Adolf Hennecke — Hero of the Battle of Production
Zentralfriedhof; in Stein gehauen
Tausende von Namen
die niemand mehr ausspricht.
Sie sollen uns mahnen, steht da.
Was schulden wir ihnen
und wie viel?
Mahngebühr
Friedhofsgebühr.
Plötzlich ein Bekannter.
Seine kohleverstaubte Lunge gebettet
zu ewiger Ruhe in schwarzer Erde
an einer wenig zentralen Wegesecke
unser Held Adolf Hennecke.
When the GDR punk band “Spectators of Suicide” in their song “Working Class Suicide oder Der Gute Adolf” (1986) accused the real socialist labour religion of causing the death of thousands, it is interesting that they also sang about Adolf Hennecke.
The miner Hennecke was for the GDR (German Democratic Republic) what Alexei Grigorievich Stanchanov stood for in the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics): the central propaganda figure calling on the working people to increase their productivity. The “Hennecke Movement” was a group of activists who, following his example, sought to outperform and establish a new work ethic.
Adolf Hennecke established his fame when, in October 1948, in a carefully prepared shift and with the help of the other miners, he extracted 387 percent more coal from the seam than the amount required. For this over-achievement he was celebrated, rewarded, awarded the highest medals and finally appointed to the Central Committee of the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany).
However, Hennecke initially refused the invitation to become an exponent for the campaign to increase labour output. He suspected that he would be mobbed by his comrades as a “norm-breaker”. His car was set on fire and the windows of his house smashed, but he also received baskets of fan mail. These extreme reactions refer on the one hand to Hennecke’s exposure as a “hero of labour” and on the other hand they represent the societal forces at play in the German Democratic Republic.
Historian Silke Satjukow, who researches socialist heroes, is convinced that all societies need heroes to reassure themselves, because heroes embody the extra-ordinary, they win decisive battles. What is specific to the heroes of labour, they also extend into everyday life. They say: All it takes is “more of the same” and you will also be special. Silke Satjukow: “Heroes and saints are very close. Both have the task of transporting norms and morals.”
Hennecke’s achievement and exemplary work ethic are also celebrated in “Der Weg nach oben” (The way to the top, 1950), the official documentary film for the 1st anniversary of the GDR. Contrariwise, we meet a later musician of the Spectators of Suicide as a pupil in a GDR educational film for future teachers, “Elternhaus, Betrieb und Schule” (Home, Work and Education, no date).
The film shows us the strictly organised and controlled life Gisela, a pupil. We first see her and her classmates filing metal parts and working on sheet metal. The subject “Productive Work” is part of the modular project lessons. What PW meant for the pupils was doing work assignments in industrial companies under production-related conditions, sometimes they were also directly employed in the production of goods. In the afternoon, Gisela is helping her mother with the laundry when a visitor, a teacher or social worker, goes to convince her parents to allow their daughter to continue her education and also to become more involved within the school community. In the long dialogue scenes, Gisela can be seen silently in the background scouring pieces of laundry in the tub.
As a reaction to a society in which everything revolves around work in both the objective and ideal sense, the “Spectators of Suicide” branded themselves as anti-heroes and asked whether they owed anything to the “norm workers”. Well, they did call for a warning to be printed on every payroll card: “Work puts your health at risk and can increase suicidal tendencies.”
The Walking Man. https://work-o-witch.at/?p=1749&preview=true
Sources:
Rainer Gries, Silke Satjukow: Von Menschen und Übermenschen
[On Humans and Superhumans].
https://www.bpb.de/apuz/26965/von-menschen-und-uebermenschen
"The Way to the Top" - official documentary on the 1st anniversary of the GDR 1950 - (Adolf Hennecke from 17:47 min)
“Home, Work and Education” The training film for teachers in training in the GDR (from 1:18 min with sound) shows the modular project lessons including the subject "Productive Work" and the visit of a teacher or social worker to the parents of the protagonist.
Spectators of Suicide "Hanging Around"
Hennecke am Podium
© Roger Rössing / Deutsche Fotothek, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE , via Wikimedia Commons
Adolf Hennecke — Hero of the Battle of Production
Zentralfriedhof; in Stein gehauen
Tausende von Namen
die niemand mehr ausspricht.
Sie sollen uns mahnen, steht da.
Was schulden wir ihnen
und wie viel?
Mahngebühr
Friedhofsgebühr.
Plötzlich ein Bekannter.
Seine kohleverstaubte Lunge gebettet
zu ewiger Ruhe in schwarzer Erde
an einer wenig zentralen Wegesecke
unser Held Adolf Hennecke.
When the GDR punk band “Spectators of Suicide” in their song “Working Class Suicide oder Der Gute Adolf” (1986) accused the real socialist labour religion of causing the death of thousands, it is interesting that they also sang about Adolf Hennecke.
The miner Hennecke was for the GDR (German Democratic Republic) what Alexei Grigorievich Stanchanov stood for in the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics): the central propaganda figure calling on the working people to increase their productivity. The “Hennecke Movement” was a group of activists who, following his example, sought to outperform and establish a new work ethic.
Adolf Hennecke established his fame when, in October 1948, in a carefully prepared shift and with the help of the other miners, he extracted 387 percent more coal from the seam than the amount required. For this over-achievement he was celebrated, rewarded, awarded the highest medals and finally appointed to the Central Committee of the SED (Socialist Unity Party of Germany).
However, Hennecke initially refused the invitation to become an exponent for the campaign to increase labour output. He suspected that he would be mobbed by his comrades as a “norm-breaker”. His car was set on fire and the windows of his house smashed, but he also received baskets of fan mail. These extreme reactions refer on the one hand to Hennecke’s exposure as a “hero of labour” and on the other hand they represent the societal forces at play in the German Democratic Republic.
Historian Silke Satjukow, who researches socialist heroes, is convinced that all societies need heroes to reassure themselves, because heroes embody the extra-ordinary, they win decisive battles. What is specific to the heroes of labour, they also extend into everyday life. They say: All it takes is “more of the same” and you will also be special. Silke Satjukow: “Heroes and saints are very close. Both have the task of transporting norms and morals.”
Hennecke’s achievement and exemplary work ethic are also celebrated in “Der Weg nach oben” (The way to the top, 1950), the official documentary film for the 1st anniversary of the GDR. Contrariwise, we meet a later musician of the Spectators of Suicide as a pupil in a GDR educational film for future teachers, “Elternhaus, Betrieb und Schule” (Home, Work and Education, no date).
The film shows us the strictly organised and controlled life Gisela, a pupil. We first see her and her classmates filing metal parts and working on sheet metal. The subject “Productive Work” is part of the modular project lessons. What PW meant for the pupils was doing work assignments in industrial companies under production-related conditions, sometimes they were also directly employed in the production of goods. In the afternoon, Gisela is helping her mother with the laundry when a visitor, a teacher or social worker, goes to convince her parents to allow their daughter to continue her education and also to become more involved within the school community. In the long dialogue scenes, Gisela can be seen silently in the background scouring pieces of laundry in the tub.
As a reaction to a society in which everything revolves around work in both the objective and ideal sense, the “Spectators of Suicide” branded themselves as anti-heroes and asked whether they owed anything to the “norm workers”. Well, they did call for a warning to be printed on every payroll card: “Work puts your health at risk and can increase suicidal tendencies.”
The Walking Man. https://work-o-witch.at/?p=1749&preview=true
Sources:
Rainer Gries, Silke Satjukow: Von Menschen und Übermenschen
[On Humans and Superhumans].
https://www.bpb.de/apuz/26965/von-menschen-und-uebermenschen
"The Way to the Top" - official documentary on the 1st anniversary of the GDR 1950 - (Adolf Hennecke from 17:47 min)
“Home, Work and Education” The training film for teachers in training in the GDR (from 1:18 min with sound) shows the modular project lessons including the subject "Productive Work" and the visit of a teacher or social worker to the parents of the protagonist.
Spectators of Suicide "Hanging Around"
Hennecke am Podium
© Roger Rössing / Deutsche Fotothek, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE , via Wikimedia Commons
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