13 Facts About Jacob Audorf

Jacob Audorf was a German poet, businessman, journalist-commentator and Labour movement pioneer.

Jacob Friedrich Theodor Audorf was born in Hamburg, still at that time a resolutely independent and economically formidable city-state near the German northern coast, and one of the 39 member states of the German Confederation.

The younger Jacob Audorf attended an "Armenschule" and then between 1852 and 1857, undertook an apprenticeship for work as an artisan metal worker and mechanical engineer.

In 1857, with his training completed and three thalers in his pocket, Jacob Audorf set out from Hamburg to discover the rest of Germany.

In November 1862 or early in 1863, as the political temperature in much of Germany continued to decline, Jacob Audorf returned to Hamburg.

Jacob Audorf became a leading figure, initially in Hamburg, in creating and developing the "Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiter-Verein", as it was initially known.

Two months later, on 23 May 1863, Jacob Audorf participated at the founding congress of the ADAV in Leipzig.

Jacob Audorf was elected to membership of the party executive, serving as a member of it between 1863 and 1868.

Jacob Audorf was, in addition, appointed ADAV senior representative, with appropriate contractual authority, for the Free State of Hamburg.

Jacob Audorf participated at the ADAV national congresses in 1864,1866 and 1867, emerging as an uncompromising supporter of the movement's leader Ferdinand Lassalle, always committed to backing a clear policy programme, when confronted by recurring pressures for fragmentation from comrades with divergent visions.

In 1868, letting it be known that he had grown tired of the internal squabbling among comrades within the ADAV, Jacob Audorf relocated to Russia where he supported himself as a businessman.

Jacob Audorf returned to Germany and to German politics at the invitation of party comrades in Hamburg, and only after the six day Gotha "Unification Congress" of May 1875, at which a relaunch and rebranding of what was now the German Socialist Workers' Party held out something that could be interpreted as the prospect of a less fractious and more focused political face for the German labour movement.

Jacob Audorf remained an active member of the editorial team for the rest of his life, regularly contributing humorous and satirical pieces to the weekend issues.