Central Association of German Industrialists

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The Central Association of German Industrialists was an economic interest group founded in 1876 . He mainly represented the heavy and mining industry , while the light industry companies mainly united in the Federation of Industrialists (BdI) .

Organization, politics and goals

In the early years of the association, he pursued a policy of balancing the interests of industry and agriculture. It formed a basis for the collection policy of large-scale industry and large estates during the German Empire . Common interests consisted primarily in the demand for a protective tariff policy . A formal alliance was concluded in 1879 at the 10th Congress of the Federation of Farmers. In addition to lobbying politics, the association also ran broad-based election agitation in the Reichstag elections. He also used nationalist slogans.

Contrary to the liberal economic policy that had hitherto been oriented towards market laws, the Central Association demanded intervention by the state . In 1878, the association successfully influenced the consultation of a parliamentary inquiry commission, which advocated an interventionist policy. The suggestions of the CDI were partly found almost unchanged in the Prussian legal gazette. August Bebel described the lobbyists' hustle and bustle in a party but vivid way : “ Back then, the foyer of the Reichstag was like a chess stall. Representatives of the most varied branches of industry and agrarians populated the foyer and the parliamentary group rooms by the hundreds . ”On the other side of the political spectrum, Heinrich von Treitschke said little else about“ the new practice of economic interest politics , which has developed into sad virtuosity in the course of this session " And the" class selfishness the door wide open ".

However, the Association of Industry still lacked the mass base, such as the Federation of Farmers had. While this could regularly rely on a large number of representatives in the state parliaments and in the Reichstag, the CDI only got 40 out of a total of 120 supported candidates in the Reichstag elections of 1912 . For this election, the association set up a special election fund to put the propaganda on a broad financial basis. Above all, this was a backlash to the successes of the Center Party and the SPD in the Ruhr area , where almost all of the constituencies previously held by industry- related MPs had been lost. The companies involved undertook to transfer 50 pfennigs to the fund for every 10,000 marks wages since 1909. However, the attempt to win industrialists as candidates failed because they declared that they were not available in their companies. Support was therefore mainly concentrated on candidates from the National Liberals and Conservatives .

The policy of interests of the central association went far beyond the narrower questions of economic policy and ultimately touched on almost all politically relevant topics from social policy to colonial policy . The CDI as representatives of industry and the Federation of Farmers as the organization of agriculture were unanimous in their opposition to social democracy , and their course in customs and colonial policy as well as in fleet construction was also in common .

In doing so, however, he only represented part of the industry - especially from mining and heavy industry. Companies in the up-and-coming manufactured goods industry, the chemical industry or the electrical industry sometimes represented significantly different positions. So they advocated a more free-trade course in customs policy . This was the reason that these industries tended to organize themselves in the BdI.

After the First World War , the CDI merged with the BdI in the Reich Association of German Industry (1919).

Chairperson

Remarks

  1. ↑ See the CDI's submission of July 12, 1877 to Wilhelm I on the cause of the crisis in the German economy, pp. 203-206. Public sealing of the alliance between industry and agriculture p. 210f., Both partly printed in: Gerhard A. Ritter (Ed.): Historisches Lesebuch 2: 1871–1914. Frankfurt, 1967.
  2. ↑ Both cit. according to Wehler: History of Society , Vol. 3, pp. 645f.
  3. ↑ See the confidential report on the election fund; partly printed in: Gerhard A. Ritter (Ed.): Historisches Lesebuch 2: 1871–1914. Frankfurt 1967, pp. 167-173.

literature

  • Alexander Brehm: Are associations still up to date? A comparison between the Central Association of German Industrialists and the Federal Association of German Industry eV polisphere library, Berlin et al. 2008, ISBN 978-3-938456-19-4 .
  • Henry Axel Bueck : The Central Association of German Industrialists. 1876-1901 . 3 volumes. Guttentag et al., Berlin, 1905.
  • Wolfram Fischer : State administration and interest groups in the German Reich. In: Wolfram Fischer: Economy and Society in the Age of Industrialization. Essays - Studies - Lectures (= Critical Studies in History . Volume 1). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1972, ISBN 3-525-35951-9 , pp. 194-213.
  • Hartmut Kaelble : Industrial interest politics in the Wilhelminian society. Central Association of German Industrialists 1895 to 1914 . de Gruyter, Berlin et al. 1967, ISBN 3-11-000468-2 , ( Publications of the Historical Commission in Berlin at the Friedrich Meinecke Institute of the Free University of Berlin 27), (At the same time: Dissertation), digitized .