Wilhelm Rosenberg
Encyclopedia
Wilhelm Ludwig "William" Rosenberg (1850-unknown, 1930s) was a German-American teacher, poet, playwright
, journalist, and socialist political activist. He is best remembered as the head of the Socialist Labor Party of America
from 1884 to 1889.
, Westphalia
, Germany
in January 1850. Rosenberg was university educated, and worked as a teacher of Latin and French
in Frankfurt am Main.
Rosenberg was politically radical from an early age and was a contributor to Die Neue Welt (The New World), a German socialist newspaper.
of 1878, landing in America. Rosenberg resumed life as a teacher in Boston
and joined the fledgling Socialist Labor Party of America
(SLP). Rosenberg subsequently moved to Chicago
where served as editor of a succession of politically-oriented newspapers, including Die Fackel (Sunday edition of the Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeitung, 1881-1884), the SLP's official organ, Der Sozialist (1885–1889), Der Tramp (New York, 1888), and Vorwärts, (New York City, from 1892).
While in Chicago, Rosenberg wrote politically-charged plays to be performed in the several working class theatres of the city. One of these dramas, Die Nihilisten (The Nihilists), was performed in honor of the Paris Commune
in 1882 and featured three future defendants in the 1886 Haymarket affair
— Michael Schwab
, August Spies
, and Oscar Neebe
— playing leading roles. The play dealt with legal proceedings against a group of Nihilists
in Tsarist Russia, who were sentenced to exile in Siberia
, and finally freed by their comrades following the overthrow of the Tsar. In the May 18, 1882 performance in North Side Turner Hall, the role of the liberators was played by members of the local Lehr-und-Wehr Verein (Education and Defense Society), an armed workers' militia movement sweeping the German-American radical community in the Chicago area at the time. The implications of this casting could not be missed.
Another play by Rosenberg, Die Tochter des Proletairiers (The Proletarian's Daughter) was performed at the 1883 celebration of the Paris Commune in Chicago. This play dealt with the daughter of a class-conscious
worker who fell in love with the son of a factory owner and was subsequently repudiated by her father.
By 1883 the membership of the SLP had fallen to an estimated 1500 members in just 30 Sections, a depressing atrophy which had led to the abandonment of the organization in April of that year even by its nominal head, Corresponding Secretary Philip Van Patten. Two individuals filled the role on a temporary basis for the rest of the year, culminating in the party's 4th National Convention in December 1883. There the 16 delegates, in an effort to forge links with non-party revolutionary socialists in an effort to keep them out of the camp of the rival anarchist
movement, decided to steer the organization on a leftward course, curtaining the authority of the governing National Executive Committee and abolishing the centralizing post of Corresponding Secretary altogether in an effort to render the SLP a more decentralized organization amenable to the revolutionary left.
providing an impetus to membership for many, as the SLP tripling in size and doubling the number of its Sections over the next two years. Growth of the SLP made another official national newspaper possible. In January 1885, Wilhelm Rosenberg, who had previously assisted Joseph Dietzgen
with the editorial task at the Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeitung (Chicago Workers' News), moved to New York City to help Deitzgen launch a new German-language official organ for the SLP, Der Sozialist (The Socialist).
Determining the decentralized organizational structure to be impractical, the SLP restored its chief executive
office in March 1884, with Section New York electing Rosenberg to the role "Secretary of the National Executive Committee" and calling the 5th National Convention of the SLP to order in Cincinnati
in October 1885 in that capacity.
Rosenberg married his wife, Maria, in 1885. The couple had two daughters, Percivale (born circa 1886) and Elsa (born circa 1887).
As the Socialist Labor Party posted membership gains in the second half of the 1880s, its members began to diverge on the question of political tactics. Some, including the newly established English-language party weekly, The Workmen's Advocate, as well as Rosenberg's Der Sozialist, favored an emphasis on electoral politics, including the establishment of alliances with the "progressive" or "radical" labor parties which were emerging in many localities in this period. Others, following the lead of the influential daily New Yorker Volkszeitung
(New York People's News), declared socialist politics to be premature and urged that the SLP confine its efforts to extending its influence in the trade union
movement. The debate between these two camps grew steadily more heated and personal through 1888 and into 1889, with the Volkszeitung characterizing Rosenberg and the NEC as an incompetent clique.
Finally in September 1889, with the party's biannual National Convention on the horizon, the bad blood erupted into an outright split. The membership of SLP Section New York, by virtue of their position as the Section of the headquarters city, attempted to exercise their right to recall
Rosenberg and three other members of the party's National Executive Committee, replacing them with four others favoring more of a trade unionist orientation. Rosenberg and his compatriots refused to yield, however, instead continuing to assert their right to function as the National Executive Committee of the whole party and calling a party convention to be held in Chicago to begin on October 2. The new NEC named by Section New York began to function as well, issuing a call for a party convention of their own.
At this point the various Sections of the SLP were about evenly split between the pro-electoral Rosenberg NEC and the trade union-oriented Volkszeitung NEC. In a last-ditch attempt to prevent a split the SLP's Control Committee, based in Philadelphia, intervened in the conflict by suspending both of the rival NECs from office and moving the date of the 7th Convention to October 12. The Volkszeitung group accepted this decision; Rosenberg and the deposed NEC did not. On October 2, 1889, the Rosenberg faction opened their convention in Chicago, with the Volkszeitung faction opening their gathering in the same city 10 days later.
(SDF). This party's headquarters located variously located in Cincinnati, Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati again, Chicago, and finally Cleveland. The frequent changes of locale caused wags remaining in the SLP to refer to the Rosenberg SDF as "the traveling faction" or "the party on wheels."
Following the party split, the official organ of Rosenberg's organization was the Volks-Anwalt (People's Advocate), a weekly paper which launched in Cincinnati on October 25, 1889.
There was subsequently some effort towards unity of the two factions, with Thomas J. Morgan
put forward for Mayor of Chicago
in 1891 as the joint nominee of the official SLP and the Rosenberg organization. Unity discussions came to nothing in 1892, however.
In 1895, Rosenberg moved to Cincinnati, Ohio
where he became editor of the Cincinnati Tageblatt (Daily News), another socialist newspaper. The Social Democratic Federation merged with the Social Democracy of America
, early forerunner of the Socialist Party of America
in August 1897, bringing with it its German-language newspaper, the Volks-Anwalt, which continued to be produced until August 1898.
Rosenberg remained in Cleveland
, editing a German-language paper there called Echo in 1911 and into 1912. He worked as a school teacher in Cleveland until his retirement, living with a married daughter in Rocky River, Ohio
in his final years.
Rosenberg was a prolific author of poetry, plays, songs, and short stories and remained a contributor to the socialist press until his death sometime in the 1930s.
Playwright
A playwright, also called a dramatist, is a person who writes plays.The term is not a variant spelling of "playwrite", but something quite distinct: the word wright is an archaic English term for a craftsman or builder...
, journalist, and socialist political activist. He is best remembered as the head of the Socialist Labor Party of America
Socialist Labor Party of America
The Socialist Labor Party of America , established in 1876 as the Workingmen's Party, is the oldest socialist political party in the United States and the second oldest socialist party in the world. Originally known as the Workingmen's Party of America, the party changed its name in 1877 and has...
from 1884 to 1889.
Early years
Wilhelm Ludwig Rosenberg was born in HammHamm
Hamm is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia , Germany. It is located in the northeastern part of the Ruhr area. As of December 2003 its population was 180,849. The city is situated between the A1 motorway and A2 motorway...
, Westphalia
Westphalia
Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in January 1850. Rosenberg was university educated, and worked as a teacher of Latin and French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
in Frankfurt am Main.
Rosenberg was politically radical from an early age and was a contributor to Die Neue Welt (The New World), a German socialist newspaper.
Emigration to America
Rosenberg was forced to emigrate from Germany in 1880 under the pressure of the Anti-Socialist LawsAnti-Socialist Laws
The Anti-Socialist Laws or Socialist Laws were a series of acts, the first of which was passed on October 19, 1878 by the German Reichstag lasting till March 31, 1881, and extended 4 times...
of 1878, landing in America. Rosenberg resumed life as a teacher in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
and joined the fledgling Socialist Labor Party of America
Socialist Labor Party of America
The Socialist Labor Party of America , established in 1876 as the Workingmen's Party, is the oldest socialist political party in the United States and the second oldest socialist party in the world. Originally known as the Workingmen's Party of America, the party changed its name in 1877 and has...
(SLP). Rosenberg subsequently moved to Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
where served as editor of a succession of politically-oriented newspapers, including Die Fackel (Sunday edition of the Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeitung, 1881-1884), the SLP's official organ, Der Sozialist (1885–1889), Der Tramp (New York, 1888), and Vorwärts, (New York City, from 1892).
While in Chicago, Rosenberg wrote politically-charged plays to be performed in the several working class theatres of the city. One of these dramas, Die Nihilisten (The Nihilists), was performed in honor of the Paris Commune
Paris Commune
The Paris Commune was a government that briefly ruled Paris from March 18 to May 28, 1871. It existed before the split between anarchists and Marxists had taken place, and it is hailed by both groups as the first assumption of power by the working class during the Industrial Revolution...
in 1882 and featured three future defendants in the 1886 Haymarket affair
Haymarket affair
The Haymarket affair was a demonstration and unrest that took place on Tuesday May 4, 1886, at the Haymarket Square in Chicago. It began as a rally in support of striking workers. An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at police as they dispersed the public meeting...
— Michael Schwab
Michael Schwab
Michael Schwab was a German-American labor organizer and one of the defendants in the Haymarket Square incident.-Early years:...
, August Spies
August Spies
August Vincent Theodore Spies was an anarchist labor activist who was found guilty of conspiracy and hanged following a bomb attack on police at the Haymarket affair.-Background:...
, and Oscar Neebe
Oscar Neebe
Oscar William Neebe I was an anarchist, labor activist and one of the defendants in the Haymarket bombing trial.-Early life:...
— playing leading roles. The play dealt with legal proceedings against a group of Nihilists
Narodnik
Narodniks was the name for Russian socially conscious members of the middle class in the 1860s and 1870s. Their ideas and actions were known as Narodnichestvo which can be translated as "Peopleism", though is more commonly rendered "populism"...
in Tsarist Russia, who were sentenced to exile in Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, and finally freed by their comrades following the overthrow of the Tsar. In the May 18, 1882 performance in North Side Turner Hall, the role of the liberators was played by members of the local Lehr-und-Wehr Verein (Education and Defense Society), an armed workers' militia movement sweeping the German-American radical community in the Chicago area at the time. The implications of this casting could not be missed.
Another play by Rosenberg, Die Tochter des Proletairiers (The Proletarian's Daughter) was performed at the 1883 celebration of the Paris Commune in Chicago. This play dealt with the daughter of a class-conscious
Class consciousness
Class consciousness is consciousness of one's social class or economic rank in society. From the perspective of Marxist theory, it refers to the self-awareness, or lack thereof, of a particular class; its capacity to act in its own rational interests; or its awareness of the historical tasks...
worker who fell in love with the son of a factory owner and was subsequently repudiated by her father.
By 1883 the membership of the SLP had fallen to an estimated 1500 members in just 30 Sections, a depressing atrophy which had led to the abandonment of the organization in April of that year even by its nominal head, Corresponding Secretary Philip Van Patten. Two individuals filled the role on a temporary basis for the rest of the year, culminating in the party's 4th National Convention in December 1883. There the 16 delegates, in an effort to forge links with non-party revolutionary socialists in an effort to keep them out of the camp of the rival anarchist
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
movement, decided to steer the organization on a leftward course, curtaining the authority of the governing National Executive Committee and abolishing the centralizing post of Corresponding Secretary altogether in an effort to render the SLP a more decentralized organization amenable to the revolutionary left.
Head of the Socialist Labor Party
This effort at structural change did little to cure the SLP's fundamental malaise, with the flight of its English-speaking element nearly complete and the organization operating without an English-language official organ of any sort. The party's recuperation was assisted by a downturn of the economy in 1883, however, with widespread unemploymentUnemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
providing an impetus to membership for many, as the SLP tripling in size and doubling the number of its Sections over the next two years. Growth of the SLP made another official national newspaper possible. In January 1885, Wilhelm Rosenberg, who had previously assisted Joseph Dietzgen
Joseph Dietzgen
Joseph Dietzgen was a German socialist philosopher, Marxist and journalist. Joseph was born in Blankenberg in the Rhine Province of Prussia. He was the first of five children of father Johann Gottfried Anno Dietzgen and mother Anna Margaretha Lückerath . He was, like his father, a tanner by...
with the editorial task at the Chicagoer Arbeiter-Zeitung (Chicago Workers' News), moved to New York City to help Deitzgen launch a new German-language official organ for the SLP, Der Sozialist (The Socialist).
Determining the decentralized organizational structure to be impractical, the SLP restored its chief executive
Chief executive officer
A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...
office in March 1884, with Section New York electing Rosenberg to the role "Secretary of the National Executive Committee" and calling the 5th National Convention of the SLP to order in Cincinnati
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
in October 1885 in that capacity.
Rosenberg married his wife, Maria, in 1885. The couple had two daughters, Percivale (born circa 1886) and Elsa (born circa 1887).
As the Socialist Labor Party posted membership gains in the second half of the 1880s, its members began to diverge on the question of political tactics. Some, including the newly established English-language party weekly, The Workmen's Advocate, as well as Rosenberg's Der Sozialist, favored an emphasis on electoral politics, including the establishment of alliances with the "progressive" or "radical" labor parties which were emerging in many localities in this period. Others, following the lead of the influential daily New Yorker Volkszeitung
New Yorker Volkszeitung
New Yorker Volkzeitung was a German language labor daily newspaper which suspended publishing during the Great Depression, in October 1932. At the time it was the only German language daily in the United States and one of the oldest radical left newspapers in the nation...
(New York People's News), declared socialist politics to be premature and urged that the SLP confine its efforts to extending its influence in the trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
movement. The debate between these two camps grew steadily more heated and personal through 1888 and into 1889, with the Volkszeitung characterizing Rosenberg and the NEC as an incompetent clique.
Finally in September 1889, with the party's biannual National Convention on the horizon, the bad blood erupted into an outright split. The membership of SLP Section New York, by virtue of their position as the Section of the headquarters city, attempted to exercise their right to recall
Recall election
A recall election is a procedure by which voters can remove an elected official from office through a direct vote before his or her term has ended...
Rosenberg and three other members of the party's National Executive Committee, replacing them with four others favoring more of a trade unionist orientation. Rosenberg and his compatriots refused to yield, however, instead continuing to assert their right to function as the National Executive Committee of the whole party and calling a party convention to be held in Chicago to begin on October 2. The new NEC named by Section New York began to function as well, issuing a call for a party convention of their own.
At this point the various Sections of the SLP were about evenly split between the pro-electoral Rosenberg NEC and the trade union-oriented Volkszeitung NEC. In a last-ditch attempt to prevent a split the SLP's Control Committee, based in Philadelphia, intervened in the conflict by suspending both of the rival NECs from office and moving the date of the 7th Convention to October 12. The Volkszeitung group accepted this decision; Rosenberg and the deposed NEC did not. On October 2, 1889, the Rosenberg faction opened their convention in Chicago, with the Volkszeitung faction opening their gathering in the same city 10 days later.
Years after the SLP
While neither of the two rival conventions of the SLP were well attended, by failing to adhere to the directives of the Philadelphia party Control Committee, Rosenberg and his comrades essentially put themselves out of the Socialist Labor Party, which moved forward. They continued an independent organizational existence for the next decade as the Social Democratic FederationSocial Democratic Federation (U.S., 1889)
The Social Democratic Federation was an American political party established as a result of a factional split in the Socialist Labor Party in 1889...
(SDF). This party's headquarters located variously located in Cincinnati, Baltimore, Buffalo, Cincinnati again, Chicago, and finally Cleveland. The frequent changes of locale caused wags remaining in the SLP to refer to the Rosenberg SDF as "the traveling faction" or "the party on wheels."
Following the party split, the official organ of Rosenberg's organization was the Volks-Anwalt (People's Advocate), a weekly paper which launched in Cincinnati on October 25, 1889.
There was subsequently some effort towards unity of the two factions, with Thomas J. Morgan
Thomas J. Morgan
Thomas J. "Tommy" Morgan, Jr. was an English-born American labor leader and socialist political activist. Morgan is best remembered as one of the pioneer English-speaking Socialists in the city of Chicago and a frequent candidate for public office of the Socialist Party of America...
put forward for Mayor of Chicago
Mayor of Chicago
The Mayor of Chicago is the chief executive of Chicago, Illinois, the third largest city in the United States. He or she is charged with directing city departments and agencies, and with the advice and consent of the Chicago City Council, appoints department and agency leaders.-Appointment...
in 1891 as the joint nominee of the official SLP and the Rosenberg organization. Unity discussions came to nothing in 1892, however.
In 1895, Rosenberg moved to Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
where he became editor of the Cincinnati Tageblatt (Daily News), another socialist newspaper. The Social Democratic Federation merged with the Social Democracy of America
Social Democracy of America
The Social Democracy of America , later known as the Co-operative Brotherhood, was a short lived party in the United States that sought to combine the planting of an intentional community with political action in order to create a socialist society...
, early forerunner of the Socialist Party of America
Socialist Party of America
The Socialist Party of America was a multi-tendency democratic-socialist political party in the United States, formed in 1901 by a merger between the three-year-old Social Democratic Party of America and disaffected elements of the Socialist Labor Party which had split from the main organization...
in August 1897, bringing with it its German-language newspaper, the Volks-Anwalt, which continued to be produced until August 1898.
Rosenberg remained in Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, editing a German-language paper there called Echo in 1911 and into 1912. He worked as a school teacher in Cleveland until his retirement, living with a married daughter in Rocky River, Ohio
Rocky River, Ohio
Rocky River is an affluent western suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, United States located in Cuyahoga County approximately nine miles west of Public Square in downtown Cleveland. The city is named for the river that forms its eastern border...
in his final years.
Rosenberg was a prolific author of poetry, plays, songs, and short stories and remained a contributor to the socialist press until his death sometime in the 1930s.
Works
- Lieder und Gedichte. (Songs and Poems) Frankfurt am Main: Morgenstern, 1880.
- Vor der Wahlschlacht: Lustspiel in 1 Akt. (Before the election battle: Comedy in one act) New York: John Oehler, 1887. —signed as "W.L.R."
- Aus dem Reiche des Tantalus: Alfresco-Skizzen. (From the realm of Tantalus: Alfresco sketches) Zürich: Verlag Magazin, 1888.
- An der Weltenwende: Gedichte. (To Turn the World: Poems) Cleveland: Windsor Avenue Publishing Co., 1910.
- Liebesglück und Liebesleid: Lyrische gedichte. (Love, happiness and suffering love: Lyrical poems) Cleveland: Windsor Avenue Publishing Co., 1916.
- Die Macht des Aberglaubens: Lustspiel in einem Auszuge. (The power of superstition: A comedy in one act) Cleveland: Windsor Avenue Publishing Co., n.d. [1910s].
See also
- Socialist Labor Party of AmericaSocialist Labor Party of AmericaThe Socialist Labor Party of America , established in 1876 as the Workingmen's Party, is the oldest socialist political party in the United States and the second oldest socialist party in the world. Originally known as the Workingmen's Party of America, the party changed its name in 1877 and has...
- Social Democratic Federation (U.S., 1889)Social Democratic Federation (U.S., 1889)The Social Democratic Federation was an American political party established as a result of a factional split in the Socialist Labor Party in 1889...