Central Association for the Good of the Working Class

The Central Association for the Welfare of the Working Class was founded in 1844 as an organization for bourgeois social reform to combat pauperism . The organization existed until the beginning of the First World War .

prehistory

The Silesian Weavers (painting by Carl Wilhelm Huebner , 1846)

The founding of the association was a direct reaction to the Silesian weavers' revolt of 1844. Above all, teachers from Berlin, including the poor school teacher Ferdinand Schmidt and the seminar director Adolph Diesterweg , founded an "association for raising the lower classes" against the background of the conditions in the Silesian home trade areas . According to the founders, the events in Silesia showed that the increasing unrest in the proletariat posed a threat to bourgeois society. It must therefore be the duty of the bourgeoisie "to call up the oppressed masses of the people from their rudeness and misery, the guilt of our existing circumstances, voluntarily to the right to life, to work and enjoyment and education and the free use of their powers."

Unlike previous charitable organizations, the association did not simply want to pay out subsidies or take action against individual grievances. First of all, the problems should be examined in all their diversity, and then the means of solving them should be examined.

The association itself was open to members from all walks of life, regardless of origin and gender. So that not only the wealthy could participate, the members paid any contribution. This authorized them to take part in the monthly meetings and to participate in discussions. Special commissions should be created for the different problem areas. In terms of the actual implementation, the intention was to work with existing or newly established local aid organizations.

From the beginning the efforts of the association met with the distrust of the authorities. From the perspective of the police authorities, the involvement of well-known left-wing Young Hegelians such as Eduard Meyen and Adolf Friedrich Rutenberg was suspect. Since the authorities feared an impact in the “communist spirit”, the association was not given official approval.

Foundation of an association

Instead of the founding in Berlin, the Centralverein was now founded for the benefit of the working classes. The sponsors were, on the one hand, members of the highly educated bureaucracy, such as Georg Wilhelm von Viebahn , not least from the Prussian Ministry of Finance such as Robert von Patow, and economic citizens and entrepreneurs from the Prussian western provinces of Rhineland and Westphalia . For the initiators, the contradiction between the economic upswing, as it had just manifested itself in the first trade exhibition of the Zollverein , and the hardship and misery in large parts of the lower classes of the population was a motivation to participate. The Centralverein was based in Berlin. In addition, the first local associations quickly emerged in some cities. These included Elberfeld , Cologne and Berlin . Other local organizations were added later.

Organization and goal setting

The local clubs should essentially be responsible for the practical work. They should promote the establishment of savings, pension, health and support funds. In addition, advanced training schools should be set up for child workers and apprentices. In addition, there should be general lectures to disseminate “non-profit knowledge.” During these activities, local organizations should work with representatives of the lower classes. Via the local associations, provincial associations should primarily serve as a coordination point for the relief funds set up.

Friedrich Harkort: The clubs to raise the lower classes of the people. Elberfeld, 1845

The actual core of the association was the Centralverein. Membership in this cost at least 4 thalers a year and thus excluded a large part of the lower classes. The steering committee remained firmly in the hands of the bourgeoisie. The Centralverein wanted to examine social reform approaches from home and abroad and develop practical solutions from them. Through foundations, donations and bequests, the association hoped to obtain sufficient financial means to build workers' apartments, buy garden land for the needy or set up trade schools.

The activities of the association met with a broad response from the public. Even King Friedrich-Wilhelm IV. Expressed his appreciation for the organization and provided it with 15,000 thalers for his projects.

The Prussian Ministry of the Interior under Adolf Heinrich Graf von Arnim-Boitzenburg also saw this upper-class establishment as a threat to the state. In fact, there were radical democratic currents in some local associations. In Cologne, for example, Friedrich Engels was enthusiastic that half of the local committee was made up of “ours”. Nevertheless, the majority of the 30 or so local associations and the Central Association were dominated by the moderately liberal property and educated bourgeoisie, which in no way questioned the social or political order as a whole. The consequence of the police reports was that the king changed his attitude. In addition, the authorities have repeatedly delayed the approval of the statutes, so that official recognition had not yet taken place in 1848.

This changed in the course of the revolutionary year. The association resumed its activities immediately after the beginning of the March Revolution . For example, he took part in the founding of a construction company in Berlin and the association published a periodical newsletter. At that time, Hermann Schulze-Delitzsch , Victor Aimé Huber , Friedrich Harkort , Franz Haniel , Mathias Stinnes jr. , Karl Rodbertus and Adolph Diesterweg are actively involved in the association's work. He was closely connected in Rhineland and Westphalia with the Rheinisch-Westfälischer Handels- und Gewerbeverein, which as a whole was a corporate member of the Centralverein. However, it was not possible to come into contact with the workers' associations. The association continued to exist even after the revolution. The Centralverein suggested various studies with social reform objectives, such as a comparative study of the savings bank system. Since the 1870s in particular, social reform and anti-social democratic attitudes have been combined.

meaning

The Centralverein is an expression of the fact that it has become increasingly clear to the liberal bourgeoisie how important it is to fight poverty and social problems effectively. Numerous members of the association therefore belonged to the Prussian or German national assembly in 1848 . In addition, the association formulated a civil social reform program for the first time. This remained essentially decisive for about fifty years. It was important that preventive measures should be taken alongside the usual poor care help. In addition, the discussions in the association worked out a number of proposed solutions that should be part of the core component of the bourgeois social reform in the 19th century. In the 20th century, these were partially modified to become parts of the welfare state. The criticism of the Centralverein led some representatives of the lower classes, such as Stephan Born , to the demand to found organizations independent from the bourgeoisie, as was the case in 1848 in the General German Workers' Brotherhood.

Fonts (selection)

The savings bank system in Germany and the non-German parts of Austria and Prussia. Published by the Central Association in Prussia for the benefit of the working classes. Janke, Berlin 1863.
Der Arbeiterfreund: magazine for the workers question. Organ of the Central Association for the Welfare of the Working Class. Hall 1863–1914.
Communications of the Central Association for the good of the working classes. Hagen, 1848ff. [Reprint Hagen, 1980 ff.]
Social correspondence: newspaper edition - Organ d. Central Association for the Welfare of the Working Class. Dresden, 1877–1914.

literature

Heinz Richard Schneider: Civil society efforts for the "good of the working classes". Inaugural dissertation . Printed by F. Schmitt in Siegburg, Bonn 1967
Jürgen Reulecke: The beginnings of organized social reform in Germany. In: Rüdiger vom Bruch (ed.): Neither communism nor capitalism. Civil social reform in Germany from the Vormärz to the Adenauer era. Munich 1985, pp. 21-59, here specifically pp. 27-32.
Jürgen Reulecke: The association movement for the welfare of the working classes, In: Ottfried Dascher, Everhard Kleinertz (Hrsg.): Petitions and barricades. Rhenish revolutions 1848/49. Aschendorff, Münster 1998, ISBN 3-402-05378-0 , pp. 54-47.

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ quoted from Reulecke p. 27

[1] quoted from Reulecke p. 27