Industrielle und normative Beziehungen in der Hüttenstadt Neunkirchen / Saar von der Ära Stumm bis in die 1930er Jahre

Abstract

As one of the core sectors of German industrialisation, the iron and steel industry is considered a space particularly permeated by power. An economically, politically and socio-culturally strong entrepreneurial class set the rules and conditions within the sector. Elaborate hierarchies were often developed inside the individual companies. So-called works officials, masters, supervisors and foremen represented the interests of the company management on-site, that is, directly in the production process. Companies also formulated demands on their workforce outside the factory walls, however. Political and social conduct in the interest of the employer were among the company’s normative requirements; trade unions and other organisational forms of the political labour movement were under no circumstances to gain a foothold among the workforce. Despite all this, the normative setting in the iron and steel industry was by no means one-dimensional; the workers managed – admittedly within clearly defined frameworks – to preserve or fight for small pockets of freedom. If one reads the sources, written almost exclusively from the perspective of company management, »against the grain«, one can detect various forms of defiance, insubordination and civil disobedience in everyday company life. These were no revolutionary efforts in the sense of a class struggle, but rather everyday »small autonomies«, for example with regard to working hours and conditions. The article discusses these issues using the case study of the Neunkirchen ironworks, a prominent company in the Saar industrial region. Karl Ferdinand Stumm, an economically, politically and socio-culturally highly ambitious entrepreneur, headed the company in the second half of the 19th century. But even in the »Kingdom of Stumm«, as the social-democratic labour movement’s press dubbed the Neunkirchen ironworks, the workforce occasionally sought and found small pockets of freedom.