The “Herne Polish Revolt” in 1899
The so-called “Herne Polish Revolt”, also known as the “Herne Riots”, in the summer of 1899 was a strike that got out of control and which mainly involved Polish miners - economic migrants from Prussia’s eastern provinces. The direct catalyst for the strike and the acts of violence that followed was the increase in contributions to the miners’ welfare fund, which were to be deducted directly from their wages. On Sunday, 25 June 1899, the board of the Social Democratic Mining and Steel Workers’ Association, prompted by the atmosphere that was brewing in Herne and elsewhere, organised a meeting and warned the workers against acting rashly. One Polish speaker, who could have had a calming effect on the workforce in Herne, did not get a chance to speak because the meeting was terminated. The next day, several hundred miners and steelworkers went on strike and a dark and violent atmosphere developed because the strike action was not channelled properly. The strike, which started at the “Shamrock” and “Friedrich der Große” mines and in which even the miners’ wives took part, spread to six mines in Herne and involved between 1,800 and 2,500 strikers. On 27 June, during skirmishes between the strikers and the police force, two miners were shot and killed and 14 more were injured – these events have been imprinted on the collective memory of Herne locals as the “Slaughter in Bahnhofstraße”.
A state of siege was declared in Herne and the surrounding area and the authorities called in the military, which then marched into Herne with two infantry battalions and a cavalry squadron to support the police in suppressing the strike. On 29 June, which was Peter and Paul Day, the priest of the Herne congregations attempted to influence the strikers from the pulpit and move them towards restraint and abeyance, and the editorial team at the influential Polish Catholic newspaper “Wiarus Polski” published an appeal to the Polish workforce and distributed posters calling for them to keep calm and not let themselves be stirred up. The Alte Verband and the Trade Association of Christian Workers reacted in a similar way and asked their members to stay away from the strike and attempted to calm down the young and foreign-speaking workers who were on strike. The only organs to be calling for strike and revolution, presumably on the instruction of the Polish Socialist Party (PPS) in Berlin, were the Association of Polish Workers in Herne, “Przedświt” (Sunrise), an offshoot of the Polish Socialist Party (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna, PPS). At least it is documented that calls to strike were made in the spirit of socialism; however, it is not completely certain who made these calls for which, ultimately, members of the PPS offshoot in Herne were persecuted by the police and punished by the courts in the aftermath of the strike.
As a result of the strike, which continued until the beginning of July 1899, at least six striking miners were killed and several hundred people were injured, some of them severely. More than 500 miners were dismissed from the mines when the strike ended. Of the 192 strikers who were disciplined by the authorities, 157 were Polish workers and five were Masurians, most of them under 25 years old. On top of this, there were more than a dozen arrests which resulted in court proceedings. Some of those arrested were sentenced to several months’ imprisonment for reasons including acts of violence, threats and attempts to agitate those willing to work to join the strike. Some of those receiving long prison sentences, for example, are documented as being members of the association “Przedświt”, which was not even a year old and which the authorities and the press accused of being “inflammatory agitators” responsible for the outbreak of the strike and for keeping it going for several days. The association, which only had 20 members, was dissolved as a result.
