Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T23:19:21.718Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“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
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

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

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

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

2. Lersch, Heinrich, “Tritt heran, Arbeitsmann!”Google Scholar in ibid., 31; also in Göbel, Ferdinand, ed., Arbeiterfeiern, published by the Reichsverband der katholischen Arbeitervereine und der Werkjugend (Mönchen-Gladbach, n.d.), 4. All translations are by the author.Google Scholar

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

4. The term “Catholic proletariat” was used approvingly by one of the leaders of the German Catholic labor movement and found echoes in the literature and poetry of the late-Weimar era: Carl Sonnenschein, “Unsere Berufung” (speech at the first International Congress of Catholic Workers' Clubs in Cologne), in Arbeiterfeiern, ed. Göbel, 9.

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

6. Lidtke, Vernon L., The Alternative Culture: Socialist Labor in Imperial Germany (New York, 1985), 108.Google Scholar

7. Hagemann, Karen, “Of ‘Manly Valor’ and ‘German Honor’: Nation, War, and Masculinity in the Age of the Prussian Uprising Against Napoleon,” Central European History 30, no. 2 (1997): 190–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

8. For an extended analysis of the construction and erosion of the Catholic workers' milieu before World War I see Sun, Before the Enemy is Within Our Walls. The figure of 800,000 Catholic workers supporting social democracy appears in the Westdeutsche Arbeiter-Zeitung, 3 January 1914. On the SPD in Düsseldorf, see the classic study by Nolan, Mary, Social Democracy and Society: Working-Class Radicalism in Düsseldorf, 1890–1920 (New York, 1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

9. Emphasis in the original. “Bericht über die erste Tagung der Arbeiter-Zentrumswähler Westdeutschlands in Bochum am 23. Juni 1918,” Texte zur katholischen Soziallehre II, vol. 1, (Kevelaer, 1976), 758.Google Scholar

10. Otto Müller, “Erinnerungen an die katholische Arbeiter-Bewegung,” ibid., vol. 2 (Kevelaer, 1976), 957–58.

11. Ibid., 958, 960.

12. The 1919 pastoral letter appeared as “Ein Hirtenbrief über die Sozialdemokratie,” issued in Münster, 8 January 1919. The 1922 message, “Winke betreffend Aufgaben der Seelsorger gegenüber glaubensfeindlichen Vereinigungen,” was issued at the 1922 Fulda Bishops' Conference. It is published, along with its 1924 interpretation (necessitated by numerous workers' protests), in “Die Bewertung des bischöflichen ‘Gewerkschafeerlasses,’” Mitteilungen an die Arbeiterpräsides 2, no. 1 (01 to 07, 1924): 1–11Google Scholar. For a clerical “how-to” analysis of the power of the confessional to combat Social Democracy among workers, see Nieder, Ludwig, “Behandlung der Sozialdemokraten unter den Pfarrkindern,” Theologie und Glaube 11 (1919): 56–64.Google Scholar

13. Weitz, Eric D., Creating German Communism, 1890–1990: From Popular Protests to Socialist State (Princeton, 1997), 116–22.Google Scholar

14. On conditions in Cologne, see Rüther, Martin, Arbeiterschaft in Köln 1928–1945 (Cologne, 1990), 19–34Google Scholar; and Sun, Raymond C., “Catholic-Marxist Competition in the Working-Class Parishes of Cologne During the Weimar Republic,” Catholic Historical Review 83, no. 1 (01 1997): 33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

15. Joos, Josef, “Ergebnisse der Umfrage über die gegenwärtige seelische Lage der katholischen Arbeiter in Deutschland,” Mitteilungen an die Arbeiterpräsides 4, no. 3 (07–10 1926): 33–43Google Scholar. Also see Höfer, Josef, “Vom Seelenstand des noch katholischen Arbeiters,” Theologie und Glaube 19 (1927): 69.Google Scholar

16. The total numbers were approximately 220,000 in 1913 and 192,000 in 1930. “Bericht über die Entwicklung und Tätigkeit des Verbandes katholischer Arbeiter- und Knappenvereine Westdeutschlands von 1925 bis 1931” (Mönchen-Gladbach, 1931), 20.

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

20. Huber, Lorenz, “Die politischen Wahlen in Köln in den Jahrnen 1919 bis 1926,” Kölner Verwaltung und Statistik: Zeitschrift des Statistischen Amtes der Stadt Köln 6 (Cologne, 1928), 90.Google Scholar

21. Sun, , “Catholic-Marxist Competition,” 36–37Google Scholar; Höfer, Joseph, “Vom Seelenstand des noch katholischen Arbeiters,” Theologie und Glaube 19 (1927): 77–78.Google Scholar

22. The parish visitation reports contain a wealth of information on the specific conduct of the revival missions. See the summary in Sun, , “Catholic-Marxist Competition,” 37–39Google Scholar. On the spiritual renewal movement, see Hürten, Heinz, Deutsche Katholiken, 1918–1945 (Paderborn, 1992), 41–48, 131–143.Google Scholar

23. Sun, , “Catholic-Marxist Competition,” 39.Google Scholar

24. Hürten, , Deutsche Katholiken, 41–48, 131–43Google Scholar; Sun, , “Catholic-Marxist Competition,” 39–41.Google Scholar

25. Mosse, George L., The Image of Man: The Creation of Modern Masculinity (New York, 1996), 47Google Scholar. See especially Mosse's discussion of the formation of the modern masculine ideal in ibid., chaps, two and three.

26. Nagel, Joane, “Masculinity and Nationalism: Gender and Sexuality in the Making of Nations,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 21, no. 2 (03 1998): 244–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

27. Tosh, John, “What Should Historians do with Masculinity? Reflections on Nineteenth-Century Britain,” History Workshop 38 (Autumn 1994): 185–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

28. Weitz, , Creating German Communism, 191.Google Scholar

29. These traits are discussed as the end-goals of military basic training in Gill, , “Creating Citizens, Making Men,” 534–35, 539.Google Scholar

30. Korff, Gottfried, “From Brotherly Handshake to Militant Clenched Fist: On Political Metaphors for the Workers' Hand,” International Labor and Working-Class History 42 (Fall 1992): 72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

31. “Der Arbeiter ‘alten’ und ‘neuen’ Stils,” Arbeiter Taschenbuch für das Jahr 1905 (Berlin, 1905), 31–33.Google Scholar

32. “Lebendiges Christentum,” in Arbeiter-Taschenbuch für das Jahr 1912 (Berlin, 1912), 89.Google Scholar

33. Ibid., 79, 89.

34. “Ueberzeugungstreue,” in Arbeiter-Taschenbuch für das Jahr 1906 (Berlin, 1906), 33. Emphasis in the original.Google Scholar

35. Weitz, , Creating German Communism, 191.Google Scholar

36. On the impact of unemployment on male working-class identity, see Tosh, , “What Should Historians do with Masculinity,” 190, 193.Google Scholar

37. Korff, , “Brotherly Handshake,” 77, 81. Korff notes that in an attempt to keep pace with its radical rival, the SPD adopted the clenched-fist salute in 1931 for its Iron Front paramilitary organization.Google Scholar

38. Weitz, , Creating German Communism, 196–205Google Scholar. Also see Mosse, , The Image of Man, 127.Google Scholar

39. The KPD was known as “the party of the unemployed.” Ibid., 159 (see n. 117).

40. Ibid., 245–46.

41. Sun, , “Catholic-Marxist Competition,” 28–29Google Scholar; Plum, Günter, Gesellschaftsstruktur und politisches Bewusstsein in einer kathotischen Region 1928–1933 (Stuttgart, 1972).Google Scholar

42. Lidtke, , The Alternative Culture, 116, 122.Google Scholar

43. See for example the text of “Die Arbeiter-Hymne” (The Workers' Hymn), in Sun, , Before the Enemy is Within Our Walls, 133–34, 306–7.Google Scholar

44. Lidtke, , The Alternative Culture, 128–33.Google Scholar

45. Woike, Fritz, “Gang zur Arbeit,” in Die Arbeit, 15.Google Scholar

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.

48. “Ich fron wie ihr täglich um Lohn und Brot.”Google Scholar Josef Winkler, “An die Arbeiter,” in ibid., 2.

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

50. Heinrich Lersch, “Ewiger Advent,” in ibid., 19.

51. Lersch, Heinrich, Hammerschläge: Ein Roman von Menschen und Maschinen (Hanover, 1930), 169.Google Scholar

52. “Vom Schlachtfeld der Arbeit,” in Den Toten der Arbeit, ed. Ferdinand Göbel, published by the Reichsverband der katholischen Arbeitervereine und der Werkjugend (Mönchen-Gladbach, n.d.), 4. By 1927 Catholic labor leaders claimed there were over 1 million accidents annually, with 100,000 crippled and 8–9,000 fatalities. “Die Opfer der Arbeit,” in ibid., 5.

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

54. Ibid., 22–23.

55. Ibid., 23.

56. Winkler, Josef, “An die Arbeiter,” in Arbeiterfeiern, 2.Google Scholar

57. Arthur v. Dyk, “Gelöbnis der Jugend,” in Zum Verfassungstag, ed. Ferdinand Göbel, published by the Reichsverband der katholischen Arbeitervereine und der Werkjugend (Mönchen-Gladbach, n.d.),27.

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.

59. Zwm Verfassungstag, 1.Google Scholar

60. Carl Tinhofer, “Gelöbnis des Werkvolkes,” in ibid., 27.

61. Lidtke, , The Alternative Culture, 116.Google Scholar

62. “Sie ruhen machtlos, wenn einer will: Wenn Gottes Maschine, Der Mensch steht still.” In “Das Lied von der Arbeit” (1899). Emphasis added. Text in Sun, , Before the Enemy is Within Our Walls, 306–7.Google Scholar

63. Lersch, Heinrich, “Festtag,” in Arbeiterfeiern, 6.Google Scholar

64. Rudolf Börsch, “Die Arbeiter sprechen,” in ibid., 3. Also see Heinrich Lersch, “Wir Werkleute!” ibid.

65. Barthel, Max, “Die Arbeiter,” in Die Arbeit, 2.Google Scholar

66. Heinrich Lersch, “Mensch im Eisen,” in ibid., 7.

67. Becker, M., “Anruf,” in Arbeiterfeiern, 11.Google Scholar

68. Laurenz Kiesen, “Zur Gründungsfeier eines Arbeitervereins,” in ibid., 7.

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

71. Becker, M., “Den alten Kampfern!” in Arbeiterfeiern, 18.Google Scholar

72. Barthel, , “Die Arbeiter,” in Die Arbeit, 2.Google Scholar

73. J. Rasquin, “Der Arbeiter,” in ibid., 2.

74. Letterhaus, Bernard, “Die Sendung der katholischen Arbeiterbewegung,” in Arheiterfeiern, 13.Google Scholar

75. Drenker, A., “Die namenlosen Helden,” in Die Arbeit, 29.Google Scholar

76. “… und zerbrach diese Erde, loderten aus den Spalten des Erdkerns Flammen; wir Werkleute all, wir schmiedeten sie wieder mit stählernen Ringen aus Trägern und Schienen zusam-men.” Lersch, , “Wir Werkleute,” in Arbeiterfeiern, 3.Google Scholar

77. Drenker, , “Die namenlosen Helden,” in Die Arbeit, 29.Google Scholar

78. Michel Becker, “Arbeit — Gottesdienst,” in ibid., 24.

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