Marxist Workers' School

Marxist Workers' School (German: Marxistische Arbeiterschule) (MASCH) was an educational institute founded in the winter of 1925 in Berlin, by the Berlin city office of the Communist Party of Germany (KPD).[1] Its function was to enable workers to learn the basics of proletarian life and struggle, to teach the basic tenets of Marxism.[1][2] It was co-founded by Hermann Duncker, Johann Lorenz Schmidt and Eduard Alexander. Hermann Duncker became the director of school. The school became very successful and by 1930, it had 4000 students in 200 courses, which prompted KPD officials to build 30 other schools in German cities e.g. Dresden and Chemnitz.[1] After the seizure of power by the National Socialists in the spring of 1933, the schools were closed.

History

The school was created in the tradition of the workers cultural movement with its commercial and Workers' Education Associations ("Arbeiterbildungsverein"). Following the reprisals of the Anti-Socialist Laws, social democratic and worker's associations were newly founded as training associations. Proletarian associations opened workers' libraries, e.g. in 1861 in Leipzig, where August Bebel was chairman of the library commission of the local workers' association. He formulated the goal of taking knowledge, art and culture away from bourgeoisie guardianship and "extracting from existing knowledge what benefited the working-class revolutionary struggle for emancipation."[3]

After the separation of the Independent Social Democratic Party of Germany from the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1914 and founding of the KPD on 30 December 1918, communists in Germany pursued the goal of a socialist revolution similar to the October Revolution in Russia in 1917. The educational work of the KPD was haphazard in the early years, following its formation.[1] In the party congress of October 1919, leading members of the KPD including Duncker, Clara Zetkin and Edwin Hoernle pointed out the need to train party members.[1] Social Democrat hiking courses, a traditional way to teach while walking, were established, but it was only with the 3rd World Congress of the Comintern and an orientation towards Soviet politics, that worker education really began.[1] From the point of view of the KPD, its supporters had to be politically and intellectually trained, aligned and steeled beyond the previous social-democratic and trade union educational and social goals.

As early as 1932, the MASCH had become increasingly targeted, as state repression by the Nazis was started in earnest.[1] On 25 November 1932, the central building was occupied by Schutzpolizei and several people were arrested and the register of teachers confiscated. House searches of lecturers subsequently followed. On 29 March 1933, the central school room in Berlin was closed by the police.[1] Following this, many teachers from the school emigrated, but many teachers and student stayed to fight the Nazis in Germany.[1]

Goals
  • The MASCH saw its tasks in spreading communist ideals. The theoretical foundations of Marxism and emerging Leninism were taught. In other words, the aim was to "create a generally accessible school in which the working population of Berlin should be given the opportunity to learn the basic teachings of unadulterated Marxism and its application to all areas of proletarian life and struggle".[4]
  • It was also about disseminating tools for communist agitation and propaganda in the domains of word and art. Interested laypeople were trained in the design and creation of propaganda material by artists from the Association of Revolutionary Visual Artists.[5]
  • In addition to the historical or current affairs and politics, discussions were held on medical topics, progress in technology and natural sciences and, of course, community affairs.[6] The school held courses in stenography, typing, Russian and English, social and local politics, law. Lectures were also held on culture, arts, literature, film, radio, photography, theatre, music, natural sciences, medicine, sports, sexuality, children, education, the Soviet Union, foreign languages (including Chinese, Japanese and Esperanto), psychoanalysis and individual psychology, rhetoric, library studies, orthography and grammar, arithmetic and problems of women and young people. Fascism in its Italian and German forms was also analysed time and time again.
  • In individual cases, the MASCH supported foreign visits, such as the 1932 trip to China by the communist sociologist and sinologist Karl August Wittfogel.[7]
  • Participants in the MASCH in many cases became members of the KPD, under the impression of training and propaganda.
  • The MASCH should reach the widest possible mass throughout Germany. In 1932, there were MASCH offshoots in 36 major German cities, as well as numerous branches in small towns.

MASCH locations

Teachers and lecturers at MASCH

Lecturers and teachers were, in addition to the employees and functionaries of the KPD, committed politicians, artists and scientists who were open to the labour movement. These included:

Students at MASCH

Operations

The courses for workers cost only a few Pfennigs with the teachers working free of charge.[18] In order to reach workers who could not regularly attend the courses through home studies, Duncker, Wittfogel and Goldschmidt published the booklets of the Marxist Workers Training (MAS) History of the International Labour Movement and Political Economy.[19]

The Marxist Workers School was obviously quite undogmatic and practical in its approach, describing itself as the university of the working people. It was also used intensively by members of other social groups such as the intelligentsia and apparently nobody was excluded as they all belonged to the bourgeoisie.[20]

The MASCH had 25 students in 1925 and by 1930/1931 had 4000 students.[1] The number of lecturers rose to 160. At one single evening lecture, some 700 were present. In the winter semester of 1929/30 alone, 613 evening lectures were held. In 1932 there were around 2,000 courses. Both the technical staff and the teaching staff worked free of charge. Some of the lecturers were neither KPD members nor bound to a particular political party. The decisive criterion for admission as a MASCH teacher has become more and more: Are you also against fascism? On the 1932 January edition of the MASCH magazine Der Marxist, the slogan was emblazoned: Against Nazi theories!.[21]

Connections

Literature

Literature by and of Hermann Duncker:

  • Duncker, Hermann (1971). Der Marxist Marxist. Arbeiter-Schule ; Schulungszeitschr [The Marxist Marxist. Workers school; Training journal]. Politladen-Reprint, No. 11. (in German) (Reprint 1931, No. 1/3 [u.] 1932, No. 1/5 ed.). Erlangen: Politladen. ISBN 9783920531182. OCLC 72936785.
  • Duncker, Hermann (1995). Volkswirtschaftliche Grundbegriffe mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der ökonomischen Grundlehren von Karl Marx als Leitfaden für Unterrichtskurse. Edition 100 bei ISP, 1. (in German) (Reprint [der Ausg.] J.H.W. Dietz Nachfolger, Stuttgart 1908 ed.). Karlsruhe: ISP. ISBN 9783929008869. OCLC 39478406.
  • Hermann Duncker: Ausgewählte Schriften und Reden aus sechs Jahrzehnten. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1984.
  • G. Griep, A. Förster, H. Siegel: Hermann Duncker – Lehrer dreier Generationen. Dietz Verlag, Berlin 1976

Other salient literature:

  • Gerhard-Sonnenberg, Gabriele (1976). Marxistische Arbeiterbildung in der Weimarer Zeit (MASCH) [Marxist Worker Formation in the Weimar Period.]. Erziehung und Bildung (in German). Cologne: Pahl-Rugenstein. ISBN 3-7609-0245-6. OCLC 925039283.
  • Kinner, Klaus; Müller, Dieter (1994). "Die Rote Kapelle – Widerstand, Verfolgung, Haft". In Barck, Simone (ed.). Lexikon sozialistischer Literatur : ihre Geschichte in Deutschland bis 1945. Metzler: Stuttgart u.a. pp. 322–325. ISBN 9783476012371.
  • Wächter, Lars (2003). "4". Der Einfluss des Marxismus auf die Person Bertolt Brechts und sein dramatisches Werk (Diploma Thesis).

References
  1. Olbrich, Josef (9 March 2013). Geschichte der Erwachsenenbildung in Deutschland (in German). Springer-Verlag. p. 197. ISBN 978-3-322-95032-1. Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  2. Krinn, Carsten; Adolph, Wolfram. "MASCH (Marxistische Arbeiterschule)". Berliner Institut für kritische Theorie e.V (in German). Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  3. Helmut Schulze; Bibliotheksverband der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik. Bezirksgruppe (1989). Leihbibliotheken, Arbeiterbibliotheken, Bücherhallen : bibliothekarische Bemühungen um die Volksbildung vom Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts bis 1933 : herausgegeben anlässlich des Jubiläums 75 Jahre städtisches Bibliothekswesen in Leipzig [Lending libraries, workers' libraries, book halls: Library efforts to educate the people from the beginning of the 19th century to 1933: Published on the occasion of the jubilee of 75 years of urban library management in Leipzig] (in German). Leipzig: Bibliotheksverb. der DDR. ISBN 3-86061-001-5.
  4. Schmidt, Johann. "Fünf Jahre Marxistische Arbeiterschule". Trend Online Newspaper (in German). Retrieved 2 June 2020.
  5. Grimkowski, Rüdiger (14 September 2014). "Assoziation Revolutionärer Bildender Künstler Deutschlands". Lemo (in German). Berlin: Deutsches Historisches Museum. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  6. Herrmann, Ursula (2011). Aus dem Alltag eines Arbeitervereins 1891 bis 1901 der sozialdemokratische Arbeiterverein von Lichtenberg-Friedrichsberg in Protokollen und Berichten [From the everyday life of a workers' association from 1891 to 1901 the Social Democratic Workers' Association of Lichtenberg-Friedrichsberg in minutes and reports] (in German). Berlin: Fides. ISBN 978-3-931363-17-8. OCLC 725250178.
  7. Shen, Qinna; Rosenstock, Martin (1 July 2014). Beyond Alterity: German Encounters with Modern East Asia. Berghahn Books. pp. 82–83. ISBN 978-1-78238-361-1. Retrieved 4 June 2020.
  8. Josef Olbrich (31 January 2001). Geschichte der Erwachsenenbildung in Deutschland (in German). Springer-Verlag. p. 427. ISBN 978-3-8100-3349-9. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  9. Olbrich, Josef (9 March 2013). Geschichte der Erwachsenenbildung in Deutschland (in German). Springer-Verlag. p. 198. ISBN 978-3-322-95032-1. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  10. Sziklai, László (1992). After the Proletarian Revolution: Georg Lukács's Marxist Development, 1930-1945. Akadémiai Kiadó. p. 164. ISBN 978-963-05-6238-6. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  11. Mertens, Lothar (30 March 2015). "Nur politisch Würdige". Die DFG-Forschungsförderung im Dritten Reich 1933–1937 (in German). De Gruyter. p. 141. ISBN 978-3-05-008243-1. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  12. Olbrich, Josef (9 March 2013). Geschichte der Erwachsenenbildung in Deutschland (in German). Springer-Verlag. p. 197. ISBN 978-3-322-95032-1. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  13. Neubauer, John; Török, Borbála Zsuzsanna (2009). The Exile and Return of Writers from East-Central Europe: A Compendium. Walter de Gruyter. p. 56. ISBN 978-3-11-021773-5. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  14. Hermann, Harmann (18 June 2014). Einspruch. Schriftenreihe der Friedrich-Wolf-Gesellschaft: "Was bleibt und was lohnt!" Friedrich Wolf zum 125. Geburts- und 60. Todestag. Tectum Wissenschaftsverlag. p. 45. ISBN 978-3-8288-6043-8. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  15. Baumgartner, Gabriele; Hebig, Dieter (24 May 2012). Biographisches Handbuch der SBZ/DDR. Band 1+2 (in German). Walter de Gruyter. p. 14. ISBN 978-3-11-169913-4. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  16. Fehervary, Helen (2001). Anna Seghers: The Mythic Dimension. University of Michigan Press. p. 94. ISBN 0-472-11215-5. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  17. Hermand, Jost (12 June 2017). Mehr als tönende Luft: Politische Echowirkungen in Lied, Oper und Instrumentalmusik (in German). Böhlau Verlag Köln Weimar. pp. 222–. ISBN 978-3-412-50921-7. Retrieved 5 June 2020.
  18. "Der Marxistische Arbeiterschule". Marxistische Blätter (in German). Vol. 14. Europäische Verlagsanstalt. 1976. p. 65. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  19. "Duncker, Hermann". Catalogus Professorum Rostochiensium (in German). Rostock: University of Rostock. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  20. Gerhard-Sonnenberg, Gabriele (1976). Marxistische Arbeiterbildung in der Weimarer Zeit (MASCH). Erziehung und Bildung (in German). Cologne: Pahl-Rugenstein. pp. 81, 154. ISBN 978-3-7609-0245-6. OCLC 925039283.
  21. "Bruno Voigt, Erstausgaben und Erstdrucke von Rosa Luxemburg, Karl Liebknecht und Friedrich Engels, Socialistica und Geschichte" (PDF). Rotes-Antiquariat. 61. Marxist, Der. p. 43. Retrieved 11 June 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  22. Grundmann, Siegfried (1998). Einsteins Akte : Einsteins Jahre in Deutschland aus der Sicht der deutschen Politik [Einstein's file: Einstein's years in Germany from the perspective of German politics] (in German). Berlin: Springer. ISBN 9783540631972. OCLC 61757745.
  23. Juchler, Ingo; Ambauen, Ladina; Arnold, Maren et. all. (25 October 2017). Mildred Harnack und die Rote Kapelle in Berlin. Universitätsverlag Potsdam. p. 102. ISBN 978-3-86956-407-4. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
  24. Erdmut Wizisla (14 May 2014). Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht: The Story of a Friendship. Yale University Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-0-300-15644-7. Retrieved 11 June 2020.
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