The text, written by Gerhard Wartenberg (1904-1942) in 1932 on the
occasion of the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the
Anarcho-Syndicalist International (IAA), traces an overall vision of
German anarcho-syndicalism on the eve of Hitler's seizure of power.
Wartenberg is one of the most interesting figures of German
anarcho-syndicalism in the Weimar Republic. He was one of the very few
graduates (in chemistry) present in the ranks of the anarcho-syndicalist
Freie Arbeiter Union Deutschlands (Free Union of German Workers), the
organization born in 1919 on the ashes of the previous Freie Vereinigung
deutscher Gewerkschaften (FVdG), a revolutionary syndicalist
organization born at the end of the nineteenth century. Wartenberg
approached anarchism already as a student. In 1922 he joined the
Syndicalist Anarchist Youth (Syndikalistische Anarchistische Jungend
Deutschlands, SAJD). In 1926 he published several issues of the magazine
"Der Bakuninist" with which he proposed to outline a "scientific and
practical anarchism" as opposed to an "idealistic and verbose
anarchism". After moving to Berlin, he joined the FAUD and in 1928 he
married Käte Pietzuch, an anarchist activist he had met at an IAA
meeting. In 1931 their only daughter, Ilse, was born. In the dramatic
years marked by the economic crisis of 1929, Wartenberg took part in
cultural activities promoted by the FAUD such as the Gemeinschaft
freiheitlicher Bücherfreunde[Community of Friends of Free Books],
involved in the organization of concerts, conferences, theatrical
performances, the publication of books and magazines, and the setting up
of popular libraries. In these years he published numerous articles on
economic and socio-political questions in the anarchist and
anarcho-syndicalist press. From 1932 Wartenberg entered the
Administrative Commission of the FAUD (its coordinating body), directed
the theoretical magazine "Die Internationale" and, from November 1932,
the FAUD organ "Der Syndikalist" (from January 1933 published with the
new title: "Arbeiter-Echo"). His acute analysis of Nazism is summarized
in the pamphlet, published under the pseudonym H. W. Gerhard, entitled
Über Hildburghausen ins Dritte Reich (Berlin, 1932). After Hitler took
power (30 January 1933), a fierce repression hit the FAUD in Berlin and
the rest of Germany. On 21 February 1933, the Berlin police chief opened
proceedings against Wartenberg for "preparation of high treason" because
of articles published in the newspaper "Arbeiter-Echo" (which was later
banned) that warned the working class against the mistaken belief that
fascism could be stopped by the ballot paper. On the contrary, the
anarcho-syndicalists called on workers to go on a general strike and to
"use all means of direct action, strike action, boycott, sabotage and
passive resistance" ("Arbeiterecho", no. 6, 11 February 1933). From the
spring of 1933 Wartenberg was wanted by the Gestapo. During these
dramatic weeks Wartenberg took part in the organization of the
clandestine network of the FAUD, maintained contact with local groups of
the clandestine FAUD present in the country, gathered information on the
persecutions in progress and organized support for arrested anarchists
and their families. In April he took part in the plenum of the IAA in
Amsterdam, where he presented a painful report on the situation of the
workers' movement in Nazi Germany. In May he handed over the management
of the clandestine FAUD to the Erfurt group and then to Ferdinand
"Nante" Götze in Leipzig. In September Wartenberg left Berlin for
Leipzig where, from the end of 1933 to the spring of 1934, together with
other anarcho-syndicalists he compiled and distributed under the most
difficult conditions the anti-fascist newspaper "Die Soziale
Revolution". Arrested for the first time in 1935, he was imprisoned in
1937 and sentenced in 1938 to five years in prison. After serving his
sentence in the regime's infamous detention centers, on July 13, 1942 he
was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There, Wartenberg died
a few months later, on December 22, 1942, due to the terrible conditions
in the camp.
Anarcho-syndicalism in Germany
H. W. Gerhard
[Gerhard Wartenberg]
Following the centuries-long rule of the Hohenzollern in Prussia and
later in the whole of Germany, by which not only external conditions of
government were defined, but the entire character of the German people
was also corrupted, Germany became one of the countries in which the
authoritarian and centralizing spirit has put down its roots most
deeply. It should be borne in mind that in other European countries,
especially in Spain, France and England, the unitary state had already
been formed in remote times with its central government, so that the
popular masses had already experienced the evils of centralism
first-hand and retained more or less a healthy libertarian federalist
conscience. In Germany (as in Italy) on the other hand, several small
states had developed, which constituted a strong brake on economic
development in the era of industrialization and world trade. The natural
consequence was that strong aspiration for "national unity" which
animated the bourgeois revolutionaries in this country throughout the
19th century. This attitude still produces its fruits today and this is
certainly one of the main reasons why German socialists of all
tendencies rot in state centralism. Industry and the proletariat
continued to develop much more rapidly than could happen to the
organization of the modern liberal-democratic constitutional state. The
bourgeoisie therefore already had to deal with a strong proletarian and
revolutionary movement without having yet been able to assert its
domination over feudalism. Around 1870 the German bourgeoisie therefore
threw itself completely into the arms of Bismarck's military regime out
of fear of the "Red Revolution", renounced political power in favor of
the Junkers, and was content with economic profit. The Bismarckian state
weighed like a nightmare on the German proletariat for almost fifty
years and consequently induced the German workers' movement to postpone
its task of purely proletarian social and economic struggle in order to
fight first and foremost the feudal state. This essentially
bourgeois-democratic political activity of the workers' movement
produced several extremely unfortunate consequences:
- first of all, the greatest burden of the struggle fell on the party
(the Social Democracy) and economic and cultural tasks were neglected.
- secondly, the party, in addition to the workers, increasingly
attracted elements of the petty-bourgeois opposition and thus became
petty-bourgeois and reformist itself.
- thirdly, the idea of the predominance of the political party and of
the electoral battle was so impressed upon the workers that they almost
forgot the importance and role of the social-revolutionary economic
struggle.
In November 1918, when political power fell into the hands of the German
proletariat, it could only elect a national assembly in which the
bourgeois parties had a majority. They were content with political
democracy, they allowed the first council organizations to be almost
completely destroyed and there was not even a remote thought of taking
economic power from the capitalists and the big landowners through the
expropriation of companies.
To tell the truth, not all workers were imbued with bourgeois false
consciousness. The trade unionists, who before the war had been only a
small organization with several thousand members, now occupied a
prominent place among the revolutionaries. In the revolutionary period
of 1919-21, approximately 100,000 organized trade unionists can be
counted, although their influence extended over millions of workers. In
the various general strikes, especially in mining and heavy industry,
these forces were predominant. But the ruling Social Democracy realized
that it had to stifle all organized political forces of the proletariat
by using massive armies of mercenaries. And when the exchange rate of
the mark was stabilized at the end of 1923, and the Weimar Republic was
consolidated, the truly revolutionary movements found themselves in an
extremely difficult situation. Only the Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
succeeded in establishing itself as a mass party, having firmly
established itself on the parliamentary terrain. All other revolutionary
movements were practically ruined and anarcho-syndicalism was again
reduced to the importance and dimensions it had had before the war.
In the last years the German bourgeoisie had almost completely moved
over to the fascist camp, while social democracy had been pushed out of
the leadership of the state. The opposition of the proletariat was
barely felt, since a great discouragement had taken hold since the time
of the attempted revolution in the post-war period with terrible
disappointments, splits, etc. It is a fact that a certain will to fight
emerged only recently around the spring of 1932.
In Germany today the only thing in common that exists among the mass
parties is in reality only dictatorial centralism; the KPD, which is
increasingly playing the role of the pre-war Social Democracy, is openly
totalitarian and dictatorial; in the same way, although with different
motivations, the National Socialist Party which controls the majority of
the bourgeoisie and peasants, advocates the necessity of dictatorship.
The parties of the center, Social Democratic and Catholic, accepted the
constitution of the de facto semi-dictatorship of the Reich Chancellor
Brüning without contradiction and supported him for two years. Abroad
one can hardly form an idea of how deep the faith in the omnipotence of
the State is among the German proletariat. Consequently, it is difficult
to understand how great is the obsession with the "conquest of political
power" - this fact obviously represents a great obstacle to the
anarcho-syndicalist doctrine of direct action and social revolution. The
recognition of the bourgeois state desired by the Social Democrats in
November 1918 led to the replacement of socialism with social policy. In
this new society the "free" reformist German trade unions lived
exclusively in the social insurance institution, in labor-related
lawsuits, in conciliations and in the fixing of wages. Real struggles
were almost no longer conducted; one always relied on the verdict of the
conciliation judges. The trade union and state apparatuses merged to
such an extent that it is now almost impossible to divide them. When the
reformist trade unions obtained by these means the effective monopoly of
workers' representation, the revolutionary formations were completely
deprived of all rights. Therefore today belonging to a revolutionary
formation means having a notable degree of revolutionary consciousness,
especially since the terrible unemployment has allowed employers to
remove revolutionaries from the companies without any consideration. The
German anarcho-syndicalist organization, the FAUD, is made up of 80 to
90% unemployed, and many have been so for years. To these unfavorable
external conditions must be added the internal and structural weaknesses
of the German revolutionary workers' movement that show no signs of
improving. But the knowledge of errors has always been the first step to
eliminating them.
In the years of revolutionary attempts, the anarcho-syndicalist movement
suffered from a lack of theoretical clarity. Many revolutionary workers
who joined the movement without experience and a tradition of struggle
brought with them many confused ideas, which were continually
transferred into practice, which greatly damaged the movement. Here it
is appropriate to mention the localist aspirations and the excessive
exasperation of the anti-authoritarian principle that would have led to
the movement's atomization. In 1927, even an "Opposition" was formed,
which in truth could never achieve any importance. In the years
following 1922, a work of clarification was carried out. The
IAA[Internationale Arbeiter Assoziation, i.e. the Anarcho-syndicalist
International], contributed to this by transmitting foreign experiences.
Especially at the last FAUD congress in Erfurt in 1932, a real tactical
line was developed. However, these internal and external oppositions
have tempered the spirit and energy of our members. We still have in
hundreds of places in Germany nuclei of capable and self-sacrificing
militants, who sell hundreds of thousands of newspapers, pamphlets, who
hold public meetings on important events, who tackle every job and who
stand up to every representative of opposing organizations in
assemblies. In several industries where our members have greater
influence, they stand out among the first and most active in strikes and
other struggles. The anarcho-syndicalist movement is able to publish a
weekly, "Der Syndikalist" ("The Trade Unionist"); a newspaper for the
unemployed that appears every two weeks, "Arbeitslose" ("The
Unemployed"); a monthly theoretical organ, "Die Internationale" ("The
International"). In addition, there is a publishing activity combined
with a well-stocked bookshop, and a publishing house is in operation
that has already launched a dozen works of a libertarian nature. The
number of local organs is large. In recent times, a paper for farm
workers and direct farmers was even created. The next goal is to publish
an organizational paper to be able to discuss the internal problems of
the movement.
Youth organizations, the anarcho-syndicalist youth, collaborate closely
with the FAUD, which irregularly publishes a press organ, precisely
"Junge Anarchisten" ("Young Anarchists"). In recent times this
organization has contributed with a strong activity to the formation of
children's groups. In this area the successes are quite great, there is
even a libertarian monthly for children "Proletarisches Kinderland"
("The Proletarian Children's Country"). This youth movement gives rise
to the best hopes, since since 1918 the renewal of study methods has
been the strongest factor for the overthrow of the authoritarian spirit
in Germany. Finally, noteworthy is the considerable influence of the
anarcho-syndicalists in other workers' organizations of a sporting or
cultural nature. In particular, mention should be made of the Community
of the Proletarian Freethinker, an organization above the anticlerical
and revolutionary parties with about 15,000 members. Of course the
syndicalists do not use their influence to push out other tendencies,
but they obtain the leadership of these organizations in many places,
thanks to their prevalent work and activity. Unfortunately, the
organization of solidarity for the persecuted constitutes a sad chapter,
especially because of the great financial needs. This is, in other
words, efforts to create special solidarity funds for such purposes.
This is becoming more and more necessary because the persecution of
revolutionary movements is now increasing. Exceptional laws, fascist
attacks, newspaper bans, seizures, bans on renewals of permits, arrests
and other harassment are raining down everywhere. "Der Syndikalist" has
had to stop publication three times in one year, "Die Internationale"
once. Many of our militants are in prison; several of them are
threatened with long periods of forced labor. This shows how our German
organization, despite its numerical weakness, develops an extraordinary
activity and how it is therefore treated in proportion by the reaction.
It is to be hoped that the German proletariat will soon defeat the
currently dominant reaction, and that it will open the way for a new
development of the FAUD. This will certainly not happen without
difficult struggles, in which the German anarcho-syndicalists will find
themselves in their place. We do not know whether this will immediately
produce organizational successes. In any case, the German
anarcho-syndicalists are working with iron determination to create in
the German proletariat the place that their ideas deserve and to give
the IAA in Germany, in the ancient bastion of Wilhelmine authority, a
section that is worthy of the great example of other countries.
Original location of the text: H. W. Gerhard[Gerhard Wartenberg], Der
Anarchosyndikalismus in Deutschland, in IAA. 10 Jahre internationaler
Klassenkampf. Gedenkschrift zum zehnjährigen Bestehen der
Internationalen Arbeiter-Assoziation, IAA, Berlin, 1932, pp. 44-47. The
translation proposed here is taken from: AIT 1922-1932. Ten years of
struggles of the International Workingmen's Association, Political
Growth, Florence, 1973, pp. 89-95, reprinted in: Hartmut Rübner,
Anarcho-syndicalism in Germany. Affirmation, rise and decline
(1892-1933), Edizioni Malamente, Urbino, 2025, pp. 93-99. For
Wartenberg, see the profile of Hartmut Rübner published on pages 115-119
of the same book.
http://alternativalibertaria.fdca.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
occasion of the tenth anniversary of the foundation of the
Anarcho-Syndicalist International (IAA), traces an overall vision of
German anarcho-syndicalism on the eve of Hitler's seizure of power.
Wartenberg is one of the most interesting figures of German
anarcho-syndicalism in the Weimar Republic. He was one of the very few
graduates (in chemistry) present in the ranks of the anarcho-syndicalist
Freie Arbeiter Union Deutschlands (Free Union of German Workers), the
organization born in 1919 on the ashes of the previous Freie Vereinigung
deutscher Gewerkschaften (FVdG), a revolutionary syndicalist
organization born at the end of the nineteenth century. Wartenberg
approached anarchism already as a student. In 1922 he joined the
Syndicalist Anarchist Youth (Syndikalistische Anarchistische Jungend
Deutschlands, SAJD). In 1926 he published several issues of the magazine
"Der Bakuninist" with which he proposed to outline a "scientific and
practical anarchism" as opposed to an "idealistic and verbose
anarchism". After moving to Berlin, he joined the FAUD and in 1928 he
married Käte Pietzuch, an anarchist activist he had met at an IAA
meeting. In 1931 their only daughter, Ilse, was born. In the dramatic
years marked by the economic crisis of 1929, Wartenberg took part in
cultural activities promoted by the FAUD such as the Gemeinschaft
freiheitlicher Bücherfreunde[Community of Friends of Free Books],
involved in the organization of concerts, conferences, theatrical
performances, the publication of books and magazines, and the setting up
of popular libraries. In these years he published numerous articles on
economic and socio-political questions in the anarchist and
anarcho-syndicalist press. From 1932 Wartenberg entered the
Administrative Commission of the FAUD (its coordinating body), directed
the theoretical magazine "Die Internationale" and, from November 1932,
the FAUD organ "Der Syndikalist" (from January 1933 published with the
new title: "Arbeiter-Echo"). His acute analysis of Nazism is summarized
in the pamphlet, published under the pseudonym H. W. Gerhard, entitled
Über Hildburghausen ins Dritte Reich (Berlin, 1932). After Hitler took
power (30 January 1933), a fierce repression hit the FAUD in Berlin and
the rest of Germany. On 21 February 1933, the Berlin police chief opened
proceedings against Wartenberg for "preparation of high treason" because
of articles published in the newspaper "Arbeiter-Echo" (which was later
banned) that warned the working class against the mistaken belief that
fascism could be stopped by the ballot paper. On the contrary, the
anarcho-syndicalists called on workers to go on a general strike and to
"use all means of direct action, strike action, boycott, sabotage and
passive resistance" ("Arbeiterecho", no. 6, 11 February 1933). From the
spring of 1933 Wartenberg was wanted by the Gestapo. During these
dramatic weeks Wartenberg took part in the organization of the
clandestine network of the FAUD, maintained contact with local groups of
the clandestine FAUD present in the country, gathered information on the
persecutions in progress and organized support for arrested anarchists
and their families. In April he took part in the plenum of the IAA in
Amsterdam, where he presented a painful report on the situation of the
workers' movement in Nazi Germany. In May he handed over the management
of the clandestine FAUD to the Erfurt group and then to Ferdinand
"Nante" Götze in Leipzig. In September Wartenberg left Berlin for
Leipzig where, from the end of 1933 to the spring of 1934, together with
other anarcho-syndicalists he compiled and distributed under the most
difficult conditions the anti-fascist newspaper "Die Soziale
Revolution". Arrested for the first time in 1935, he was imprisoned in
1937 and sentenced in 1938 to five years in prison. After serving his
sentence in the regime's infamous detention centers, on July 13, 1942 he
was sent to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. There, Wartenberg died
a few months later, on December 22, 1942, due to the terrible conditions
in the camp.
Anarcho-syndicalism in Germany
H. W. Gerhard
[Gerhard Wartenberg]
Following the centuries-long rule of the Hohenzollern in Prussia and
later in the whole of Germany, by which not only external conditions of
government were defined, but the entire character of the German people
was also corrupted, Germany became one of the countries in which the
authoritarian and centralizing spirit has put down its roots most
deeply. It should be borne in mind that in other European countries,
especially in Spain, France and England, the unitary state had already
been formed in remote times with its central government, so that the
popular masses had already experienced the evils of centralism
first-hand and retained more or less a healthy libertarian federalist
conscience. In Germany (as in Italy) on the other hand, several small
states had developed, which constituted a strong brake on economic
development in the era of industrialization and world trade. The natural
consequence was that strong aspiration for "national unity" which
animated the bourgeois revolutionaries in this country throughout the
19th century. This attitude still produces its fruits today and this is
certainly one of the main reasons why German socialists of all
tendencies rot in state centralism. Industry and the proletariat
continued to develop much more rapidly than could happen to the
organization of the modern liberal-democratic constitutional state. The
bourgeoisie therefore already had to deal with a strong proletarian and
revolutionary movement without having yet been able to assert its
domination over feudalism. Around 1870 the German bourgeoisie therefore
threw itself completely into the arms of Bismarck's military regime out
of fear of the "Red Revolution", renounced political power in favor of
the Junkers, and was content with economic profit. The Bismarckian state
weighed like a nightmare on the German proletariat for almost fifty
years and consequently induced the German workers' movement to postpone
its task of purely proletarian social and economic struggle in order to
fight first and foremost the feudal state. This essentially
bourgeois-democratic political activity of the workers' movement
produced several extremely unfortunate consequences:
- first of all, the greatest burden of the struggle fell on the party
(the Social Democracy) and economic and cultural tasks were neglected.
- secondly, the party, in addition to the workers, increasingly
attracted elements of the petty-bourgeois opposition and thus became
petty-bourgeois and reformist itself.
- thirdly, the idea of the predominance of the political party and of
the electoral battle was so impressed upon the workers that they almost
forgot the importance and role of the social-revolutionary economic
struggle.
In November 1918, when political power fell into the hands of the German
proletariat, it could only elect a national assembly in which the
bourgeois parties had a majority. They were content with political
democracy, they allowed the first council organizations to be almost
completely destroyed and there was not even a remote thought of taking
economic power from the capitalists and the big landowners through the
expropriation of companies.
To tell the truth, not all workers were imbued with bourgeois false
consciousness. The trade unionists, who before the war had been only a
small organization with several thousand members, now occupied a
prominent place among the revolutionaries. In the revolutionary period
of 1919-21, approximately 100,000 organized trade unionists can be
counted, although their influence extended over millions of workers. In
the various general strikes, especially in mining and heavy industry,
these forces were predominant. But the ruling Social Democracy realized
that it had to stifle all organized political forces of the proletariat
by using massive armies of mercenaries. And when the exchange rate of
the mark was stabilized at the end of 1923, and the Weimar Republic was
consolidated, the truly revolutionary movements found themselves in an
extremely difficult situation. Only the Communist Party of Germany (KPD)
succeeded in establishing itself as a mass party, having firmly
established itself on the parliamentary terrain. All other revolutionary
movements were practically ruined and anarcho-syndicalism was again
reduced to the importance and dimensions it had had before the war.
In the last years the German bourgeoisie had almost completely moved
over to the fascist camp, while social democracy had been pushed out of
the leadership of the state. The opposition of the proletariat was
barely felt, since a great discouragement had taken hold since the time
of the attempted revolution in the post-war period with terrible
disappointments, splits, etc. It is a fact that a certain will to fight
emerged only recently around the spring of 1932.
In Germany today the only thing in common that exists among the mass
parties is in reality only dictatorial centralism; the KPD, which is
increasingly playing the role of the pre-war Social Democracy, is openly
totalitarian and dictatorial; in the same way, although with different
motivations, the National Socialist Party which controls the majority of
the bourgeoisie and peasants, advocates the necessity of dictatorship.
The parties of the center, Social Democratic and Catholic, accepted the
constitution of the de facto semi-dictatorship of the Reich Chancellor
Brüning without contradiction and supported him for two years. Abroad
one can hardly form an idea of how deep the faith in the omnipotence of
the State is among the German proletariat. Consequently, it is difficult
to understand how great is the obsession with the "conquest of political
power" - this fact obviously represents a great obstacle to the
anarcho-syndicalist doctrine of direct action and social revolution. The
recognition of the bourgeois state desired by the Social Democrats in
November 1918 led to the replacement of socialism with social policy. In
this new society the "free" reformist German trade unions lived
exclusively in the social insurance institution, in labor-related
lawsuits, in conciliations and in the fixing of wages. Real struggles
were almost no longer conducted; one always relied on the verdict of the
conciliation judges. The trade union and state apparatuses merged to
such an extent that it is now almost impossible to divide them. When the
reformist trade unions obtained by these means the effective monopoly of
workers' representation, the revolutionary formations were completely
deprived of all rights. Therefore today belonging to a revolutionary
formation means having a notable degree of revolutionary consciousness,
especially since the terrible unemployment has allowed employers to
remove revolutionaries from the companies without any consideration. The
German anarcho-syndicalist organization, the FAUD, is made up of 80 to
90% unemployed, and many have been so for years. To these unfavorable
external conditions must be added the internal and structural weaknesses
of the German revolutionary workers' movement that show no signs of
improving. But the knowledge of errors has always been the first step to
eliminating them.
In the years of revolutionary attempts, the anarcho-syndicalist movement
suffered from a lack of theoretical clarity. Many revolutionary workers
who joined the movement without experience and a tradition of struggle
brought with them many confused ideas, which were continually
transferred into practice, which greatly damaged the movement. Here it
is appropriate to mention the localist aspirations and the excessive
exasperation of the anti-authoritarian principle that would have led to
the movement's atomization. In 1927, even an "Opposition" was formed,
which in truth could never achieve any importance. In the years
following 1922, a work of clarification was carried out. The
IAA[Internationale Arbeiter Assoziation, i.e. the Anarcho-syndicalist
International], contributed to this by transmitting foreign experiences.
Especially at the last FAUD congress in Erfurt in 1932, a real tactical
line was developed. However, these internal and external oppositions
have tempered the spirit and energy of our members. We still have in
hundreds of places in Germany nuclei of capable and self-sacrificing
militants, who sell hundreds of thousands of newspapers, pamphlets, who
hold public meetings on important events, who tackle every job and who
stand up to every representative of opposing organizations in
assemblies. In several industries where our members have greater
influence, they stand out among the first and most active in strikes and
other struggles. The anarcho-syndicalist movement is able to publish a
weekly, "Der Syndikalist" ("The Trade Unionist"); a newspaper for the
unemployed that appears every two weeks, "Arbeitslose" ("The
Unemployed"); a monthly theoretical organ, "Die Internationale" ("The
International"). In addition, there is a publishing activity combined
with a well-stocked bookshop, and a publishing house is in operation
that has already launched a dozen works of a libertarian nature. The
number of local organs is large. In recent times, a paper for farm
workers and direct farmers was even created. The next goal is to publish
an organizational paper to be able to discuss the internal problems of
the movement.
Youth organizations, the anarcho-syndicalist youth, collaborate closely
with the FAUD, which irregularly publishes a press organ, precisely
"Junge Anarchisten" ("Young Anarchists"). In recent times this
organization has contributed with a strong activity to the formation of
children's groups. In this area the successes are quite great, there is
even a libertarian monthly for children "Proletarisches Kinderland"
("The Proletarian Children's Country"). This youth movement gives rise
to the best hopes, since since 1918 the renewal of study methods has
been the strongest factor for the overthrow of the authoritarian spirit
in Germany. Finally, noteworthy is the considerable influence of the
anarcho-syndicalists in other workers' organizations of a sporting or
cultural nature. In particular, mention should be made of the Community
of the Proletarian Freethinker, an organization above the anticlerical
and revolutionary parties with about 15,000 members. Of course the
syndicalists do not use their influence to push out other tendencies,
but they obtain the leadership of these organizations in many places,
thanks to their prevalent work and activity. Unfortunately, the
organization of solidarity for the persecuted constitutes a sad chapter,
especially because of the great financial needs. This is, in other
words, efforts to create special solidarity funds for such purposes.
This is becoming more and more necessary because the persecution of
revolutionary movements is now increasing. Exceptional laws, fascist
attacks, newspaper bans, seizures, bans on renewals of permits, arrests
and other harassment are raining down everywhere. "Der Syndikalist" has
had to stop publication three times in one year, "Die Internationale"
once. Many of our militants are in prison; several of them are
threatened with long periods of forced labor. This shows how our German
organization, despite its numerical weakness, develops an extraordinary
activity and how it is therefore treated in proportion by the reaction.
It is to be hoped that the German proletariat will soon defeat the
currently dominant reaction, and that it will open the way for a new
development of the FAUD. This will certainly not happen without
difficult struggles, in which the German anarcho-syndicalists will find
themselves in their place. We do not know whether this will immediately
produce organizational successes. In any case, the German
anarcho-syndicalists are working with iron determination to create in
the German proletariat the place that their ideas deserve and to give
the IAA in Germany, in the ancient bastion of Wilhelmine authority, a
section that is worthy of the great example of other countries.
Original location of the text: H. W. Gerhard[Gerhard Wartenberg], Der
Anarchosyndikalismus in Deutschland, in IAA. 10 Jahre internationaler
Klassenkampf. Gedenkschrift zum zehnjährigen Bestehen der
Internationalen Arbeiter-Assoziation, IAA, Berlin, 1932, pp. 44-47. The
translation proposed here is taken from: AIT 1922-1932. Ten years of
struggles of the International Workingmen's Association, Political
Growth, Florence, 1973, pp. 89-95, reprinted in: Hartmut Rübner,
Anarcho-syndicalism in Germany. Affirmation, rise and decline
(1892-1933), Edizioni Malamente, Urbino, 2025, pp. 93-99. For
Wartenberg, see the profile of Hartmut Rübner published on pages 115-119
of the same book.
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