8 UNIONS AND UNIONISM
8.3 UNIONISM IN GERMANY
Unions in Germany were mostly localized and focused on individual trade and craft specialties.
Until the historic Revolt of students on March 13, 1848 in Vienna, Austria which at that time was the predominant State among the numerous German States German Union seemed to be emerging as a continuation of the ‘Guild’ system. For some analysts prelude to the Vienna Student uprising were the street demonstrations of workers and artisans in Paris February 22-24, 1848 which terminated the reign of King Louis Philippe I (1773-1850) and forced him to flee to Britain.
Priscilla Robertson’s Book (1952) titled ‘Revolutions of 1848 – A Social History’ offers a fascinating presentation of the fateful involvement of ordinary citizens in revolutions, noting the significant roles dramatized by working class Frenchmen who forced their King to exile and revolting students who took control of the City of Vienna, Austria. More information on Unions as well as on other socio-economic and political aspects of Germany’s history can be found in Marshall Dill, Jr’s book (1961) bearing the title ‘Germany – A Modern History’.
Demonstrating students in the March 1848 Vienna uprising, who demanded a Constitution and a Constitutional assembly, were forcefully repelled by the Army of Emperor Ferdinand
PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE
WORKPLACES: UTOPIA REVISITED unions And unionism
I (1793-1875). In the ensuing clashes several demonstrating students were killed. At that point large numbers of the members of the newly formed group titled ‘working class of Vienna’ joined the demonstrating students in what was quickly developing into an armed insurrection.
Emperor Ferdinand I was forced to ‘give-in’ to the demonstrators demands and, despite his initial refusal, he ended up dismissing the German Austrian Chancellor Klemens von Metternich (1773-1859) who had dominated Austrian politics from 1815 until 1848. The dismissed Chancellor decided to go into exile in Britain. A few months later, as the uprisings continued and after the bloody clashes, Emperor Ferdinand I was forced to abdicate his throne in December 1848 and pass the reigns on to his nephew Franz Joseph I (1830-1916).
During the months following the March uprisings of 1848 in Vienna and continuing into 1849 demonstrations and uprisings demanding new Constitutions, Constitutional Assemblies, democratic reforms, bills of rights, better working conditions, were commonplace in other German States such as Bavaria, Baden, the Palatinate, Rhineland, Saxony and Prussia.
It took several years until the ‘General German Workers’ Association’ (in German ‘Allgemeiner Deutscher Arbeiter-Verein‘, with the acronym ADAV) was finally formed in 1863 emerging as
By 2020, wind could provide one-tenth of our planet’s electricity needs. Already today, SKF’s innovative know- how is crucial to running a large proportion of the world’s wind turbines.
Up to 25 % of the generating costs relate to mainte- nance. These can be reduced dramatically thanks to our systems for on-line condition monitoring and automatic lubrication. We help make it more economical to create cleaner, cheaper energy out of thin air.
By sharing our experience, expertise, and creativity, industries can boost performance beyond expectations.
Therefore we need the best employees who can meet this challenge!
The Power of Knowledge Engineering
Brain power
Plug into The Power of Knowledge Engineering.
Visit us at www.skf.com/knowledge
PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE
WORKPLACES: UTOPIA REVISITED unions And unionism
a political party operating within the context of democratic electoral politics and focusing on the advancement of the interests of the German working classes.
The ‘Social Democratic Workers’ Party’ (the title in German is ‘Sozialdemokratische Arbeiterpartei’, with the acronym SDAP) came into existence in 1869 and, a handful of years later, the two combined forces in 1875 forming the ‘Socialists Workers Party of Germany’ (the German title is ‘Sozialistische Arbeiterpartei Deutschland’s’ and the acronym SAPD). In 1890 the SAPD was renamed as ‘Social Democratic Party of Germany’ (the title in German is ‘Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands’ and the acronym is SPD). The SPD political party has played, and continues to do so today, a significant role in German politics existing under the same full name and using the same acronym.
We will make a parenthesis at this point relating to SPD and its political stance following the German National elections of September 2017 which resulted in a ‘Hung Parliament’
and the inability of Chancellor Angela Merkel to form a national Government. SPD which had participated in Chancellor Merkel’s previous Government at the September 2017 elections suffered serious losses and decided to distance itself from Merkel’s CDU party.
While this book was written, in the Spring of 2018, acting under pressures from various circles aiming to halt socio-economic deterioration due to political instability SPD conceded to form, for the second time in a row, a new ‘Great Coalition’ Government (in German,
‘Grosse Koalition’) with the Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party CDU.
Returning to the events developing in the 19th century, as industrialization was progressing in Germany and the working classes were growing in numbers, so were their disputes and grievances for unfair treatment by factory owners fuelling the rapid growth of socialism.
Between 1878 and 1890 Germany enacted a series of the so-called ‘anti-socialist laws’ which were supported by Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898) serving during that time as the First Chancellor of the German Empire (1871-1890). Bismarck had an expressed ‘aversion’ for Socialism which his compatriots Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels were promulgating in a variety of activities and publications including their historic ‘Communist Manifesto’ of 1848.
From a broad spectrum of interesting books focusing on Otto von Bismarck’s life and work as a towering German politician I suggest to my readers to consult Werner Richter’s book (1965) titled ‘Bismarck’ and Edgar Feuchtwanger’s book (2002) also titled ‘Bismarck’.
Considering socialism and the socialists as inimical to and threatening the survival of the newly formed, unified German Empire, Bismarck tried to subdue the Social Democratic Party. Aiming to succeed in his efforts Bismarck introduced a series of legislative Acts assisting the working classes. These legislative Acts aimed to successfully appease the workers fears as
PSYCHOLOGICALLY SAFE
WORKPLACES: UTOPIA REVISITED unions And unionism
they related to job security, to working men’s concerns with health and disability assistance and to expectations for State supported old age pensions.
The German State Laws concerning the Nation’s working classes’ ‘Social Welfare’ introduced by Bismarck are considered as pioneer Legislative actions and indeed they came to characterize the German social welfare system well into the 20th century. During their enactment, catching fully the core ‘raison d’être’ of their genesis they were termed both by supporters and opponents as a form of ‘State Socialism’ (in German ‘Staatssozialismus‘).
In contrast to the so-called ‘State Socialism’ Laws, many other Laws forbidding the establishment, as well as activities and operation of all socialist workers trade Unions were kept in effect until 1890 when Bismarck resigned from his position as the First Chancellor of Unified Germany. Later those Laws progressively weakened within the span of several yearsr.
The ‘Free Association of German Trade Unions’ also referred to as ‘Free Association of German Unions’ or ‘Free Alliance of German Trade Unions’ was established in 1897 in the city of Halle and it aimed to play the role of a much needed but non-existent yet umbrella organization bringing together the vast numbers of the local type of German Unions.
Currently in Germany ‘The German Federation of Trade Unions’ (in German ‘Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund’ with the acronym DGB) is the largest umbrella organization made up of eight different Unions which cover many of the country’s industrial and public sectors.
Closing this brief glimpse at German Unionism I would suggest to interested readers Angela Vogel’s (1977) book ‘Der deutsche Anarcho-Syndikalismus: Genese und Theorie einer vergessenen Bewegung’ (in German) as a rich source for more relevant information.