Temperance movement

The temperance movement (also temperance or Temperanzbewegung ) is a social movement, which until the beginning of the 20th century had its peak at the end of the 19th. Political and practical, the temperance movement by using so-called abstinence clubs ( Temperanzgesellschaften ), who advocate a drug- abstinent life.

Origins

In Ireland, the first temperance movement was formed in 1829. Since the 1830s, the idea of Scandinavia, Scotland and England spread starting in the rest of Europe. 1831 British and Foreign Temperance Society was founded, which was formed for years the center of all Mäßigkeitsbestrebungen in England. The Swiss Louis -Lucien Rochat, a free-church pastor from the Vaud, was convinced by the British temperance movement and founded in 1877 by her example, Blue Cross. 1896 in Aachen Kreuzbund founded by Father Neumann, who was then still saw itself as a club for moderation of alcohol consumption.

Ideological background

Temperance saw in the total absence of alcohol on the one hand an approach to healing of alcoholics, on the other hand a social reform measure as they considered alcohol consumption as an expression of a lack of virtue, which they considered again for the cause of the misery of the lower classes. This was close to the temperance movement of morality movement, which strove for a moral reform of society. The abstinence societies were characterized therefore also characterized by a high sense of mission towards the workers and peasants.

Mid-1880s brought the Basel Professor Gustav von Bunge socially hygienic arguments in the temperance movement one: The consumption of alcohol the human genome will be damaged and cause hazards to public health. Bunge has demanded a ban on alcohol and abstinence for the entire population. In 1900 the temperance movement by representatives of eugenics and later the National Socialist racial hygiene was recorded. The most important representative of this trend in Central Europe was Auguste Forel. The psychiatrist was co-founder of the Swiss Good Templars Order and founded in Ellikon an der Thur a clinic for alcoholics; he is responsible for many advances in the treatment of alcoholics.

Also in the Socialist movement was the abstinence requirement support. As of the end of socialist laws in 1890 for the German Social Democracy legal political activity was again possible, the inclusion of abstinence requirement was demanded in the new party statutes. This was based on the straight in the workers' milieu widely spread alcoholism. The claim was opposed by Karl Kautsky as a Marxist thinker of the party in several newspaper articles violently - Kautsky turned against unbridled alcohol consumption, but recognized the pub culture of social democracy as an important factor in social integration, without which could not survive the move. His views prevailed, and the abstinent socialists and socialists had to be in a " workers' abstainers Association " organized separately.

Extent and influence in society

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the temperance movement was one of the most important social movements in Europe and the USA. In Switzerland were about 1900 to 60,000 people in abstinence clubs operate.

When changing the consumption habits of the population and the overall social situation after the First World War, lost the temperance movement in importance and influence. 1908 voted 63% of Swiss voters to ban absinthe; 20 years later, a petition for a referendum on the introduction of the possibility of Swiss municipalities to introduce the prohibition in their community, rejected by 67 % No votes.

The social influence of the temperance movement reached the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century its peak. The changes in the drinking habits of the population (away from liquor to beer and soft drinks ) are partly explained by the fact that abstinence clubs and health professionals on alcohol consumption and alcohol abuse publicly discussed and so the associated problems brought into the public consciousness.

Concrete achievements include the mitigation of the " drinking coercion " in friendly company ( change in consciousness ) or the development of efficient methods of treatment for alcoholics and their families. The basis for the change in drinking habits but to look in the invention of the refrigerator and the bottom-fermented beer that made the beer consumption also popular outside the pub, as well as legal measures such as the taxation of brandy (1885 in Prussia adopted ) and reforms to limit working hours. The economic interests of employers played an important role: To increase the efficiency of their workers and to reduce the accident rate, the consumption of alcohol was banned and supplemented by the serving of non-alcoholic beverages in factory canteens in many companies.

Membership structure

Like other non-profit organizations and the morality associations abstinence clubs were carried in large part by their female members, who - in the absence of political and economic rights - here's a way found to be active outside the home and to take social influence. Within the working class women also had an existential interest to tackle the reduction of income and the ability to work their husbands due to alcohol consumption.

Organizations

Abstinence clubs can be divided in different directions. Eg

• The Christian direction (Protestant: Blue cross, catholic: Kreuzbund )
• The humanist / pacifist direction ( Guttempler )
• The policy direction ( Socialist abstainers Association, German Workers' abstainers waistband, Prohibition Party )
• Professional associations (Confederation abstemious doctors covenant celibate priest collar for drug-free education)