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“Hammer Blows”: Work, the Workplace, and the Culture of Masculinity Among Catholic Workers in the Weimar Republic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Raymond C. Sun
Raymond C. Sun
Affiliation:
Washington State University
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Extract

In the early 1930s German democracy was dying, mired in political gridlock, burdened by four million unemployed, and under assault by Nazis and Communists alike. In the midst of this crisis the Reich Association of Catholic Workers' Clubs and Working Youth (Reichsverband der katholischen Arbeitervereine und der Werkjugend) published a modest anthology entitled Die Arbeit (Work), “dedicated to the poetic glorification of labor.” Editorially justifying the decision to provide Catholic workers with verses at such a time, Ferdinand Göbel, one of the rising young leaders of the Catholic labor movement, argued that the poems, far from serving as a distraction or a momentary boost to morale, would enable workers to find the only true and lasting solution to their predicament. Poetry would lead to an inner, spiritual renewal, a rediscovery by workers that their labor was “not simply to earn bread, but… joyful participation in the act of creation, sacrificial service to humanity and a means of atonement that makes us strong and free within.” Because of this, said Göbel, The modern worker, this man of iron, has discovered his soul. He believes in loyalty and comradeship, in brotherhood and the courage to sacrifice. He hopes in a new humanity. Yes, out of his heavy everyday existence he hammers bridges to the eternal and the divine. He turns hard slave labor into an act of worship.

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Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , June 2004 , pp. 245 - 271
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Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 2004

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References

This article is a revised version of a paper presented at the Spring Conference of the Catholic Historical Association in Santa Fe, New Mexico in April 2000. The author thanks Margaret Lavinia Anderson, Heather Streets, and Jeffrey Zalar for their comments and encouragement, and Rachel Halverson for help on questions of translation.

1. Göbel, Ferdinand, ed., Die Arbeit, published by the Reichsverband der katholischen Arbeitervereine und der Werkjugend (Mönchen-Gladbach, n.d., certainly 1930–1932), 3.Google Scholar

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3. In 1912 the katholisclten Arbeitervereine claimed approximately 428,000 members. Arbeiter-Taschenbuch für das Jahr 1913 (Berlin, 1913), 217, 228, 244Google Scholar. Cited in Lidtke, Vernon, “Social Class and Secularization in Imperial Germany,” Publications of the Leo Baeck Institute, Year Book 25 (New York, 1980), Appendix IIIGoogle Scholar. The Christian Trade Unions had a total membership of some 360,000 in 1914, of which 275,000 (76 percent) were Catholic. Brose, Eric Dorn, Christian Labor and the Politics of Frustration in Imperial Germany (Washington, D.C., 1985), 374Google Scholar. For an introduction to the prewar Catholic labor movement, see Brose, Christian Labor, Schneider, Michael, Die christlichen Gewerkschaften (Bonn, 1982)Google Scholar; and Sun, Raymond C., “Before the Enemy is Within Our Walls”: Catholic Workers in Cologne, 1885–1912: A Social, Cultural, and Political History (Boston, 1999).Google Scholar

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5. See Gill, Lesley, “Creating Citizens, Making Men: The Military and Masculinity in Bolivia,” Cultural Anthropology 12, no. 4 (1997): 527–50, on how, paradoxically, the acceptance of an exaggerated ideal of maleness through military service can seemingly empower subordinate groups by generating self-respect and validating claims to membership in the larger national community, while at the same time reinforcing support for the institutions of the hegemonic political and social order.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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17. Ibid., 20, 59, 65.

18. The Catholic workers' clubs were infirm both symbolically and literally: in 1930, 15.5 percent of the membership of the West German Federation was classified as “invalids.” “Bericht über die Entwicklung,” 75.

19. Bericht des Pfarrers Johannes Röntgen über die in der Pfarre St. Antonius in Köln-Mülheim vom 28. Sept. bis 14. Oktober 1932 abgehaltene Volksmission. Generalvikariat Archiv, Historisches Archiv des Erzbistums Köln, Cologne-Mülheim/St. Antonius 4. For a detailed analysis of the visitation reports and their findings on the degree of Social Democratic and Communist influence in Catholic working-class parishes, see Sun, , “Catholic-Marxist Competition,” 34–37.Google Scholar

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40. Ibid., 245–46.

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46. “… Tausend Mann, Schicht um Schicht, / saugt die laute Arbeitshölle auf. / Zwingt sie all in harte Pflicht. / Stunde um Stunde. / Bis der Pfiff heiser gellt, / aus offenem Tore strömen dann / Mädchen, Frauen, Mann und Mann — blasses Volk — müde — verquält … / Tag und Nacht: Lärm und Dampf, / immer Arbeit, inimer Kampf, / unerbittlich schröpft das Molochhaus, Stahl und Menschen um Menschen aus.” “Die Fabrik,” in ibid., 15. Depictions of the modern factory as a shrine to Moloch were not limited to Catholics in the Weimar era; see, most spectacularly, Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis.

47. “Unsere Arbeitswochen / Sind schwer von Mühe und Last, / Und hart vom brotsuchenden Ringen, / Und staubig von Alltagshast.” “Feier im Arbeiterverein,” in Arbeiterfeiern, 1.

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49. Max Barthel, “Der grosse Hammer,” in ibid., 16.

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53. Joos, “Den Gefallenen der Arbeit,” in ibid., 21–22.

54. Ibid., 22–23.

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58. “Love for the Fatherland and devotion to God, the national and the religious are for us inseparably joined together. They are like twin sisters.” Josef Joos, “Unsere Vaterlandsliebe,” in ibid., 6.

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69. K.B., “Brüder, auf!” in ibid., 12. The colors black-red-gold refer to the flag of the republic.

70. “Sie selbst sind fmster und erleuchten die Welt.” Barthel, Max, “Die Arbeiter,” in Die Arbeit, 2.Google Scholar

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79. Karl Bröger, “Legende vom Feuerofen,” in ibid., 29.

80. Hugo Arbeit, “Der Arbeit Gottesdienst,” in ibid., 20.

81. Drenker, “Die namenlosen Helden,” in ibid., 29.

82. Arbeit, , “Der Arbeit Gottesdienst,” 20.Google Scholar

83. David Gathen, “Herr, grosser Gott,” in ibid., 29.

84. Lersch, , “Festtag,” in Arbeiterfeiern, 6.Google Scholar

85. Joos, Josef, “Arbeiter und Kirche,” in Die Arbeit, 27–28.Google Scholar