Describe the cause of the Silesian weavers' uprising. Comment on the viewpoint of the journalist.

Silesian weavers' uprising was due to sudden reduction in their wages by the contractors. The contractors supplied them raw material and gave them orders for finished textiles but they drastically reduced their payments. This caused widespread unrest and finally led to uprising.

The journalist, Wilhelm Wolff put forth the plight of weavers of Silesia. He wrote 'The misery of the workers is extreme. The desperate need for jobs has been taken advantage of by the contractors to reduce the prices of the goods they order …'. This shows that he was sympathetic toward the weavers. The journalist explained how they were treated with scorn and threats when they asked for their normal payments. Their uprising was crushed and eleven weavers were shot by the requisitioned army.