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A Working-Class File-Cutter Remembers his Fatherless Childhood (1879-1909)

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early morning until late at night. My stepbrother and I also did industrial work. In the morning before school, we had to tip files; at noon, in the evening, and on Sundays, we set up bowling pins to alleviate the oppressive situation. Once I had completed school, I also joined the home workshop. At the time, file-cutting was mostly outwork; the hours were from 6 o’clock in the morning until 9 o'clock at night. On Sundays, I mostly played cards or went bowling. My stepbrother, on the other hand, busied himself with reading above all. He had subscribed to the Eberfelder Freie Presse, borrowed books from the library of the Wermelskirch Social Democratic People’s Association and, as a result, was constantly telling me about all the things he had read. Soon this weaned me from my games as well. It prompted me to reflect more and soon led me to join organized labor: the File-Cutters’ Association and the local union, and later the [Social Democratic] party and the German Metalworkers’ Association.



Source: Alwin Hussels in Adolf Levenstein, ed., Proletariers Jugendjahre [A Proletarian’s Adolescence]. Berlin, 1909, pp. 53-54.

Original German text reprinted in Klaus Saul, Jens Flemming, Dirk Stegmann, and Peter-Christian Witt, eds., Arbeiterfamilien im Kaiserreich. Materialien zur Sozialgeschichte in Deutschland 1871-1914 [Workers’ Families in the Kaiserreich. Materials on Social History in Germany 1871-1914]. Düsseldorf: Droste, 1982, pp. 38-40.

Translation: Erwin Fink

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