Through Night to Light?

History of the Labor Movement 1863 – 2013

In 2013, the 150th anniversary of the founding of the General German Workers’ Association (ADAV) under the leadership of Ferdinand Lassalle in Leipzig was celebrated.

This remarkable anniversary provided the occasion to present the history of the German labor movement from its beginnings to the present day. Accordingly, the TECHNOSEUM Mannheim hosted a major state exhibition on this topic in Baden-Württemberg from February 2 to August 25, 2013.

Saxony, beyond the Leipzig founding of the ADAV in 1863, is a cradle of the German labor movement and has become a myth as the “Red Kingdom.”

Visitors encountered, as the first object, a wooden plow from around 1800, and left the exhibition alongside an industrial robot. Between these two objects of the working world, the history of the labor movement unfolded.

In a staged mining tunnel, striking workers met Pope Leo XIII; Friedrich Ebert led the divided Social Democrats “toward the state” before National Socialism crushed and sought to appropriate the labor movement. The only general strike experienced in the Western zones in 1948 demonstrated the resurgence of the labor movement.

From 1949 to 1990, the history was told in two ways: separated by a large Pittler lathe from Leipzig, visitors could view, from the “West,” the development of the GDR with a nationalized labor movement and major ruptures (1953, 1961, 1989). Conversely, from the East, the perspective focused on the development of the Federal Republic, with the economic miracle, wild strikes, and new social movements.

It became clear why the exhibition’s title quote, “Through Night to Light,” from a strike song by Heinrich Kämpchen in 1889, is posed with a question mark.

Over 600 exhibits, including many from Saxony, illustrated a historical journey through 200 years.

Special exhibition in cooperation between the TECHNOSEUM Mannheim and the Chemnitz Museum of Industry for the 150th anniversary of the ADAV founding in Leipzig