Silesian weavers' uprising of 1844 (German: Schlesischer Weberaufstand) was a revolt against contractors who supplied the

weavers Weaver or Weavers may refer to: Activities * A person who engages in weaving fabric Animals * Various birds of the family Ploceidae * Crevice weaver spider family * Orb-weaver spider family * Weever (or weever-fish) Arts and entertainment ...

Silesia Silesia (, also , ) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at around 8,000,000. Silesia is split ...

with raw material and gave them orders for finished textiles but drastically reduced their payments. Silesia's industry was in bad condition in the decades after 1815. Silesian linen weavers suffered under

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

's free trade policy and British competitors that already used machines destroyed the competitiveness of Silesian linen. The situation worsened after

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

imposed an import embargo and the Silesian linen industry began to mechanize. In several towns this traditional craft died out altogether, costing many linen weavers their profession. As social conditions worsened, growing unrest culminated in the Silesian cotton weavers' uprising of 1844. This uprising, on the eve of the

revolution of 1848 The Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Springtime of the Peoples or the Springtime of Nations, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe starting in 1848. It remains the most widespread revolutionary wave in Europea ...

, was closely observed by German society and treated by several artists, among them

Heinrich Heine Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (; born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of '' Lied ...

(with his 1844 poem '' Die schlesischen Weber'') and

Gerhart Hauptmann Gerhart Johann Robert Hauptmann (; 15 November 1862 – 6 June 1946) was a German dramatist and novelist. He is counted among the most important promoters of literary naturalism, though he integrated other styles into his work as well. He recei ...

(with his 1892 play ''

The Weavers The Weavers were an American folk music quartet based in the Greenwich Village area of New York City originally consisting of Lee Hays, Pete Seeger, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman. Founded in 1948, the group sang traditional folk songs fro ...

''). It also attracted extensive attention among German thinkers such as

Karl Marx Karl Heinrich Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, critic of political economy, and socialist revolutionary. His best-known titles are the 1848 ...

Account

The journalist Friedrich Wolff described the events as follows:

In Silesian villages (18,000 inhabitants) cotton weaving was the most widespread occupation. There was extreme misery among the workers. The desperate need of jobs had been taken advantage by the contractors to reduce the prices of the goods they order ... On 4 June at 2 p.m. a large crowd of weavers emerged from their homes and marched in pairs up to the mansion of their contractors demanding higher wages. They were treated with scorns and threats alternatively. Consequently, a group of them forced their way into the house, smashed it's elegant window panes, furniture, porcelain ... another group broke into the storehouse and plundered it of cloth supplies which they tore to shreds ... The contractor fled with his family to a neighboring village which refused to shelter such a person. He returned 1 day later having requisitioned the army. In exchange that followed, eleven weavers were shot.

Thereafter, the

n government repressed them with great brutality.

In Literature

Heine's well-known work "

The Silesian Weavers "The Silesian Weavers" (also: Weaver-song) is a poem by Heinrich Heine written in 1844. It is exemplary of the political poetry of the Vormärz movement. It is about the misery of the Silesian weavers, who in 1844 ventured an uprising against expl ...

" premiered in ''

Vorwärts! ''Vorwärts!'' (, ''Forward!'') was a biweekly newspaper published in Paris from January to December 1844. The journal was seen as "the most radical" in contemporary Europe. The newspaper circulation was about a thousand copies. It had a subtit ...

'', depicting this uprising.

References

{{Germany-hist-stub Industrial Revolution Rebellions in Germany 19th-century rebellions History of the textile industry History of Silesia Labor history