873 in Mainz , † September 19, 1958 near Crompond , Westchester County ) was a German anarchist and anarcho-syndicalist .

Life

Group of Jewish anarchists in London: Ernst Simmerling , Rudolf Rocker, Wuppler, Lazar Sabelinsky , Loefler, (back) Milly Witkop -Rocker, Milly Sabel (front)

Rocker was born in Mainz in 1873. Influenced by his uncle, he joined the SPD in the early 1890s . Dissatisfied with the party's policies, however, he soon left it. During an apprenticeship as a bookbinder he came into contact with the ideas of anarchism in 1891 .

After he had started to get involved politically in the context of the opposition of the Social Democratic Party in 1892, he had to leave the country in 1893. He emigrated to Paris , where he stayed until 1895. From there he went to Whitechapel in London's City district London Borough of Tower Hamlets , where he lived in the Jewish community. There he was active in the anarchist movement and got to know the Russian theorist of anarchism and founder of communist anarchism Peter Kropotkin . Rocker began writing for the Yiddish-language newspaper Das Freie Wort , although he was not yet able to speak Yiddish at the time. He wrote in German and others translated his texts. While working for the Free Word , he learned Yiddish .

Later he published the newspaper Arbeiterfreund ( Arbeter-Fraynd ) and at times the theory magazine Germinal . The worker friend was to become the organ of a federation of Jewish anarchists, which was founded in 1902 in Whitechapel. Rocker represented the Federation at the International Anarchist Congress in Amsterdam, among others .

During the First World War , Rocker was interned as a German in England and the worker friend was banned. After the war, Rocker returned to Germany in 1919, where he worked as the spiritus rector of the emerging anarcho-syndicalist movement. His declaration of principles of syndicalism was understood as the statute of the Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD). In 1922 he played a key role in the founding of the anarcho-syndicalist International Workers' Association (IAA), whose secretary he was elected together with Augustin Souchy and Alexander Schapiro and whose statutes he wrote.

His text The Bankruptcy of Russian State Communism (1921) contained an anti-Leninist criticism of Soviet Russia in which he opposed the support of the Russian government by anarchists such as Alexander Berkman and Emma Goldmann . In the period that followed, a series of brochures with texts by Rockers appeared in the publishing house Der Syndikalist by Fritz Kater , which mainly dealt with syndicalist theory. Rocker worked as the editor-in-chief for the magazine Der Syndikalist . 1933, after the seizure of power of the Nazis , Rudolf Rocker had to leave Germany again to escape persecution. He fled to the United States of America and moved with his companion Milly Witkop near his son Fermin Rocker . From here he supported the Federation of Liberal Socialists (FfS) in Germany and published in the FfS magazine Die Freie Gesellschaft and in Zeitgeist . His most important work Nationalism and Culture , which appeared in German after the war under the title The Decision of the West , was also completed in 1937 in exile . From 1941 to 1953 he corresponded with Franz Pfemfert , editor of the magazine Die Aktion , who lived in exile in Mexico City. After the Second World War, Rocker advocated a pragmatic line of the anarchist movement, which earned him criticism from within his own camp, since his anti-communism and the departure from the labor movement were understood as "revisionism".

Rudolf Rocker remained active as a libertarian author in the USA until his death in 1958 .

literature

Works

  • Collection of essays Volume 1: 1919–1933 (including: No more war weapons! Erfurt, 1919); Volume 2: 1949-1953 . Verlag Freie Gesellschaft, Frankfurt 1980.
  • Statement of Principles of Syndicalism . undated Berlin (1920). Reprint at Syndikat-A Medienvertrieb 2007.
  • The Kapp Putsch . A description from the Germany of the Noske dictatorship. (Swedish original: Kapp-Kuppen. En skildring från noskediktaturens tyskland. Av en tysk. Översettning av FS, Örebro 1920 ) Back translation by Erik Alfredson, Syndikat A Medienvertrieb, Moers 2010.
  • The bankruptcy of Russian state communism . Verlag Der Syndikalist, Berlin 1921. Reprinted as: Rudolf Rocker, Emma Goldman : Der Bolschewismus: Nationalization of the Revolution . Underground Press (later Karin Kramer Verlag ), Berlin 1968. Last published in paperback by bahoe books, Vienna 2012.
  • Declaration of Principles of the International Workers' Association . First published in the newspaper Der Syndikalist , Berlin 1922. Reprinted in H. M. Bock: Syndicalism and Left Communism from 1918 to 1923 (1969 and Darmstadt 1993); Also in Anarchist Texts No. 27, The Spanish Revolution II , Appendix, pp. 43–47. Libertad Verlag , Berlin 1982.
  • About the nature of federalism as opposed to centralism . Lecture given at the 14th FAUD Congress, 19. – 22. November 1922 in Erfurt. First edition by Verlag Der Syndikalist, Berlin, 1923. Also published by Freie Gesellschaft, Frankfurt, 1979.
  • Johann Most - The life of a rebel . Publishing house Der Syndikalist, Berlin 1924.
  • Behind barbed wire and bars . Publishing house Der Syndikalist , Fritz Kater, Berlin 1925.
  • From the other bank (Poets and Rebels, Volume 4). Publishing house Der Syndikalist , 1926.
  • The six . (Poets and Rebels, Volume 7). Publishing house Der Syndikalist, 1928.
  • Anarcho-Syndicalism ( Memento of April 5, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) (Original London 1938). (Pluto Press, London 1989: Preface by Noam Chomsky , Introduction by Nicolas Walter ISBN 0-7453-1387-6 ). Excerpts in German: “Anarcho-Syndikalismus” in: Achim v. Borries / Ingeborg Brandies: Anarchism. Theory Critique Utopia Metzer Verlag, Frankfurt 1970. (Pages 281-298).
  • To consider the situation in Germany. The possibilities of freedom of movement . New York-London-Stockholm, 1947. Under the title: … The possibility of an anarchist and syndicalist movement… An assessment of the situation in Germany , published by Verlag Freie Gesellschaft, Frankfurt, 1978.
  • The decision of the West . 2 volumes. Hamburg, 1949; later reissued as nationalism and culture .
  • Pioneers of American freedom: origin of liberal and radical thought in America . Rocker Publications Committee. Los Angeles, 1949.
  • Absolutist trains of thought in socialism . Verlag die Freie Gesellschaft, Darmstadt / Land, 1950. Also Verlag Freie Gesellschaft, Frankfurt, 1980.
  • From the memoir of a German anarchist . (Ed .: M. Melnikow / H. P. Duerr) Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt 1974, ISBN 3-518-00711-4
  • Nationalism and Culture (Ed .: Heiner M. Becker) (With Rudolf Rocker Werkbibliographie, page: 613–645.) Münster 1999 ISBN 3-930819-23-6 .
  • Heinrich Heine . A German poet as a prophet . Edition Anares, Bern 2006.

Secondary literature

  • Peter Wienand: The "born" rebel. Rudolf Rocker's life and work . Karin Kramer Verlag , Berlin 1981.
  • William J. Fishman: The Ascendancy of Rudolf Rocker . In: East End Jewish Radicals 1875-1914 London 2004, pp. 229-310.
  • Hans Manfred Bock : Syndicalism and Left Communism from 1918 to 1923 . Darmstadt 1993. ISBN 3-534-12005-1
  • Mina Graur: To an anarchist “Rabbi”. The Life and Teachings of Rudolf Rocker . New York / Jerusalem 1997. ISBN 0-312-17273-7
  • Folkert Mohrhof: Rudolf Rocker and social liberation. On the topicality of anarcho-syndicalism using the example of its German representative . In: Wolfram Beyer (ed.): Anarchisten . Berlin 1993.
  • Hartmut Rübner: Freedom and Bread. The Free Workers' Union of Germany (FAUD). A Study of the History of Anarcho-Syndicalism . Libertad Verlag Berlin / Potsdam 1994. ISBN 3-922226-21-3
  • Hartmut Rübner: "An imperfect democracy is better than a complete despotism": Rudolf Rocker's change from communist anarchist to libertarian revisionist . In: Archive for the history of resistance and work, No. 15, 1998, pp. 205–226.
  • Hans Diefenbacher:  Rocker, Johann Rudolf. In: New German Biography (NDB). Volume 21, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2003, ISBN 3-428-11202-4 , p. 686 f. ( Digitized version ).
  • Hartmut Rübner: Rudolf Rocker: teacher of liberal socialism. Syndicate-A . Moers 2009. Brochure No. 46. ISBN 978-3-9810846-7-2
  • Helge Döhring: The struggle of cultures against power and the state in human history . (An elaboration on Rudolf Rocker's work Nationalism and Culture ) Brochure Syndikat A / FAU MAT, Moers 2002.
  • Fermin Rocker: East End. A childhood in London . Münster 1993. ISBN 3-927982-21-0
  • Wolfgang Haug : "The spirit of dependency has been strengthened tremendously ..." On the work and person of Rudolf Rocker. In: Schwarzer Faden , No. 55, Volume 16 (4/95), pp. 53–61
  • Emmelie Öden: Proletarian Mainz. The Rudolf Rocker City Guide. Publishing house barricade. Hamburg 2017. Edition Syfo No. 8. ISBN 978-3-921404-08-9

Movie

  • Rudolf Rocker: bookbinder and anarchist . Director: Christian Hohoff, script / script: Christian Hohoff and Michael Münch, production by DKF GmbH (documentary and cultural film, Michael Münch). The film was shown on TV on Südwestfunk / SWF in 1988. Length: 45 minutes. (The film is a search for clues based on the stations of Rudolf Rocker's life: Mainz; emigration to London and the organization and educational work of the mainly Anglo-Jewish workers in the union there, strikes for social rights; internment during the First World War, deportation to Germany, reconstruction the anarcho-syndicalist union FAUD, founding of the anarcho-syndicalist International IAA, flight and emigration to the USA).
  • Not out of the skin - a film about Fermin Rocker . Documentary 2004, 27 min with English subtitles, by Angelika Waniek and Karin Schlicht. In this documentary, the painter Fermin Rocker (1907–2004) tells about his life and spans his childhood in the East End, as the son of Rudolf Rocker and Milly Witkop, to his time in Berlin and New York.

Quotes

"Socialism will be free or it will not be"

- Rudolf Rocker : On the history of parliamentary activity in the modern labor movement. Berlin Verlag der Freie Arbeiter n.d. (1919). Most recently as: Parliamentarism and Labor Movement Verlag Freie Gesellschaft (1978).

“The idea of ​​dictatorship did not arise from the socialist world of ideas. It is not the result of the labor movement, but a fateful legacy of the bourgeoisie with which the proletariat has been made happy. It is closely connected with the pursuit of political power, which is also of partisan origin. The dictatorship is a certain form of state power; it is the state under the rule of a state of siege. Like all other supporters of the idea of ​​the state, the proponents of the dictatorship also start from the premise that what is supposedly good and temporally necessary can be dictated to the people from above and imposed on them. This prerequisite alone makes the dictatorship a definite obstacle to the social revolution, the real element of which is the direct initiative and constructive activity of the masses. "

- Rudolf Rocker : The bankruptcy of Russian state communism. Berlin 1921. Edition 1968: page 106).

Web links

Commons : Rudolf Rocker  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lisbeth Exner / Herbert Kapfer (eds.): Pfemfert. Reminders and settlements. Texts and letters. Belleville, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-923646-35-6 .
personal data
SURNAME Rocker, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Author, historian and anarcho-syndicalist
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Mainz
DATE OF DEATH September 19, 1958
Place of death Crompond , New York