Weavers in Silesia revolt against falling prices for their products
Whilst the industrialization of the textile industries in the 1830s and 40s destroyed the livelihoods of many artisans organized in cottage industries, the specialized nature of the craft of the cotton weavers in the Silesian Owl Mountains south-west of Breslau (now Wroclaw) meant that they kept their jobs. Nevertheless, a glut in the market due to overproduction depressed prices. Seeking to remedy the situation, in June 1844 a small group of weavers gathered threateningly outside the home of a middleman for the textiles industry, who was known for driving an especially hard bargain. Apart from provoking the arrest of one of their number, the group achieved nothing.
4 June saw a large crowd assemble outside the home of the unpopular buyer. Finding no-one at home, they vandalized the property. The next day, the same group marched on the home of an industrialist in the neighbouring village and rioted. Prussian troops dispatched to restore order fired into the crowd, killing eleven and injuring 24 seriously. The trouble was over by 6 June. Historians are unsure how best to characterize the unrest. Neither a classic hunger riot, nor a part of a wider class struggle, it was probably just another expression of the general discontent widespread in the years leading up to 1848. The desperation of the weavers attracted a great deal of attention in the German media and often served as the inspiration for works of art and literature. Perhaps the most well-known of these was Gerhart Hauptmann’s drama The Weavers.
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