Association day of German workers' associations
The Association of German Workers 'Associations (VDAV) was an umbrella organization of workers' associations founded in 1863 . It emerged as a reaction to the founding of the ADAV by Ferdinand Lassalle and initially stood clearly on the ground of the bourgeois democratic movement before it embarked on its own path under the influence of August Bebel and Wilhelm Liebknecht . Along with the Saxon People's Party, it was an organizational forerunner of the Social Democratic Workers' Party ( SDAP ).
prehistory
After the workers' organizations established during the revolution ( Bund der Kommunisten , Allgemeine Deutsche Arbeiterverbrüderung ) were smashed in 1854, with the beginning of the new era in Prussia (i.e. the assumption of reign by the later King Wilhelm I ) the scope for a new beginning increased Labor movement . The club movement was promoted by the Liberals and Democrats. They saw the workers question as a temporary problem, not an emerging new social group. For them it was therefore a matter of helping the workers to get an adequate education with the help of workers ' education associations, so that they could advance themselves to the educated and wealthy small middle class. For liberals and democrats, the workers' associations themselves were something like preliminary organizations of the national association such as gymnastics and military associations. One focus of the workers' association movement was in Saxony. August Bebel reports in retrospect from clubs in Leipzig , Crimmitschau , Dresden , Frankenberg , Glauchau and other places. In parts of Thuringia they were successful among weavers and knitters. The development was similar in other parts of Germany. In Württemberg around 1865 a "Gauverband" (i.e. a state-wide organization) was established. There were also a significant number of clubs in Baden and in the Kingdom of Hanover .
However, this conception was opposed to developments in parts of the working population itself, whose masterminds increasingly spoke of a “working class”. The number of factory workers was still very small, but these slogans also resonated among the artisan workers. After attending the London World Exhibition, some of the workers' leaders in the national association pleaded for their own interest group and invited Ferdinand Lassalle to prepare. Under his influence, the ADAV was the first workers' party.
Admittedly, only a part of the newly formed workers' associations followed the new party. As a reaction to the founding of the ADAV , efforts to found an umbrella organization intensified in the left-liberal and democratic camp. The supporters of this counter-movement were essentially united by their opposition to Ferdinand Lassalle . Politically, they spanned the entire spectrum from the Republican Democrats to the right wing of liberalism, which in 1867 formed the National Liberal Party . The liberal and democratic movement united in the national association reacted to Lassalle by founding the Association of German Workers' Associations (VDAV).
Organization and positions
The first day of the workers' associations took place on June 7th and 8th, 1863 in Frankfurt am Main . 110 delegates, 54 clubs from 48 cities were represented. Together they represented around 17,000 members. From the start, a broad political spectrum was represented here too. August Bebel from Leipzig was represented, as was Hermann Becker , who was convicted in the “ Cologne Communist Trial ” after the revolution of 1848/49 . There were also Eugen Richter and the publisher Julius Knorr from Munich . On the first day of the association, Leopold Sonnemann , Max Wirth and others were elected to a standing committee. Sonnemann took over the actual management as secretary. Since the new organization itself had little income from members, it received substantial financial support from the national association.
The Association Day decided to meet annually in the future. The subject of negotiations should be anything that can "affect the welfare of the working classes". The assembly spoke out in the liberal sense of freedom of trade, the establishment of cooperatives and the introduction of old age and disability insurance funds. The Association Day recommended that district associations be founded in the individual federal states, but this failed in Saxony due to the opposition of the government.
The second association day took place in Leipzig in 1864. The range of work of the movement makes the agenda clear. In the discussion of the Prussian military constitution one had to forego pressure from the authorities. Nevertheless, the workload was considerable:
- Freedom of movement
- Cooperative system (consumer associations, production cooperatives)
- a uniform curriculum for the workers' associations
- Hiking support funds
- Old age insurance
- Life insurance
- Regulation of the labor market d. H. Proof of work
- Workers' housing
- Election of a standing committee
47 individual clubs were represented. Of these, 8 came from Leipzig alone. There were also 3 district associations from the Baden Oberland, Württemberg and Maingau. The umbrella organization thus had its organizational focus outside Prussia in Saxony and south-west Germany.
Max Hirsch , who later co-founded the liberal Hirsch-Duncker trade unions , August Bebel, Leopold Sonnemann , publisher of the Frankfurter Zeitung , and the philosopher Friedrich Albert Lange were elected to the committee responsible for business between the association days .
The third day of the association took place in Stuttgart in 1865. Sixty clubs and a district association with sixty delegates were represented. The Assembly decided that the right of association is a natural right that should not be diminished. He also spoke out in favor of setting up production cooperatives. The member associations were asked to stand up for universal, equal and secret suffrage. A presentation on the issue of women was also on the agenda.
The general workers' newspaper, published in Coburg , initially served as the organ of the association . After this sheet was adjusted for economic reasons, entered 1867 in its place in Mannheim appearing Arbeiterhalle .
As an amalgamation of workers' education associations, it was the aim of the bourgeois democrats and liberals to prevent the associations from becoming politicized and to counter this with centrally controlled educational work. It is not only the separation of the workers from the bourgeois emancipation movement that makes the difference to the ADAV. While this represented a centrally managed workers' and craftsmen's association, which was oriented towards Prussian-Small German and demanded social state intervention, the VDAV was oriented towards large German and was organized much more loosely and federally. The war of 1866 and the associated preliminary decision for a small German solution had a "downright devastating effect" on the clubs.
The fourth association day took place in Gera in 1867. Only 37 clubs were represented there. However, there were now 3 district associations. The central topic was the protection of miners after a mining accident in the Lugau district . A new statute has also been adopted. An elected president took the place of a standing committee. The association to which the president belonged then also provided the six-member board of the association. In the election August Bebel prevailed with 19 votes against Max Hirsch with 13 votes.
Conflict and division
The aim of the national association to prevent politicization was not fulfilled, on the contrary, the union led to the formation of a second workers' party. It also played a role that the national club, which had played a major role in the establishment, gradually collapsed. The move away from the purely educational concept also means that trade union organizations have emerged in the vicinity of the VDAV which called themselves trade unions. The cooperation of the workers with the bourgeois democracy was, however, no longer undisputed in this organization. Your original leadership group was in the hands of politicians from the left-liberal spectrum. This changed when August Bebel took over the chairmanship in 1867. Some time later , Wilhelm Liebknecht , who was under the influence of Karl Marx , also played a role.
The latent contradiction between the two camps was openly debated on the fifth association day in Nuremberg in 1868. 115 delegates from 93 associations with a total of around 13,000 members took part in this meeting. Among the guests were representatives of the International Workers' Association (i.e. the First International) of Karl Marx. Bebel was elected chairman of the Association Day and thus had considerable influence on the process. The focus of the discussions was the question of the program. Those in favor of a separation from the Liberals succeeded in asserting the organization's affiliation with the International. Wilhelm Liebknecht justified the desired separation of the labor movement from the bourgeois democrats in a programmatic speech. "Because the social and political question are inseparable, the workers' interest demands that they also separate politically from their social opponents." The assembly passed 61 votes against 31 to recognize the principles of the First International, in particular the guiding principle: " The The emancipation of the working classes must be fought for by the working classes themselves. “The decision left no doubt about the criticism of the existing political system. "The social question is therefore inseparable from the political one, its solution depends on it and is only possible in a democratic state."
This course led to deep conflicts within the VDAV, and the liberal representatives left Nuremberg during the conference. One point of contention was the internationalism propagated by Marx. This stood in contrast to the idea of the nation state, which also played a central role in large parts of the association. The liberal forces and supporters of the bourgeois democrats left the VDAV. The rest of the VDAV was already close to the Saxon People's Party because of Bebel's leading role. Liebknecht published the magazine “ Demokratisches Wochenblatt ” for both organizations .
As a reaction to the establishment of the trade union umbrella organization of the ADAV ( General German Workers' Association ) and the liberal Hirsch-Duncker trade unions, Bebel also published a model statute for international trade unions in the weekly newspaper in November 1868 . After that, the organizations should build up from below and join together to form national associations. A central board should be at the head of the unions. The first organization on this basis was the International Trade Union for Manufacturers, Factory and Craftsmen , founded in May 1869 and based in Leipzig.
Transition to the SDAP
Within the ADAV, the policy of the new chairman Johann Baptist von Schweitzer had triggered considerable resistance, which led to numerous leading members, such as Wilhelm Bracke or Friedrich Wilhelm Fritzsche, leaving the party. An appeal appeared in the democratic weekly newspaper of the workers' associations on July 17, 1869, which had been signed by numerous former members of the ADAV and the Association of German Workers' Associations, representatives of the German workers' associations in Switzerland, from Austria, the IAA and the German-Republican Association in Zurich . The aim was to create a party of “all of Germany's social democratic workers”. At the Eisenach party congress from August 7th to 9th, 1869, a new organization was founded with the SDAP. The last meeting of the workers' associations, which decided to join the new organization, took place in the same place.
Association days
- 7th-8th June 1863 in Frankfurt am Main. 110 delegates from 54 associations representing 48 cities.
- 23–24 October 1864 in Leipzig. 47 clubs and three district associations.
- 6-7 October 1867 in Gera . 36 delegates represent 37 clubs and 3 district associations.
- 5th-7th September 1868 in Nuremberg . 115 delegates represent 93 associations and around 13,000 members.
swell
- Democratic weekly paper . Organ of the German People's Party and the Association of German Workers' Associations . With an introduction by Heinrich Gemkow and Ursula Hermann. Leipzig 1868 . Unchanged photomechanical reprint of the original edition. Central antiquariat of the German Democratic Republic, Leipzig 1969. Digitized
- Democratic weekly paper. Organ of the German People's Party and the Association of German Workers' Associations. Leipzig 1869 . Unchanged photomechanical reprint of the original edition. Central antiquariat of the German Democratic Republic, Leipzig 1969.
- August Bebel: From my life . 2nd edition Zurich, 1911 [edition used: Reprint Berlin, 1946] online version
literature
- Erich Eyck : The Association of German Workers' Associations 1863-1868. A contribution to the genesis of the German labor movement. Reimer, Berlin 1904.
- History of the German labor movement. Timeline. Part I. From the beginning to 1917 . Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1965.
- Detlef Lehnert: Social democracy between protest movement and ruling party 1848–1983 . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M. 1983, p. 53ff.
- Franz Osterroth, Dieter Schuster: Chronicle of the German social democracy. Vol. 1: Until the end of the First World War . Dietz Verlag, Bonn / Berlin 1975, pp. 24-38.
- Wolfram Siemann : Society on the move. Germany 1849–1871 . Suhrkamp, Frankfurt a. M. 1990, pp. 256f.
- Klaus Tenfelde: The emergence of the German trade union movement: From the Vormärz to the end of the Socialist Law . In: Ulrich Borsdorf (Hrsg.): History of the German trade unions. From the beginning until 1945 . Bund-Verlag, Bonn 1987, pp. 105f.
- Hans-Ulrich Wehler : German history of society . Volume 3: From the German double revolution to the end of the First World War . CH Beck, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-406-32263-8 , p. 348.
Web links
- Association days of the VDAV Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung
- Wilhelm Liebknecht on the defense issue on the 5th Association Day 1868 (PDF)
- Origin of the labor movement (PDF) University of Munich