14 Facts About Carl Legien

Carl Legien was a German unionist, moderate Social Democratic politician and first President of the International Federation of Trade Unions.

Carl Legien's parents died in his childhood and Legien grew up in an orphanage in Thorn, Province of Prussia from 1867 to 1875.

Carl Legien became a wood turner and served in the Prussian Army from 1881 to 1884.

Carl Legien joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1885, a wood turners' union in 1886 and worked as a turner in several cities in Germany until 1891, since 1886 in Hamburg.

In 1887 Carl Legien became the first chairman of the German Association of Turners and of the General Commission of the German Trade Unions in 1891, a position he would hold until its dissolution in 1919.

Carl Legien was elected a member of the German Parliament in 1893 and again in 1903.

Carl Legien became the leader of the SPD's right wing and opposed its more leftist factions.

Carl Legien took part in the International Workers Congresses of Paris, 1889.

Carl Legien became Chairman of the International Secretariat of National Trade Union Centres in 1903 and first President of the International Federation of Trade Unions in 1913 until its dissolution in 1919.

In 1912, Carl Legien gave a keynote address at the convention of the Socialist Party of America in Indianapolis which was credited with persuading the convention to reject the anarcho-syndicalist program of Bill Haywood.

Robert S Wistrich classifies Carl Legien as belonging to a group of whom some had antisemitic tendencies.

Carl Legien threw down calls from socialists in USA to mediate an end of the war with the German government, while defending the resumption of submarine warfare by German Kriegsmarine as response to the rejection of "Germany's sincere offer of immediate peace negotiations".

Carl Legien countered the right-wing Kapp Putsch of March 1920 by organizing a massive general strike in Germany with about 12 million employees following the joint call of the legal government and the unions.

Carl Legien died after a short illness in Berlin and was buried at Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde, where his grave now forms part of the Memorial to the Socialists.