Union of metal workers in Berlin

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The Union of Metal Workers in Berlin ( EVMB ) was a communist industrial union founded in November 1930 , which was active at the regional level in the final phase of the Weimar Republic . The EVMB was the first individual union of the Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition (RGO). At the same time, the "red association" EVMB is considered to be one of the most important trade union resistance groups in the early phase of the Nazi regime . The communist association was hostile to social democracy and national socialism , but also distinguished itself from the party political resistance of the KPD against the Nazi regime.

Emergence

The unified association of metal workers in Berlin was founded on the evening of November 4, 1930 at a conference of around 1400 metal workers close to the KPD as the first “red association” of the revolutionary trade union opposition (RGO) in Berlin-Wedding .

One reason for the establishment of the association can be found on the one hand in the changed KPD trade union policy. As early as 1927/28, as part of the RGO strategy that was beginning, the KPD distanced itself from the social-democratically dominated trade unions of the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB). In addition, the foundation of the EVMB goes back to the Berlin metalworkers strike in October 1930, during which, in connection with the effects of the global economic crisis and the incipient emergency regulation policy under Heinrich Brüning, there was great dissatisfaction with the strike leadership of the Berlin local administration of the German Metalworkers Association (DMV) . Despite the strike, in which up to 130,000 metal workers are said to have participated, it was not possible to avert significant wage cuts. The founding of the EVMB resulted not only from tactical decisions by the KPD and the Comintern in Moscow , but was also based on traditional local workers radicalism in Berlin. This was particularly noticeable in the free trade union DMV branches of lathe operators and formers in Berlin, in which metal workers forced the split of the DMV and prepared the foundation of the EVMB. As an RGO association, the EVMB had the role of organizing strikes to ward off wage cuts or for better working conditions under the conditions of the crisis, but above all for revolutionary political demands - against the will of the SPD -related leaderships of the ADGB unions.

Development and alignment

As a radical left association, the EVMB was in competition with the free trade union DMV. The communist EVMB tried to win over the members of the social democratically dominated Berlin DMV for political strikes. Ultimately, the association was concerned with the revolutionary overcoming of the Weimar Republic . The EVMB asked the supporters of the DMV to transfer to the "red association". This resulted in bitter hostility between the two organizations. The conflicts that emerged were also the result of years of specific conflicts between social democrats and communists within the Berlin DMV. However, between the end of 1930 and the beginning of 1933 the EVMB only succeeded to a limited extent in poaching DMV members. Nevertheless, the Berlin DMV was considerably weakened in some industries, especially those of lathe operators, formers and pipelayers.

The strikes initiated by the EVMB to ward off wage cuts or deterioration in working conditions were seldom successful, although the association was one of the more successful communist unions because of a certain anchoring in smaller companies compared to other organizational areas of the RGO. Although the EVMB board spoke of significantly more members for propaganda reasons (up to 20,000), most of the maximum 13,000 EVMB members worked in smaller companies or in individual departments of large companies such as the Siemens or AEG plants . Where the association was astonishingly strong, primarily qualified skilled workers or semi-skilled women are said to have been employed. The proportion of women in this metalworking union was exceptionally high (at times over 40 percent), which is a special feature of the EVMB compared to other historical metalworking unions.

In the works council elections in 1931, the RGO Association achieved respectable successes in some companies in the Berlin metal industry, which clearly employed a large number of qualified skilled workers (especially lathe operators and formers, or particularly many women). The association had a considerable following among the Berlin lathe operators and formers. Dreher and Former also set the tone in the EVMB and attacked the social democratically dominated DMV. In some smaller companies, the EVMB pushed the DMV into an outsider position, which is why the relationship between the hostile organizations in 1931/32 intensified. Quite a few members of the EVMB lost their jobs because of their radical positioning in everyday operations and because of their involvement in strikes. Also because of the difficult labor market situation during the global economic crisis , the unemployment rate among the members of the EVMB rose from approx. 30 (1930) to over 60 percent (1932).

The EVMB also saw the unemployed as a target group of its revolutionary trade union policy and tried to involve them with the help of special sections in the activities of the organization and the labor disputes it waged. In line with the high goals it had set itself, the EVMB was only partially successful. Due to the rising unemployment rate in the membership, the already comparatively low income of the EVMB fell. The association had little financial means to pay support money in the event of strikes. This encouraged a high turnover among the members.

The EVMB in the resistance against National Socialism

The local anchoring within the radical milieu of the Berlin workers helped the EVMB to transfer part of the organization into illegality after the beginning of National Socialist rule . After the fire in the Reichstag (late February 1933), the association went underground and built a resistance group of several hundred members. This operated at times a trade union policy independent of the KPD leadership. The group distinguished itself from former DMV members and supporters of other free trade unions. The Gestapo even said that at the end of 1933 around 1000 members were active in illegal structures of the EVMB. The security authorities recognized in the activities of the groups of the association a considerable danger for the development of the Nazi state. According to information in more recent research work, for which a wide variety of sources were evaluated, the illegal association must be regarded as one of the most important trade union resistance groups in the early phase of the Nazi regime. The illegal EVMB also represents a peculiarity of communist trade union policy during the Nazi regime, since the association specifically fought against attempts by the KPD to dominate it politically.

In the Illegality, the EVMB concentrated on propaganda work for the "revolutionary overthrow" of the Nazi regime and the distribution of magazines made with wax matrices , on collecting membership fees as well as collecting information about the conditions in the factories and stamp offices. The EVMB, which was active in all Berlin districts and the surrounding area at the end of 1933, made attempts - as it did before 1933 - to initiate strikes. These were intended to destabilize the Nazi state or to ward off wage cuts. In some cases it was possible to prevent a deterioration in working conditions at the company level. However, participating in such actions involved a great deal of risk. Numerous members and sympathizers of the EVMB were arrested by the Gestapo in 1933/34 and sentenced to years of imprisonment.

Conflicts with the KPD and dissolution

From mid-1934 the illegal EVMB came into increasingly clear conflict with the leadership of the KPD because of its “sectarian trade union policy” and the consistent demarcation from social democrats . The party now pursued a different union policy than the EVMB. The KPD now gradually abandoned the RGO policy and wanted to gradually dissolve the illegal EVMB groups. The EVMB, however, stuck to the old line, which was directed against National Socialists and Social Democrats alike. In addition, the illegal EVMB clearly opposed party-political influencing of its politics. Even before 1933 there had been considerable differences of opinion on trade union and political issues with the party that was originally related. At the end of 1934 the EVMB even refused to cooperate with parts of the KPD. Their leadership described the members of the association as "party pests" that should be eliminated.

From 1935 on, the EVMB was hardly able to continue to pursue its independent course, which was now increasingly directed against the KPD leadership, which was acting out of illegality. The shrinking groups of the association disbanded in 1935/36 or were crushed by the Nazi persecutors.

The illegal EVMB formed an important starting point for the resistance of other communist groups in Berlin metal works, which emerged at a later point in time. Despite its importance for the resistance against the Nazi regime, the EVMB played almost no role because of its “left sectarian” positions even in the GDR's resistance historiography, which was primarily fixated on the KPD . The EVMB also remained unknown in Germany for a long time.

Functionaries

The chairmen of the EVMB

Leading instructors of the illegal EVMB

  • Wilhelm Bielefeld (member of the board before the beginning of the Nazi regime and chief instructor of the EVMB in illegality in 1933)
  • August Bolte (board member before the beginning of the Nazi regime and leading instructor of the EVMB in the Illegality 1933)
  • Walter Kautz (district manager before the beginning of the Nazi regime and senior instructor of the EVMB in illegality in 1933)
  • Oskar Walz (district manager before the beginning of the Nazi regime and senior instructor of the EVMB in the Illegality 1933)

Other EVMB officials (selection)

literature

  • Stefan Heinz : Moscow's mercenaries? "The Union of Metal Workers in Berlin": Development and failure of a communist union. VSA-Verlag, Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89965-406-6 .
  • Stefan Heinz , Siegfried Mielke (ed.): Functionaries of the unified association of metal workers in Berlin in the Nazi state. Resistance and persecution (= trade unionists under National Socialism. Persecution - resistance - emigration. Volume 2). Metropol, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-86331-062-2 .
  • Stefan Heinz: Resistance from the unions. The communist union of metal workers in Berlin (1930–1935) . In: Hans Coppi , Stefan Heinz (ed.): The forgotten resistance of the workers. Trade unionists, communists, social democrats, Trotskyists, anarchists and forced laborers (= History of Communism and Left Socialism, Volume XVI). dietz-Verlag, Berlin 2012, ISBN 978-3-320-02264-8 , pp. 27-46.
  • Stefan Heinz, "Red Association" and resistance group. Der Einheitsverband der Metallarbeiters Berlins (1930–1935) , In: information - Scientific journal of the study group German Resistance 1933–1945, 42nd year (2017), No. 85, pp. 10–15.
  • Stefan Heinz: The 'Red Unions' and their Resistance to National Socialism: The Unity Union of the Berlin Metal Workers 1930–1935 , In: Ralf Hoffrogge / Norman LaPorte (eds.): Weimar Communism as Mass Movement 1918–1933. Lawrence & Wishart, London 2017, pp. 187-204.
  • Hans-Rainer Sandvoss : The “other” capital of the Reich: Resistance from the workers' movement in Berlin from 1933 to 1945 . Lukas-Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-936872-94-1 , p. 367 ff.

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