The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1934-06-15
Will Bredel

With a group of his new
friends, the young Association of
Revolutionary Writers
of Germany (Bund proletarisch-
revolutionaerer Schrift S t e1Ier
Deutschlands, which has prepared
this study Rem began to pub
lish the magazine Linkskurve
Curve to the Left, which aimed
to call into life a revolutionary
workers literature and to direct
1t critically. Not a sentimental
poor people" literature; not mere
social problem literature which
only describes existing conditions
but revolutionary fight on the
side Of the Communist Party:
such was the aim and the con-
tent of the literature Of these
young men who, for the most
part, we're themselves workers.
Their literary activity had often
begun with the writing of factory
reports for the revolutionary press
which had organized them and
spurred them on to further
writing.
Among the promising beginnings
Of this species of literature, one
book had justly excited particu-
lar interest: the novel IN. 81 K.
Machine Works" by Will Bredel.
Here, for the first time in the
history of German literature,
factory was used not merely as a
technical phenomena, nor, so to
speak, as a bit of landscape seem
cry exploited and misrepresented
rather the social function Of the
factory was shown and, from
new point of view, the role Of the
lsborers at their daily work, In
political fights, and in society as
a whole.
The situation Of the worker
presented in this book may be
illustrated most aptly by the fact
that the worker author, Will
Bredel, wrote his novel while in
prison On the basis of the
grotesque, judicial fiction Of cit
erary high treason" to which
dozens of editors, journalists, and
even lyric poets we're sacrificed,
Will Bredel was sentenced in 1927
to two years of detention in a
fortress. He had begun to occupy
himself with literary work for the
first time as he was sentenced to
imprisonment on account of. his
political activity.
Though continually threatened
by the anti-worker decisions Of
the German court and by the
noiseless operation of police CEN
sorship, this literature grew UP
and spread. Tt is understandable
that in it new and harder note
Is sounded; understandable, too,
that these militant books lack
some of the qualities which make
the great work of bourgeois lit
erature seem so harmonious and
iridescent.
The life of the proletarian rev.
dictionary author, Will Bredel,
makes clear the origin and atmos-
phere of such literature more than
any long academic study could
do:
Son of a socialist cigar worker
in Hamburg, he was thrust dur
ing the war into munitions fac
tory as apprentice at the latheS.
Grown up in the tradition of the
old Social-Democratic Party, the
young man soon took part in po-
litical life He worked on the
docks, went to jail, worked again
in a machine shop. became
worker correspondent, wrote ar
ticles, was sentenced, went to jail,
worked again-in short he led the
life of those hundreds of thou
sands of nameless fighters who
all over the world risk freedom
and life to work for the realiza-
ton of socialism.
A short time after the burning
of the Reichstsg, Will Bredel was
arrested and thrust into a con-
centration camp. No news of his
fate has reached the outside
world.
Klaus Neukrantz
In fascist Germany the truth
cannot be told. Could It ever be