Friedrich Adolph Sorge (9 November 1828 – 26 October 1906) was a German
communist
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
political leader who emigrated to the United States, where he played an important role in the labor movement, including the foundation of the
Socialist Labor Party of America
The Socialist Labor Party (SLP)"The name of this organization shall be Socialist Labor Party". Art. I, Sec. 1 of thadopted at the Eleventh National Convention (New York, July 1904; amended at the National Conventions 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 1924 ...
.
Early years
Friedrich Adolph Sorge was born on 9 November 1828 in Bethau, Saxony, Germany, son of the
Reverend
The Reverend is an style (manner of address), honorific style most often placed before the names of Christian clergy and Minister of religion, ministers. There are sometimes differences in the way the style is used in different countries and c ...
Georg Sorge and Hedwig Lange.
His father was a free-thinking person, and often gave shelter to Polish revolutionaries travelling from France and Belgium to Poland.
He was 19 when the revolutions of 1848 in the German states began.
He joined a group of armed revolutionaries in Saxony, but they were quickly suppressed by Pomeranian troops and Sorge was forced to take refuge in Switzerland.
He returned to Germany and joined the Karlsruhe
Freikorp
(, "Free Corps" or "Volunteer Corps") were irregular German and other European military volunteer units, or paramilitary, that existed from the 18th to the early 20th centuries. They effectively fought as mercenary or private armies, regard ...
. His unit fought the Prussians in Baden and the Palatinate, losing both times.
In June 1849 Sorge again took refuge in Switzerland.
Sorge was condemned to death in Germany for his role in the revolution.
In 1851 he was expelled by the Swiss and moved to Belgium. In March 1852 he was expelled from Belgium and moved to London,
where he caught cholera. After recovering he boarded a ship for New York, arriving in June 1852.
He became a music teacher, married and settled in Hoboken, New Jersey.
In 1857 he joined
Albert Komp Albert Komp (born Johann Paul Albert Komp; 27 January 1845''Germany, Select Births and Baptisms, 1558–1898'' – 4 April 1910) was a German-American painter who was active in New York City communist circles in the mid-nineteenth century.
Komp w ...
and
Abraham Jacobi
Abraham Jacobi (6 May 1830 – 10 July 1919) was a German physician and pioneer of pediatrics. He was a key figure in the movement to improve child healthcare and welfare in the United States and opened the first children's clinic in the country. ...
in forming the
New York Communist Club The New York Communist Club was a communist organisation set up in New York City in 1857. It was particularly active in the abolitionist struggle, leading it to become inactive during the American Civil War, as so many of its members were in the Uni ...
, which was an educational society involved in the anti-slavery movement.
Socialist leader
Sorge became an active socialist in 1865, after the end of the American Civil War, and soon became the leading proponent of Karl Marx's views in the United States.
In December 1869 he founded Section I of New York of the International Workingmen's Association (IWMA, often called the First International), with 46 members. In December 1870 he established the Central Committee of the North American IWMA. In September 1871 Section I of the IWMA organized a demonstration of 20,000 workers, including black workers, demanding an eight-hour day and supporting the Paris Commune.
From 1872 to 1874 Sorge was general secretary of the First International's worldwide organization.
His appointment followed the split between Marx and the anarchists led by Mikhail Bakunin, and a decision in September 1872 by the Hague Congress to transfer the IWA General Council to New York. While he was secretary the IWMA continued to decline in both America and Europe.
In 1877 Sorge led a Marxist-oriented group in Newark that founded the
Socialist Labor Party of America
The Socialist Labor Party (SLP)"The name of this organization shall be Socialist Labor Party". Art. I, Sec. 1 of thadopted at the Eleventh National Convention (New York, July 1904; amended at the National Conventions 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920, 1924 ...
.
Joseph Patrick McDonnell
Joseph Patrick McDonnell (27 March 1846 – 20 January 1906) was an Irish-American labor leader and journalist.
He edited the New York ''Labor Standard'', and was one of the founders of the International Labor Union.
Early years
Joseph Patrick ...
, editor of the ''New York Labor Standard'' gave significant assistance to Sorge.
Sorge and McDonnell organized a textile strike in
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.International Labor Union of Hoboken in 1883.
Later years
Sorge and Marx corresponded regularly from the 1860s until Marx died in 1883.
Friedrich Engels visited Sorge in Hoboken in 1888, after Sorge had retired from politics.
Sorge contributed articles to the German Marxist journal '' Die Neue Zeit'' from 1891 to 1895, discussing the history of socialism in the United States.
According to Edward Aveling, Sorge was "one who was, perhaps, of all men the closest intimate in the later years of both Marx and Engels."
Selig Perlman
Selig Perlman (December 9, 1888 – August 14, 1959) was an economist and labor historian at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Background
Perlman was born in Białystok in Congress Poland (then part of Russia) in 1888. His father, ...
called him the father of modern socialism in America.
Sorge continued to teach music into his old age.
He died on 26 October 1906 in Hoboken, New Jersey.
The Soviet spy Richard Sorge was his grandnephew.
Writings
* "Report of the North American Federal Council to the Hague Congress," (German section) in ''Documents of the First International: The Hague Congress...Minutes and Documents''