The Haymarket defendant who edited the anarchist newspaper Arbeiter-Zeitung was August Spies.
Spies joined the Chicago paper’s staff in 1880 and became its editor in 1884. The German-language Arbeiter-Zeitung had been founded in 1877 and became an influential voice for Chicago’s radical labor movement, especially during the campaign for an eight-hour workday.
A common mix-up is Michael Schwab, who also worked with the newspaper and was tried in the Haymarket case. The paper had initially been edited by Paul Grottkau and Spies, but Grottkau left Chicago in 1886, leaving Spies as the publication’s officially recognized editor.
Spies was one of the speakers at the May 4, 1886, Haymarket meeting. After the bomb attack and ensuing police gunfire, he and seven other defendants were convicted of conspiracy. Spies was hanged in Chicago on November 11, 1887. The case later became a central symbol of the international labor movement and helped inspire May Day observances.