George Engel (April 15, 1836November 11, 1887) was a

labor union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

activist executed after the

Haymarket riot The Haymarket affair, also known as the Haymarket massacre, the Haymarket riot, the Haymarket Square riot, or the Haymarket Incident, was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in ...

, along with

Albert Parsons Albert Richard Parsons (June 20, 1848 – November 11, 1887) was a pioneering American socialist and later anarchist newspaper editor, orator, and labor activist. As a teenager, he served in the military force of the Confederate States of Americ ...

August Spies August Vincent Theodore Spies (, ; December 10, 1855November 11, 1887) was an American upholsterer, radical labor activist, and newspaper editor. Spies is remembered as one of the anarchists in Chicago who were found guilty of conspiracy to commi ...

, and Adolph Fischer.

Early life

George Engel was born to an impoverished family with three other children. His father, Konrad, a mason and bricklayer, died when he was one year old. His mother died when he was 12, leaving him an

orphan An orphan (from the el, ορφανός, orphanós) is a child whose parents have died. In common usage, only a child who has lost both parents due to death is called an orphan. When referring to animals, only the mother's condition is usuall ...

. He lived for a short time with a

foster family Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family memb ...

, but at the age of 14 was forced to look for work. He was apprenticed to a shoemaker, but was unable to afford the dues. He travelled to

Frankfurt Frankfurt, officially Frankfurt am Main (; Hessian: , "Frank ford on the Main"), is the most populous city in the German state of Hesse. Its 791,000 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located on its na ...

and finally found work as a painter's apprentice. He travelled around

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

working, and in 1868 opened a business of his own. He married the same year, but found that the economic conditions in Germany made survival difficult, and so decided to follow his boyhood dream of emigrating to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He left Germany in 1872, arriving first in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in January 1873, where he worked in a sugar refinery. In 1874, he left Philadelphia and moved to

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, where he later, in 1876, opened his own toyshop.

Activism

Working at a factory, Engel first became acquainted with

socialism Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

when one of his coworkers took him to a meeting of the

International Workingmen's Association The International Workingmen's Association (IWA), often called the First International (1864–1876), was an international organisation which aimed at uniting a variety of different left-wing socialist, communist and anarchist groups and trad ...

. He soon joined. In 1878, a crackdown on socialist organizations led to the dissolution of the IWA, but Engel was instrumental in forming another organization, the Socialistic Labor Party of North America, and finally, in 1882 he joined the new International Working People's Association.

Haymarket Square

On May 3, 1886, after hearing about the massacre at the McCormick Plant earlier that day, he attended a meeting at Grief's Hall. This meeting, later dubbed by prosecutors the "Monday Night Conspiracy", was used to prove that there was a conspiracy in the bombing at the Haymarket. A witness claimed that Engel had arranged a plan to storm and/or

dynamite Dynamite is an explosive made of nitroglycerin, sorbents (such as powdered shells or clay), and Stabilizer (chemistry), stabilizers. It was invented by the Swedish people, Swedish chemist and engineer Alfred Nobel in Geesthacht, Northern Germa ...

police stations and shoot policemen should trouble occur. Engel claims it was a meeting only "in which it was proposed to give aid to any strikers if the police or the Pinkertons should attack said strikers." The following night, May 4, as the bombing took place, Engel was not in Haymarket Square, but was at home playing cards. Nevertheless, he was arrested the next day and charged with

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, is a secret plan or agreement between persons (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder or treason, especially with political motivation, while keeping their agree ...

in the bombings. At 50, he was the oldest of the defendants to stand trial. He was convicted and was sentenced to be

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...

. After hearing in 1887 that several letters had been written from

Samuel Fielden Samuel "Sam" Fielden (February 25, 1847 – February 7, 1922) was an English-born American Methodist pastor, socialist, anarchist and labor activist who was one of eight convicted in the 1886 Haymarket bombing. Biography Early life Samu ...

and

Michael Schwab Michael Schwab (August 9, 1853 – June 29, 1898) was a German-American labor organizer and one of the defendants in the Haymarket Square incident. Biography Early years Michael Schwab was born in Bad Kissingen, Franconia in Germany in 1853. H ...

Illinois Governor The governor of Illinois is the head of government of Illinois, and the various agencies and departments over which the officer has jurisdiction, as prescribed in the state constitution. It is a directly elected position, votes being cast by p ...

Richard James Oglesby Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Old Frankish and is a compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' and ''*hardu-'' 'strong, brave, hardy', and it therefore means 'stron ...

, Engel wrote his own letter asking the governor not to consider any

clemency A pardon is a government decision to allow a person to be relieved of some or all of the legal consequences resulting from a criminal conviction. A pardon may be granted before or after conviction for the crime, depending on the laws of the ju ...

, stating that: "not being conscious of any guilt, the powers that be may murder me, but they cannot legally punish me. I protest against a commutation of my sentence and demand either liberty or death." mphasis in original

Death

Engel was hanged with three others of the condemned on November 11, 1887. His last words were "Hurrah for anarchy!" Engel was buried, in a plot marked since 1893 by the '' Haymarket Martyrs Monument'', in the

Waldheim Cemetery Forest Home Cemetery is at 863 S. DesPlaines Ave, Forest Park, Illinois, adjacent to the Eisenhower Expressway, straddling the Des Plaines River in Cook County, just west of Chicago. The cemetery traces its history to two adjacent cemeteries, G ...

''The Americas''
/ref> (now Forest Home Cemetery) in

Forest Park, Illinois Forest Park (formerly Harlem) is a village in Cook County, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, United States. The population was 14,339 at the 2020 census. The Forest Park terminal on the CTA Blue Line is the line's western terminus, located on the ...

Early life

Activism

Haymarket Square

Death

See also

References

Further reading