Helmut Rüdiger Papers

Period 1924-1966 (-1981)
Total size   1.5 m.
Consultation Not restricted

Biography

Born in Frankenberg, Germany 1903; died in Madrid 1966 while visiting Spain; married Dora Gollin; writer, translator, journalist and syndicalist; in 1930 editor of Der Syndikalist, journal of the Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands (FAUD); went to Spain in 1933, active in the anarcho-syndicalist movement; 1936-1938 one of the secretaries of the International Working Men's Association (IWMA) in Paris; took refuge in Paris in 1938; went to Sweden in 1939, after the defeat of the Spanish Republic; in Sweden one of the leading figures of the syndicalist movement; he wrote under the pseudonym Ivar Bergeren in the Arbetaren, journal of the Sveriges Arbetares Centralorganisation (SAC); from 1949 he contributed to the German anarchist periodical Die Freie Gesellschaft; published `El Anarcosindicalismo en la Revolucióṇ Española' 1938.

Content

Extensive correspondence with his wife Dora Gollin 1926-1962 and with other relatives 1933-1967; correspondence with Diego Abad de Santillán 1942-1948 (1966), John Andersson 1938-1950, Heinrich Bergmann 1939-1947, Rudolf Berner 1938-1946, Karl Dingler 1947-1950, Ginez García (pseudonym Egon Illfeld) 1938-1949, Emma Goldman 1938-1939, Walter Hanke 1947-1966, Georg Hepp 1947-1949, Albert Jensen 1943-1947, Albert de Jong 1946-1966, Helmut Klose 1939-1947, Carl Langer 1947, Gretel Leinau 1947-1961, Pablo Merino 1950-1952, Alfred Michaelis 1946-1955, Max Nettlau n.d., Carl Heinrich Petersen 1949-1966, Rudolf Rocker 1932-1945, Augustin Souchy 1947-1951 (1981) and with many other correspondents, in particular in Spain, Germany and Latin America; some personal documents; documents relating to the Confederación Nacional del Trabajo (CNT); typed manuscripts by himself and by others; a bibliographic list of anarcho-syndicalist literature; leaflets and press clippings.

Arrangement

The majority of the letters, written by political comrades of Rüdiger, are clearly subscribed; these letters are written by 'famous' and less known persons; in the list the names of the authors have been arranged alphabetically'; a few letters however are not arranged because they are unsigned or simply signed by a letter; the political letters written by Rüdiger have got the same arrangement; here is also made a difference between identified ('famous' and less known) and unidentified comrades.

Processing information

List made by Amanda Elsinghorst