Louis Lingg
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| Louis Lingg | |
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| Born | September 9, 1864 Mannheim, Germany |
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| Died | November 10, 1887 Chicago |
| Cause of death | Suicide by dynamite in mouth |
| Occupation | Anarchist |
| Known for | Haymarket Square |
| Parents | Friedrich Lingg |
Louis Lingg (September 9, 1864 – November 10, 1887) was a German anarchist who committed suicide while in jail, after being arrested as an agitator during the Haymarket Square bombing. [1]
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[edit] Birth
He was born in Mannheim, Germany to Friedrich Lingg. Lingg's parents made just enough money to meet the needs of both Louis and his younger sister until their father had a tragic accident in the lumber mill where he worked. He had been willing to perform many tasks at the mill that the other workers did not have the nerve to attempt. Friedrich was doing such a task one day as he moved logs down an icy river. The logs started to create a jam and in his effort to get the lumber moving again, he fell through a section of the ice and remained trapped for quite some time. Although his father was saved, Louis believed that the accident caused his father's eventual death because the incident destroyed his father's courageous nature. He was no longer able to undertake the same risky tasks at the lumber mill and he became just like all the other workers: expendable. After 20 years of service his boss fired Friedrich when other workers became more valuable. He died three years later. Louis wrote in his autobiography: "At this time I was thirteen and my sister seven years old, and at this age I received my first impressions of the prevailing unjust social institutions, i.e., the exploitation of men by men."
[edit] Carpenter
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Lingg became an apprentice carpenter from 1869 to 1882. He then took a job in Strasbourg, in Alsace, then moved on to Fribourg, Germany where he joined the Working Men's Educational Society, a socialist organization.
[edit] Switzerland
To avoid military service, he moved to Switzerland, but in the spring of 1885, the police in Zurich ordered him to leave the country. He then received a letter from his mother telling him that her new husband was willing to provide him with enough money to move to the United States.
[edit] United States
In July of 1885, Lingg arrived in New York City then departed for Chicago where he joined the International Carpenters and Joiners' Union.
[edit] Haymarket Square
On May 4, 1886, Lingg was not present at Haymarket Square for what would be known as the Haymarket Riot. A bomb was thrown into the crowd of policemen by an unidentified person. Seven men were arrested the next day with no evidence in connection with the bombing. Lingg himself was discovered in his hiding place on May 14 and fought with the police officer before being finally subdued by his landlord.[2]
[edit] Trial and suicide
There was no evidence that any of the men arrested had participated in the bombing, but they were all charged on June 21 with criminal conspiracy, on the theory that their anarchistic writings incited the bomber. Lingg and six others were convicted and sentenced to death. Oscar Neebe was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Lingg commented when he heard of the court's decision, "I die happy on the gallows, so confident am I that the hundreds and thousands to whom I have spoken will remember my words. When you shall have hanged us, then they WILL do the bombthrowing! In this hope do I say to you: I despise you, I despise your order, your laws, your force propped authority. Hang me for it."
On November 6, 1887, four bombs were discovered in Lingg's cell, causing fear of an escape or attack on Chicago by the defendants and causing serious harm to the defendants' public opinion and support.
Lingg, the youngest of those sentenced to death, took his own life four days later, on November 10, the day before he was scheduled to hang. He used a small bomb (a blasting cap smuggled to him by a fellow prisoner). He put it in his mouth and lit it at 9AM; it blew off his lower jaw and eventually killed him at around 3PM. It was believed by many that he didn't want his fate to be in the hands of the oppressors and would rather be a martyr for the cause, by his own volition.
Lingg was buried, in a plot marked since 1893 by the Haymarket Martyrs Monument, in the Waldheim Cemetery (now Forest Home Cemetery)[3] in Forest Park, Chicago.
[edit] See also
- Dyer Lum, individualist anarchist and sympathizer who assisted Lingg's suicide.
[edit] References
- ^ "Bombs In Lingg's Cell; A Startling Discovery By The Chicago Sheriff. Four Dynamite Bomb Found Concealed With One Of The Condemned Anarchists.", New York Times, November 7, 1887. Retrieved on 2007-10-31. "Chicago, November 6, 1887. Four bombs were taken this morning from the cell of Louis Lingg, the condemned Anarchist, in Cook County Jail. They were found under his cot, hidden beneath a mass of papers and odd and ends of various kinds, and were enclosed in a harmless-looking ..."
- ^ Meet the Haymarket Defendants. Retrieved on December 11, 2007.
- ^ Haymarket Martyrs Monument. Findagrave.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-05.
[edit] Further reading
- New York Times; November 10, 1887. Louis Lingg was the most daring and desperate of the Anarchists. From the time of his arrival in Chicago, about seven months before the riot, he devoted his leisure to spreading the doctrines of which Fielden, Spies, and Parsons were the recognized champions.
- The Proud Tower: A Portrait of the World, 1890-1914, Barbara Tuchman, Ballantine Books, New York, 1996 ISBN 0345405013
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