Tailoring Revolution
Local riots between September 16 and 20, 1830 in Berlin are known as the tailor revolution (sometimes also: tailor riot or tailor riot ) . Even if it was more of a riot , the term tailor's revolution has established itself in historical literature .
Triggered by the July Revolution in France , there were politically motivated mass gatherings with the demand for freedom and equality , which were violently suppressed by the use of the military and led to numerous arrests. In addition to the political, social elements such as approaches to machine storming and fiscal reasons played a role. The overwhelmed magistrate of Berlin criticized the arbitrariness and harshness of the military, but lacked understanding of the causes of the conflict and viewed it primarily as “nonsense” or a disruption of public order. Contemporary liberals like Adolf Streckfuss, who was later involved in the March Revolution , smiled at the unrest as a petty and pathetic little revolutionary that had fizzled out miserably. According to today's historians, they, like the fireworks revolution that followed five years later, reflect the increasing politicization of broad sections of the population in the period of Vormärz .
Police arbitrariness as the trigger for the riot in 1830
The riot was triggered by arbitrary police action. In the hostel of the tailors' apprenticeship in the Breite Strasse , the apprentice Daniel Schupp exclaimed on September 14th: Brothers, long live freedom! Long live equality! Come on, brothers, I will lead you, the revolution is breaking out, we want to start with the Breite Strasse, and then it goes on. Although the appeal had no consequences, Schupp was arrested by Police Commissioner Seidel on September 15. A day later, Seidel arrested eight other tailors because they were allegedly unemployed and unemployed. This later turned out to be a mistake and even the authorities had to admit that the arrests were made without proper scrutiny . After several thousand guild members in front of the Köllnische Wache demanded the release of the arbitrarily detained, another 17 people were arrested. The arrested included three stone setters, two tailors, as well as a merchant, silk weaver , pastry clerk, foreman, preaching candidate, leather dresser, table-topper, book printer, apprentice mason, butcher, money worker and trader.
Riot and military action
On September 17, there was a mass gathering of mostly younger workers on the Schlossplatz . After stones had flown and after a scuffle between the "rabble" and grenadiers, dragoons and lancers dispersed the crowd with drawn sabers and sometimes sharp blows. The military operation was concealed in the police note. 73 more arrests followed. The city councilor Carl Knoblauch attested bad behavior to the operation and the military patrols in the streets on the following day [...] who chased fleeing crowds everywhere and on individuals without defending themselves and some of them [...] kept quiet in front of their houses , chop in .
A notice signed “Brutus” showed the deep crack between King Friedrich Wilhelm III. and its capital, according to Ilja Mieck, however, it also made it clear that the reactionary clique around Wittgenstein and Kamptz was rather blamed for non-compliance with the royal constitutional promises:
“Up, up, you Germans! Shakes off the yoke that has become more and more oppressive for 15 years. Look to the south and west, there you see a glorious example of how other nations fight for their freedom by violence. Do we want to be inferior to these? Do we want to remain slaves any longer? No, good German confreres! Away with absolute violence! Down with the hands of tyranny, the gendarmes. Long live the nation, long live a representative constitution! Long live the constitutional king. "
Despite a call by the authorities for peace and order (see next chapter), the unrest continued on September 19. Paving stones flew and window panes broke. Once again, the military intervened and the crowd fell back only when a squadron in the strongest gallop into it rode into the collection. A company of infantry seized the ridden and dragged them to the station. On September 20th, calm was largely restored. 200 of the 208 arrested were later sentenced. Of these, 25 were brought before the courts, 175 arrested received police fines, including: between 10 and 20 lashes; 2 to 8 days arrest with water and bread; 14 days workhouse - the highest police punishment. Three apprentices aged 14 and 15 received 20 lashes.
Request from the Berlin magistrate to maintain order
On September 18, 1830, the city authorities asked the people of Berlin to maintain peace and order in a circular:
“ Request to the residents of Berlin. The arrest of a few craftsmen in the evening hour of the day before yesterday gave rise to the fact that a large number of people gathered at the same time in Breitenstrasse to satisfy their curiosity. This meeting was repeated yesterday. - Among such a number of people there are of course always several who use a junction to drive mischief, and when this arises, the number of the curious increases even more. The people who are charged by the relevant authorities to keep order in order to control every possible mischief, cannot investigate which of the people on the streets are there only out of curiosity or which are due to mischief to be carried out . It is therefore necessary that on such an occasion everyone keep himself at home, not increase the influx through untimely curiosity, or actually cause it for the first time, and in this way protect himself from harm, which is inevitable as soon as one comes among them Crowd. If all well-meaning residents not only act according to this for their own person, but also induce those who depend on them, especially those who live with them, to do so; so the confluence ceases by itself, which only promotes disorder. Anyone who then appears or stays in such places without having very urgent business, arouses the suspicion that he has only gone there because of some nonsense to be caused. Against such people, those persons who are destined to maintain order can then easily take the necessary measures and, if necessary, with all seriousness, without other well-meaning persons running at risk. We find ourselves motivated by this circular to draw the attention of all the house owners to this, with the request to inform the residents of their house of the same, and to jointly see to it that both the adults, and especially the younger ones, come together keep at home from getting dark and not increase the number of visitors out of curiosity or pleasure in such nonsense. Our dear King, whom we all love so dearly, must notice with displeasure this thoughtless convergence. The honor of the local inhabitants, who were always distinguished by order and lawful behavior, would suffer if it continued any longer; The residents' own security also requires that any disturbance of order be avoided. "
The current mayor Johann Stephan Gottfried Büsching , who came from a family of craftsmen, civil servants and pastors and who had campaigned for the urban poor, had already partially slipped away from the city's pressing problems, according to historian Gunther Hildebrandt; he rather took on the role of age president. The request of the Berlin authorities shows that they see the riot primarily as "nonsense" or disturbance of public order. They had no understanding of the political and social causes. The Berlin magistrate then complained to the interior minister about the arbitrariness and harshness of the military . At the same time he assured the king that he was in good spirits and that of the city, and declared that curiosity and a desire for mischief had caused the unrest. Ilja Mieck notes that rarely has a king been so brazenly lied to.
Social background
According to Ilja Mieck, the unrest with the call for freedom and equality was based on an eminently political motivation , but social and fiscal motives also played a major role. In the riot, which was largely carried out by craftsmen, there were clear elements of machine storming. The harbingers of the industrial revolution and the associated structural changes had led to great pressure to adapt in the craft sector . Around the middle of the century, three quarters of all craftsmen belonged to the group of needy, often proletaroid small masters on the edge of the subsistence level. The tailoring trade was in a particularly hard economic crisis due to its considerable personal “translation”. Many had to give up their self-employment and around 10 years later almost all tailors were dependent on clothes shops, for which they worked up to 14 hours a day.
The uncertainty about the new types of machines imported from England, which threatened jobs and exacerbated the already great social misery, was correspondingly great in 1830. It was said that the Cockerill brothers' machine weaving mill was ruining the weavers . As a precaution, the factory was placed under police protection, but there were no attacks. The demonstrators also demanded that the hated rental tax be lifted. Even the dog tax introduced by the Berlin magistrate on July 1, 1830, contributed to the explosive situation.
Consequences and the fireworks revolution of 1835
The relevant circles came to the conclusion that a sharper pace should be taken compared to the alleged demagogues . The measures included a significant increase in prison capacity. In 1832, the number of prison places tripled. The Hambach Festival in May 1832 intensified the mistrust of the state organs against any national and liberal movement. The pressure on the press and universities increased, political associations and meetings were banned and the post office was monitored. A new wave of demagogue persecution began. In 1835 there was a second intensive military operation against demonstrators in Berlin when the Berliners wanted to celebrate the popular royal birthday party on August 3, as in previous years, with the tacit approval of the authorities loudly and with fireworks . When the first rockets were detonated and the authorities wanted to strictly apply the legal provisions, a street battle developed after the first fights . The summoned military drove the crowd from the Tiergarten through the Brandenburg Gate back into the city. Because the military cut in hard , numerous rioters were wounded and arrested. On August 4, the street battles continued and could not be smothered until August 5, when the crowd wanted to storm Café Kranzler . Among the 100 seriously wounded in these riots were 40 soldiers, 32 gendarmes and 25 "rioters", two of whom died.
Although the so-called fireworks revolution was at first glance less politically motivated than the unrest five years earlier, there were clear indications, according to Mieck, that some political leaders came to the fore with the hope of expanding it into a general revolution. Like the tailor's revolution, the fireworks revolution reflected the increasing politicization of broad sections of the population in the period of the Vormärz . On the eve of the March Revolution of 1848/49 , a strike by calico printers followed in Berlin , who suffered particularly from the mechanization of production and received only a quarter of their previous income. In April 1847 the turmoil of the potato revolution followed on the occasion of excessively high food prices due to previous bad harvests , which were ended by the military after three days.
literature
- Ernst Frensdorff: The Berlin tailor riot in 1830. Unprinted diary entries of a Prussian guard officer. In. Communications from the Association for the History of Berlin. Vol. 24, 1907, ZDB -ID 3615-8 , pp. 208-212, digital version (PDF; 11.86 MB) .
- Gunther Hildebrandt: Johann Stephan Gottfried Büsching . In: Wolfgang Ribbe (ed.): City leaders. Biographies of Berlin mayors in the 19th and 20th centuries (= Berlinische Lebensbilder. Vol. 7 = individual publications of the Historical Commission of Berlin. Vol. 60). Stapp, Berlin 1992, ISBN 3-87776-212-3 , pp. 52-65.
- Ilja Mieck : From the reform period to the revolution (1806–1847). In: Wolfgang Ribbe (Ed.): History of Berlin. Volume 1: From early history to industrialization. CH Beck, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-406-31591-7 , pp. 405-602.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Ilja Mieck: From the reform period to the revolution […]. 1987, p. 526.
- ↑ Ilja Mieck: From the reform period to the revolution […]. 1987, p. 526 f.
- ^ A b Ilja Mieck: From the reform period to the revolution [...]. 1987, p. 527 f.
- ↑ Reproduced from: Ilja Mieck: From the reform time to the revolution [...]. 1987, p. 527.
- ^ Karl Obermann : The People's Movement in Berlin in the years 1830-1832. In: Berlin home. Vol. 4, 1956, ZDB -ID 547799-2 , pp. 12-18. Here reproduced from: Ilja Mieck: From the reform period to the revolution […]. 1987, p. 528, footnote 27.
- ^ Reproduced from the original copy of the appeal in: Ilja Mieck: Von der Reformzeit zur Revolution [...]. 1987, p. 529.
- ↑ Gunther Hildebrandt: Johann Stephan Gottfried Büsching . [...], pp. 51, 61, 63f
- ↑ Ilja Mieck: From the reform period to the revolution […]. 1987, p. 528.
- ↑ Ilja Mieck: From the reform period to the revolution […]. 1987, pp. 528, 543 ff., 593.
- ↑ Ilja Mieck: From the reform period to the revolution […]. 1987, pp. 528, 530 f., 588 ff., 599.