Der Pionier was one of two official organs of the radical socialist Free Association of German Trade Unions

Free Association of German Trade Unions

The Free Association of German Trade Unions was a trade union federation in Imperial and early Weimar Germany. It was founded in 1897 in Halle under the name Representatives' Centralization of Germany as the national umbrella organization of the localist current of the German labor movement...

 (FVdG).

With its founding in 1897, the FVdG also started the newspaper Einigkeit (Unity) as its official organ. As the FVdG, came into conflict with the Social Democratic Party of Germany

Social Democratic Party of Germany

The Social Democratic Party of Germany is a social-democratic political party in Germany...

 (SPD) more and more from 1903 on, anarchists, especially Fritz Köster

Fritz Köster

Fritz Köster was a German anarchist editor and trade unionist.Born in Rodenberg, Hesse , Köster was active in the Social Democratic Party of Germany starting in the early 1880s...

 and Andreas Kleinlein

Andreas Kleinlein

Andreas Kleinlein was a German anarchist. He came into contact with anarchist ideas through his travels to France. He was active in the musical instrument-maker union in Berlin and a founding member of the Free Association of German Trade Unions , one of the most influential anarchists in the...

 gained influence in the union federation. After the SPD and the FVdG completely severed relations in 1908, the founding of another organ directed against the press of the SPD to convince workers to leave the party and join the FVdG was considered. The question was discussed at the FVdG congresses in 1908 and 1910 and the unionists decided to start Der Pionier.

The first issue appeared in the fall of 1911 and the newspaper was published on a weekly basis from there on. As it was edited by the anarchist Fritz Köster, Der Pionier used a much more aggressive tone than Einigkeit. By 1912, it had a circulation of 4,500 copies.

During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, which the FVdG rejected, both Einigkeit and Der Pionier were suppressed. On August 5, 1914, Der Pionier published article written by Max Winkler and Fritz Kater

Fritz Kater

Fritz Kater was a German trade unionist active in the Free Association of German Trade Unions and its successor organization, the Free Workers' Union of Germany...

, the head of the FVdG. This article reaffirmed the FVdG's antimilitarism in the face of the SPD-affiliated unions' collaboration with the German state. This became Der Pioniers last issue.