Wilhelm Schäffler

Wilhelm Schäffler

Wilhelm Schäffler (born October 16, 1856 in Stuttgart or Rietenau ; † November 20, 1910 in the Charlottenhöhe sanatorium , community Schömberg ) was a German trade unionist and politician ( SPD ). In 1874 he was one of the co-founders of the Heilbronn SPD, was a member of the Chamber of Deputies of the Württemberg Land estates from 1902 until his death and a member of the Heilbronn municipal council from 1904 until his death .

Life

Schäffler was the son of a carpenter and of Protestant denomination. After attending elementary school , he did an apprenticeship as a piano maker, then went on a journey through Germany and worked as an instrument maker. In September 1874, together with four other craftsmen, including Gustav Kittler , he founded the SDAP local association at Gasthof Zur Rose in Heilbronn , from which the SPD emerged in 1890.

Schäffler lived in Stuttgart, where he was chairman of the union-like carpenters' association. Since he could no longer find work as such in Stuttgart, he moved to Heilbronn in the winter of 1886/87, where he was one of the first trade unionists. In 1893 he was one of the local co-founders of the woodworkers' association and was one of the leading association officials. In autumn of the same year he got involved in a dispute between the Heilbronn brewers . Two breweries had each laid off a unionized worker in mid-September. The United Unions in Heilbronn then set up a commission, which Schäffler also belonged to, and which was to negotiate with the two brewery owners about the reinstatement of the workers. While this was successful at the Jacob Brewery, the Neuffer Brewery refused to even recognize the commission and did not reinstate the dismissed man. As a result, a public assembly convened by the United Unions on September 26th decided to boycott the Neuffer Brewery, and the commission issued two leaflets calling on all workers not to visit inns and shops that sell Neuffer beer. The police and prosecutors searched the houses of the commissioners and charged with extortion . On October 24th, a people's assembly decided unanimously to maintain the boycott. The claims against Neuffer could not be enforced, however, and on March 29, 1894, the Heilbronn jury issued a judgment against the commission members for attempted extortion. Schäffler was sentenced to three weeks in prison.

After the boycott and imprisonment, Schäffler apparently had difficulties in finding a new job in Heilbronn and decided in 1894, in agreement with the Heilbronn trade unions, to take over the Gasthof Zur Rose on the market square, “in order to be able to offer the organized workers a home ". As the host of the Rose , he also experienced the riots after the defeat of the SPD candidate Gustav Kittler in the Reichstag runoff election of June 24, 1898 against the conservative candidate Paul Hegelmaier , Heilbronn's Lord Mayor, in which Schäffler was injured on the head by throwing stones.

In 1900 Schäffler became chairman of the Heilbronn union cartel . In the same year he ran for the first time in the Heilbronn constituency for the Chamber of Deputies of the Württemberg Land estates . After the first ballot on December 5, 1900, a run-off election on December 18 against the VP candidate and elected representative Robert Münzing was required, which Schäffler lost. After Münzing's death, a by-election took place on October 28, 1902 , in which Schäffler ran again. In the runoff election that was required again on November 10, 1902, he was able to prevail against Paul Hegelmaier. On December 10, he entered the Chamber as the first Heilbronn SPD member. In the regular election on December 5, 1906, he ran again and was able to prevail in the runoff election on December 18, 1906 against Wilhelm Haag from the Bauernbund . In the Chamber of Deputies he was a member of the elementary school commission. From 1904 (election on December 4, 1903) until his death in 1910, Schäffler was a member of the Heilbronn municipal council .

From 1909 Schäffler was seriously ill. He died in a mental institution on November 20, 1910. After his death on January 11, 1911 a replacement election took place in the constituency of Heilbronn Amt. The SPD candidate August Hornung was elected Schäffler's successor .

family

Schäffler married in 1879. The marriage resulted in his son Albert Schäffler (1882–1958), who was an innkeeper and SPD city councilor in Heilbronn.

Awards

From September 25, 1947 to June 10, 1948 there was a Wilhelm-Schäffler-Strasse in Heilbronn . It got its name when a local council majority from the SPD and KPD, against the votes of the CDU and DVP, renamed a total of 128 streets and squares in Heilbronn, and was previously called Wörther Straße . On June 10, 1948, after the majority in the local council had changed, it was given its old name again. In 1956, Wörther Strasse was closed and added as an extension of Alexanderstrasse (near the main cemetery ).

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Gerhard Schwinghammer and Reiner Makowski: The Heilbronner street names . Edited by the city of Heilbronn. 1st edition. Silberburg-Verlag , Tübingen 2005, ISBN 3-87407-677-6 , p. 22, 244–245
2. ↑ Neckar-Echo of November 21, 1910, quoted from Susanne Stickel-Pieper (arrangement): Trau! Look! Whom? (see literature), p. 134
3. ↑ Heilbronn City Archives , Contemporary History Collection, signature ZS-10349, entry on Albert Schäffler in the HEUSS database (accessed on December 28, 2012)
4. ↑ Alexander Renz: Chronicle of the city of Heilbronn . Volume VI: 1945-1951. Heilbronn City Archives, Heilbronn 1995, ISBN 3-928990-55-1 , p. 198, 245, 570 ( publications of the archive of the city of Heilbronn . Volume 34).

literature

• Frank Raberg : Biographical handbook of the Württemberg state parliament members 1815-1933 . On behalf of the Commission for Historical Regional Studies in Baden-Württemberg. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-17-016604-2 , p. 767 .
• Susanne Stickel-Pieper (arrangement): Trau! Look! Whom? Documents on the history of the labor movement in the Heilbronn / Neckarsulm area 1844–1949 . Distel-Verlag, Heilbronn 1994, ISBN 3-929348-09-8 , in the book ISBN 3-923348-09-8 , pp. 134, 166-175, 181-186
• Albert Großhans: 100 years of the SPD Heilbronn 1874–1974 . Social Democratic Party of Germany, Local Association Heilbronn, Heilbronn 1974, pp. 7, 22, 57, 159, 162

Web links

• Biography of Wilhelm Schäffler . In: Wilhelm H. Schröder : Social Democratic Parliamentarians in the German Reich and Landtag 1876–1933 (BIOSOP)