General association of German employee unions
The General Association of German Employees' Unions (Gedag) was from 1919 to 1933 an important umbrella organization for Christian-national employee associations during the Weimar Republic, with its headquarters in Berlin .
history
In November 1919, the Christian-national German trade union federation (DGB) was founded. This consisted of three pillars:
- the Christian workers' unions , which were largely supported by Catholic, center-voting workers.
- the employee pillar, for which Christian-national employee associations merged to form the General Association of German Employees Associations (Gedag), and
- the civil servants' associations.
In the General Association of German Employees' Associations (Gedag), the two associations with the largest number of members, the Protestant national salaried union Deutschnationaler Handelsgehilfen -Verband (DHV) and the Association of female commercial and office employees , set the tone. Around 80% of the members were commercial employees, mainly from the DHV. The individual associations remained organizationally independent and were merged into trade union cartels at various levels (town, district, district, etc.) . In addition, there were separate specialist groups. Each organization sent a representative to the central board of Gedag. Politically, Gedag representatives were organized in all parties to the right of the German Democratic Party and represented in parliaments.
As the organization with the largest number of members, the DHV provided the chairman and the managing director. This occasionally led to friction, so that the Deutsche Bankbeamten-Verein resigned from the Gedag in 1923, as the DHV tried to prevent this subdivision from participating in collective bargaining.
The Gedag was hardly politically active. So he did not call for a general strike in the Kapp Putsch . He understood social policy as his field of activity. Gedag concluded collective agreements , took part in works council elections with its associations and was committed to the material interests of its members. The Gedag belonged to the Central Working Group and rejected the class struggle , as propagated by the socialist free employee unions, which were organized in the AfA-Bund (Working Group of Free Employees' Associations). While most of the associations were on a Christian basis, the DHV openly came up with ethnic and anti-Semitic ideas. The extensive socio-political activities of Gedag meant that this Christian-national organization had been the leading force among the employees in the Weimar Republic since 1926 and increasingly pushed the socialist AfA-Bund on the defensive. Therefore, despite the global economic crisis, the number of members grew , as did the influence in the works councils. For a long time, the Heinrich Brüning government found fundamental support from Gedag. However, numerous members, especially the DHV, migrated to the National Socialists. NSDAP members increasingly gained ground in the DHV and thus also in Gedag. Thus, after the transfer of power to the NSDAP chairman Adolf Hitler at the end of January 1933, the member associations of the Gedag declared themselves ready to cooperate in the “new state”. The Gedag broke away from the Christian trade unions close to the center and left the DGB on April 12, 1933. NSDAP members took over the management of the association, so that the organization joined the German Labor Front in May 1933 without resistance . Some member associations such as the DHV formally continued to exist until 1934.
Chairperson
- 1919–1923: Otto Thiel
- 1923-1933: Hans Bechly
executive Director
- 1919–1931: Georg Brost
- 1931/32: Max Hegewald
- 1932/33: Walther Lambach
Membership numbers
- 1920: 463.199
- 1922: 460.086
- 1925: 403.763
- 1926: 429.700
- 1929: 501.635
- 1930: 591.930
- 1931: 593.425
Affiliated associations
- German National Trade Aid Association (DHV). Chairman: 1911–1933: Hans Bechly. Members: 1921: 264,367, 1926: 291,486, 1930: 404,009, 1932: 403,112.
- Association of female commercial and office workers . Chair: Clara Mleinek (1919–1921), K. Müller (1921–1933): Members: 1920: 101.120, 1923: 88.630, 1927: 72.127, 1929: 84.817, 1931: 92.390, 1932: 83.966.
- Deutscher Bankbeamten-Verein : founded in 1894, chairman: Max Fürstenberg , members: 1920: 55,310, 1923: 86755. 1923 left the Gedag.
- Deutscher Werkmeisterbund : Chairman: Franz Auf der Lake (1919–1932), August Steffen (1932–1933). Members: 1920: 3420, 1922: 12.224, 1927: 14.044, 1930: 17.859.
- New German Technician Association , later renamed the Association of German Technicians . Chairman: Hermann Petersen. Members: 1920: 4500, 1929: 12,595.
- Reich Association of German Office Workers and Officials , later: Reich Association of Office Workers and Officials . Members: 1925: 2000, 1929: 10,497.
- Reich Association of Agricultural and Forestry Specialists and Corporate Officials , later: Reich Association of German Estate and Forest Officials . Members: 1920: 19,000, 1925: 13,500, 1929: 21,867.
- General German bookstore association . Later joined the DHV.
- Association of employed chemists and engineers . 1925: Association of employed academics in technical and scientific professions . Members 1920: 8000, 1925. 10,000, 1927: 7234.
- Association of speakers : 1920: 500 members, later dissolved.
- Association of German Film Actors . Members: 1920: 1000 (later dissolved).
Later joined:
- Professional association of private railroaders . Members: 1929: 9000.
- Professional Association of German Dentists . Members: 1929: 3478.
- Reich Association of Employed Doctors . Members: 1925: 2500, 1929: 3148.
- Reich Association of Dairy and Cheese Factory Employees . Members 1929: 600.
- Association of German captains and ship officers . Joined 1929: Members: 4993.
- Reich Association of German Mining Employees . Joined in 1926.
literature
- Werner Fritsch: General Association of German Employee Trade Unions (Gedag) 1919–1933 . In: Dieter Fricke among other things: Lexicon for the history of parties. The bourgeois and petty bourgeois parties and associations in Germany. (1789-1945) . Volume 3: General Association of German Employees' Unions - Reich and Free Conservative Parties . Pahl-Rugenstein, Cologne 1985, ISBN 3-7609-0878-0 , pp. 9-13.