Miners' Strike

Germany 1889

Synopsis

During May 1889 nearly 100,000 German miners went on strike in the Ruhr Valley. They demanded wage increases and an eight-hour workday and raised other grievances. Faced with employer intransigence, some miners petitioned Kaiser Wilhelm II for a resolution of their dispute. Seeing this as an opportunity to enhance his authority, Wilhelm pressured the employers into negotiating a compromise with the miners. This exposed a rift between Wilhelm and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, who had hoped to use the strike as an excuse to force more antisocialist legislation through the Reichstag, the German parliament. Despite being pushed into a settlement with the miners, the employers did not keep to the terms of the agreement and the miners failed to gain any lasting concessions. However, the strike had profound consequences for the development of the labor movement in the Ruhr Valley. Repeated conflicts between miners and mine owners occurred over the next two decades.

Timeline

• 1869: Black Friday panic ensues when James Fisk and Jay Gould attempt to control the gold market.
• 1874: Norwegian physician Arrnauer Gerhard Henrik Hansen discovers the bacillus that causes leprosy. This marks the major turning point in the history of an ailment (now known properly as Hansen's disease) that afflicted humans for thousands of years and was often regarded as evidence of divine judgment.
• 1882: Agitation against English rule spreads throughout Ireland, culminating with the assassination of chief secretary for Ireland Lord Frederick Cavendish and permanent undersecretary Thomas Burke in Dublin's Phoenix Park. The leader of the nationalist movement is Charles Stewart Parnell, but the use of assassination and terrorism—which Parnell himself has disavowed—makes clear the fact that he does not control all nationalist groups.
• 1885: Belgium's King Leopold II becomes sovereign of the so-called Congo Free State, which he will rule for a quarter-century virtually as his own private property. The region in Africa, given the name of Zaire in the 1970s (and Congo in 1997), becomes the site of staggering atrocities, including forced labor and genocide, at the hands of Leopold's minions.
• 1887: John Emerich Edward Dalbert-Acton, a leader of the opposition to the papal dogma of infallibility, observes, in a letter to Cambridge University professor Mandell Creighton, that "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."
• 1889: Indian Territory in Oklahoma is opened to white settlement.
• 1889: Flooding in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, kills thousands.
• 1889: The 986-foot (300.5-m) Eiffel Tower, part of the Paris exposition, becomes the tallest structure in the world. It will remain so until the Chrysler Building surpasses it in 1930.
• 1889: Discontented southern farmers merge their farm organizations to form the Southern Alliance.
• 1891: Construction of Trans-Siberian Railway begins. Mean while, crop failures across Russia lead to widespread starvation.
• 1895: Guglielmo Marconi pioneers wireless telegraphy, which in the next three decades will make possible the use of radio waves for commercial broadcasts and other applications.
• 1899: Polish-born German socialist Rosa Luxembourg rejects the argument that working conditions in Europe have improved and that change must come by reforming the existing system. Rather, she calls for an overthrow of the existing power structure by means of violent international revolution.

Event and Its Context

Mining in the Ruhr Valley

The latter part of the nineteenth century brought enormous changes to the Ruhr Valley. Until the middle of the century, the Ruhr coal mines had been under government management. With legislation liberalizing the industry in the 1850s, the management of the mines passed into private hands. This produced a period of intense industrial expansion. By the turn of the century, the Ruhr Valley was the most heavily industrialized region of Europe, dominated by mining and steel. However, divisions of religion and ethnicity, combined with repression from both government and employers, helped to prevent the development of the labor movement in the Ruhr. Instead, the workforce had a reputation for being docile and obedient, and the miners seemed largely indifferent to social democracy. Workers' organizations were limited to social clubs and self-help associations, and the miners did not have a union. This was partly due to the control that the employers had over the industry. The Ruhr industrialists regarded their mines and factories as their personal fiefdoms. These men were the giants of German industry, and they were notorious for their arrogant and uncompromising resistance to any form of interference in their businesses. As the industrialist Emil Kirdof said, "Neither king nor emperor has any say in our workshops. We alone decide."

The Beginning of the Miners' Strike

Starting in 1888, an economic upturn occurred, and prices for coal began to rise after many years of depression. It was at this point that industrial unrest began. At this stage, action was spontaneous and largely unorganized. Meetings occurred throughout the early months of 1889 at the various pits, and miners sent lists of demands to mine owners. When no response was forthcoming, many younger miners stopped going to work in late April and the first days of May. Following violent confrontations between police and strikers at Gelsenkirchen on 5 May, authorities deployed troops. This action, the first official response to the miners' demands, angered the mining community, and the strike gathered momentum. Troops killed three people and wounded several others during a protest at one mine. In Bochum on 9 May, innocent bystanders were killed when troops opened fire on a crowd of strikers in the center of the town.

From the isolated and uncoordinated actions at various pits, a general strike developed. The tough stance taken by the authorities, in accordance with the policies of Chancellor Bismarck, had inflamed the situation and helped to unify the miners. At a conference on 10 May, delegates from each pit elected a central strike committee. By 13 May over 90, 000 miners from a workforce of approximately 115, 000—around 80 percent—were on strike. The strike began to spread to other mining regions as miners in the Saar district, Upper and Lower Silesia, Aachen, Lorraine, and Saxony went out. The number of strikers reached approximately 150,000. Considering that the previous largest strike in Germany had only involved 16,000 workers, this was industrial action on an unprecedented scale.

Strike Demands

The strikers' demands reflected a complex mix of grievances. At most pits, strikes began when the owners ignored requests for wage increases of around 20 to 25 percent. The issue of wage increases was in itself complex. Many indications suggest that the miners' incomes had been rising in the previous year; the Ruhr miners were the highest paid in the Reich. However, although incomes were rising, this was largely due to longer hours and extra shifts rather than to a substantial rise in actual wage rates. Wages also varied depending on the division of labor in the mines. The hewers, those who actually worked at the coal face, were paid according to how much coal they produced, and their wage rates were subject to monthly renegotiations; therefore, their wages were closely connected to the rise and fall in the market price of coal. Other workers, however, such as those who hauled the coal, were usually paid a set amount per shift. Their rates were more stable, which created frustrations during an economic upswing when the price of coal rose without a corresponding increase in wages. These workers were mostly younger men, without family responsibilities, so it was not surprising that they were the first to strike.

The other main demand was for an eight-hour shift. During the two previous decades, the length of the miners' working day had increased steadily. A large part of this involved unpaid traveling time. As mines became deeper, it could take a miner more than half an hour to get to and from the coalface. This meant that the working day had actually extended to more than 10 hours in some cases. In addition, miners complained about the unreasonable demands for overtime and extra shifts that were being placed upon them by management. Often, extended shifts were announced after the miners were already underground, which gave them no opportunity to refuse. The demand for the eight-hour day to include traveling time was closely linked to the issue of higher wages. For the hewers, who were paid by the amount of coal they produced, a shorter working day would result in a drop in income. Therefore, if the eight-hour day was won, wage increases were necessary to maintain their income at acceptable levels. As the strike progressed, the miners aired other grievances, most of which related to unfair work practices and poor treatment by management.

Kaiser Wilhelm II and the Miners

Despite the solidarity of the miners, it became apparent that most mine owners were not prepared to negotiate. A group of miners therefore decided to petition the kaiser, a traditional tactic in earlier generations of labor protest. Three miners, Ludwig Schroeder, August Siegel, and Fritz Bunte, traveled to Berlin on 14 May for an audience with Kaiser Wilhelm II. Wilhelm had only been in power for 10 months, and the miners' strike had revealed some profound differences between him and Bismarck. The so-called iron chancellor welcomed the miners' strike as an opportunity to frighten the liberal members of the Reichstag into supporting his demands for more repressive laws against socialism. Social unrest and instability resulting from the strikes could also provide Bismarck with an excuse to break with the German constitution and increase his own power. He was therefore totally against any kind of conciliation with the miners.

By contrast, the new kaiser saw the miners' strike as an opportunity to demonstrate his own authority. Unlike his predecessor, Wilhelm was not content to remain in Bismarck's shadow and took a direct interest in events as the strike unfolded. Wilhelm regarded the strike as largely the fault of the greed and exploitation of the mine owners. He was sympathetic to the petition from the miners, especially as it enabled him to play the part of the wise and benevolent ruler protecting his subjects. In the face of Bismarck's disapproval, Wilhelm ordered the mine owners to negotiate a compromise with the miners. Friedrich Hammacher, the moderate head of the mine owners' association, came to an agreement with the strikers that included wages increases and a true eight-hour day, including traveling time.

The mine owners rejected the Hammacher Protocol, however, and would only promise unspecified wage increases and an eight-hour day with no mention of traveling time. Strikers were confused about whether they should continue the protest. The strike collapsed in the last days of May, with the disarray of the movement exacerbated by police harassment and arrests. Although the Kaiser's intervention had wrung some concessions out of the owners, most failed to keep to the agreement, and the strike was unsuccessful in achieving the miners' main demands. As a result, sporadic and isolated strikes continued to occur throughout the rest of the year.

The Consequences of the 1889 Strike

The 1889 miners' strike increased the antagonism between the miners and their employers. One of its most important consequences was the formation of a miners' union, the Alter Verband, in the months after the strike. The experience of strike action had highlighted the need for a permanent organization to coordinate the miners' struggle for better wages, hours, and working conditions. The increased militancy of the Ruhr workers is also reflected in the gains made by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in the region. In the 1887 Reichstag elections, the SPD candidate for Bochum received only 2 percent of the vote. In the 1890 election prominent leaders of the 1889 strike, such as Ludwig Schroeder, stood as SPD candidates and received around 15 percent of the vote. The strike was the culmination of a wave of industrial action that had proved the failure of Bismarck's oppressive Anti-Socialist Laws to prevent militant labor organization in the German Reich.

The strike also entrenched the hard-line position of the mine owners. They had been certain that they could crush the strike and so felt bitter about being forced to reach a settlement with the miners. The creation of the miners' union further convinced the owners that any compromise with the miners would be an admission of weakness that would inevitably lead to an erosion of their authority. The 1889 strike was therefore the first and last example of a negotiated industrial settlement in the mining industry before World War I. Successive strikes in the next two decades failed as employers refused to enter into collective agreements with workers or to recognize the right of unions to represent workers. The 1889 strike heralded a new era of industrial relations in the mining industry in which the battle lines between labor and capital were clearly drawn.

Key Players

Bismarck, Prince Otto von (1815-1898): German chancellor, Bismarck tried to use the 1889 miners' strike as an opportunity to force more antisocialist legislation through the Reichstag and increase his own power. He was therefore opposed to any conciliatory measures with the strikers. The strike exposed a rift between the chancellor and kaiser that eventually led to Bismarck's downfall in 1890.

Schroeder, Ludwig (1848-1914): German leader in the Ruhr mining community and miners' spokesman during the 1889 strike, Schroeder was one of three men who traveled to Berlin to petition the Kaiser. Despite this, Schroeder was a social democrat who later became the chairman of the Alter Verband and stood as a local candidate for the Social Democratic Party (SPD) during the 1890 election.

Wilhelm II (1859-1941): German emperor, Wilhelm II saw the1889 miners' strike as an opportunity to stamp his authority on domestic policy and was therefore sympathetic to the petition from the miners. Because of his intervention, the mine owners were forced into a negotiated settlement with the miners.

Bibliography

Books

Clark, Christopher. Kaiser Wilhelm II. London: Longman,2000.

Crew, David F. Town in the Ruhr: A Social History of Bochum. New York: Columbia University Press, 1979.

Hickey, S. H. F. Workers in Imperial Germany: The Miners of the Ruhr. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985.

Moses, John A. Trade Unionism in Germany From Bismarck to Hitler, 1869-1933. Vol. 1, 1869-1918. London: George Prior Publishers, 1982.

Reichard, Richard W. From the Petition to the Strike: A History of Strikes in Germany, 1869-1914. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1991.

Schneider, Michael. A Brief History of the German Trade Unions. Bonn, Germany: Verlag J. H. W. Dietz Nachf., 1991.

Spencer, Elaine Glovka. Management and Labor in Imperial Germany: Ruhr Industrialists as Employers, 1896-1914.New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1984.

Additional Resources

Grebing, Helga. History of the German Labour Movement.Rev. ed. Leamington Spa, UK: Berg Publishers Ltd., 1985.

—Katrina Ford