National Labor Day
As National Labor Day was in the era of National Socialism of May Day 1933 referred. Since 1934 the May celebrations were celebrated as a national holiday of the German people . In order to take over the workers, the NSDAP has reinterpreted the earlier day of the international working class nationally and declared May 1st a public holiday. From the beginning, on May 1, 1933, the celebration was linked to the smashing of the free trade unions - on May 2, 1933, the union houses were occupied by the NSBO , SA and SS .
prehistory
After the beginning of National Socialist rule , the various unions tried to adapt to the new conditions to the limit of programmatic self-abandonment. The attempt to create a unified organization with the leadership of the united trade unions was also based on willingness to collaborate in the “national revolution”.
In negotiations between the NSBO and the free trade unions , the National Socialists had already left no doubt that a workers' organization would have a completely different face in the future. For example, there would be no more election of officials and collective agreements between employers and employees would be a thing of the past. The state would be responsible for the question of wages.
March 1933
For the National Socialists it was worrying that the works council election results of March 1933 in no way reflected the political upheaval. As before, the free trade unions were by far the strongest organization.
However, for a long time the unions did not really expect them to be broken up. The fact that the new National Socialist-led government announced at the beginning of April that it would make May 1, National Labor Day, an official holiday with full wages paid also contributed to this. An old dream of the labor movement thus seemed fulfilled. The SPD had in the years of the Weimar Republic always dispense with consideration for the civic coalition partner to such a venture.
For the National Socialists, it was by no means a matter of reconciliation with the socialist labor movement - rather, the celebrations were intended to be the prelude to its smashing. Joseph Goebbels noted in his diary on March 24, 1933:
“As the first draft of the law, I am getting through the declaration of May 1st as the national holiday of the German people, and I was commissioned by the cabinet to implement it. We will pull this out on a large scale and, for the first time, bring the entire German people together in a single demonstration. From then on the dispute with the unions begins. We won't get some rest until they are completely in our hands. "
On March 29, an action committee to protect German labor was secretly formed under the leadership of Robert Ley and Reinhold Muchow . The actual management was in the hands of Muchow. The committee worked out a detailed plan for breaking the unions. The main actors in the May 2nd actions were to be the NSBO. This should be supported by the SA and SS. They should occupy the union houses and make arrests.
April 1933
On April 16, Ley and Goebbels went to see Adolf Hitler on Obersalzberg . From this they received the approval for the procedure. Goebbels noted in his diary on April 17, 1933: “May 1 will be a grandiose demonstration of the German people's will. On May 2nd the union houses will be occupied. Synchronization in this area too. There may be a row for a few days, but then they're ours. You shouldn't be considerate here. We are only doing the worker a service if we free him from the parasitic leadership that has made his life angry up to now. If the unions are in our hands, then the other parties and organizations will not be able to hold out much longer. (...) There is no going back. You just have to let things take their course. "
The unions welcomed the holiday announcements related to their adjustment policy. The Federal Board of Directors of the ADGB expressly welcomed the government's decision to make May 1st a public holiday. However, he made participation free. On April 19, the federal committee called on the union members “to take part in the celebration organized by the government everywhere in full awareness of their pioneering work for the May idea, for the honor of creative work and for the equal integration of workers in the state ". The Christian trade unions , which had not yet celebrated the Marxist-oriented May Day, welcomed the national holiday as a sign "that the Hitler government is committed to the social German nationality".
May 1933
National Labor Day
The May celebrations were planned as a major propaganda event. The functionaries of the party were given the task of organizing large meetings throughout the empire. An impressive backdrop was specially commissioned for the central event in Berlin . Albert Speer designed a combination of three times three large flags. Six of them were 15 meters and one was 20 meters long. These were hung on masts behind a three-part grandstand. In the middle was the raised platform for Hitler. The flags should be lit with large spotlights.
On May 1, 1933, the holiday was celebrated with great effort. Goebbels previously proclaimed:
“Honor the work and respect the worker! (...) Crown your houses and the streets of the cities and villages with fresh green and the colors of the empire (...) Germans of all classes, tribes and professions, shake hands! We march into the new era closed. "
Black, white and red flags were raised at the trade union houses of the free trade unions .
In the morning there was a big youth rally in the Berlin Lustgarten with hundreds of thousands of participants. 1200 singers sang national songs, Joseph Goebbels and President Paul von Hindenburg spoke. Among other things, he said:
"Only out of male discipline and the spirit of sacrifice, as such have always proven themselves in the German army, can a generation arise that is up to the great tasks that history will present the German people."
Then Hitler called on “the German boys and girls” to three cheers for the “great soldier and leader of the world war”.
Around noon, delegations of workers from all parts of Germany arrived by plane at the Tempelhof airfield . They were greeted by Hitler and Hindenburg. The workers of Berlin had to gather in their factories that morning and moved together to the event site on the Tempelhofer Feld. They competed there in ten blocks. Allegedly 1 to 1.5 million people took part in the rally. Among them were many members of the ADGB who had followed the call of the union leadership. The chairman of the textile workers' association, Karl Schrader , marched along with members of his union behind a swastika flag. Similar events took place in cities across the empire. Opposition actions such as the flying May celebrations of the KPD remained without any attention worth mentioning.
In Berlin, Adolf Hitler conjured up the national community and a rise of the people over classes, estates and individual interests. He spoke of a refinement of the concept of work. The motto of the meeting was “Honor the work and respect the worker!” Among other things, Hitler said: “The mental worker must understand that nobody has the right to simply look down on the other, to think of himself as something better, but that Brain workers and manual workers must be united in a single community. ”In view of the global economic crisis, it was of great interest that Hitler announced major job creation measures, for example in road construction. It was reassuring that he protested his desire for peace. The speech ended with a final sentence that looked like a worship service: "Lord, we will not leave you, now bless our struggle for our freedom and thus for our German people and fatherland!" far beyond those present. What effect the speech actually had must remain unclear, but a considerable impression can be assumed. The participation of executives and employers made the popular community appear to be a realistic goal.
In the course of the celebration, Hitler planted the " Hindenburg oak " in honor of Paul von Hindenburg . In the following years the " Hitler oaks " were planted in other cities . The celebration ended shortly before midnight with the singing of the national anthem and a large fireworks display.
Breaking up the unions
One day later, as planned, the union houses, editorial offices, paying offices of the individual associations and other facilities of the free trade unions were occupied. The police did not intervene. The property of the unions was confiscated. A number of union leaders have been taken into protective custody. Some officials were mistreated and there were also deaths. In Neheim , for example, the union secretary Karl Fromme died. It is unclear whether he was murdered by the National Socialists or whether he committed suicide. Four trade unionists also died in Duisburg . Most of the unionists arrested were released a few weeks later. Theodor Leipart and others remained in custody until June. As a rule, employees were offered to continue working under the control of the NSBO. In the days that followed, the other unions submitted to the action committee. This finally resulted in the German Labor Front on May 10, 1933 .
May Day in the Third Reich
May 1st also played an important role in the National Socialist calendar in the following years. He was completely stripped of his previous relationship to work or even to the labor movement. Since 1934 it has been called the "National Holiday of the German People". It should be a day of the national community . It was linked to allegedly Germanic customs. May Day was celebrated as a spring festival, as was traditional in some regions. The maypoles were provided with symbols of the regime such as the swastika or the symbol of the DAF. Buildings were decorated and on the holiday itself, parades with groups from the SA, SS, Wehrmacht , Hitler Youth and various DAF departments marched through the streets. There were also folk festival-like elements such as dance and children's games.
The central event in Berlin was connected with rallies, flight demonstrations, music events, military demonstrations and in the evening with a large fireworks display. It is said that up to a million people from all over Germany took part. As with the first celebration in 1933, Hitler's speech was broadcast on the radio.
literature
- Jörg Koch: National holiday of the German people , in: Ders. So that you don't forget history - national commemorative and public holidays from 1871 to today. Wbg Academic, Darmstadt 2019, ISBN 978-3-534-40186-4 , pp. 115-124.
- Dieter Schuster : On the history of May Day in Germany. Düsseldorf 1991, pp. 68-72.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Michael Schneider : ups, downs and crises. The trade unions in the Weimar Republic 1918 to 1933. In: Ulrich Borsdorf (Hrsg.): History of the German trade unions. Cologne 1987, pp. 434-439; Heinrich August Winkler : Workers and the labor movement in the Weimar Republic. Vol. 3: The road to catastrophe. 1930-1933. 2nd edition, Berlin / Bonn 1990, p. 918 f.
- ^ A b Heinrich August Winkler: Workers and Labor Movement in the Weimar Republic. Vol. 3, Berlin / Bonn 1990, p. 927.
- ^ Heinrich August Winkler: The long way to the west II. German history 1933 to 1990. Bonn 2008, p. 17.
- ^ Michael Schneider, Ulrich Borsdorf (ed.): History of the German trade unions. Cologne 1987, p. 440 f.
- ^ Sven Felix Kellerhoff : coup d'état by the Nazis against the unions. In: Die Welt , May 1, 2008.
- ^ German stories, seizure of power: Unions
- ↑ a b Ernst Piper : When May 1st turned brown. In: einestages.spiegel.de
- ^ A b Heinrich August Winkler: Workers and Labor Movement in the Weimar Republic. Vol. 3, Berlin / Bonn 1990, p. 928.
- ^ Ottilie Knepper-Babilon, Hannelie Kaiser-Löffler: Resistance against National Socialism in the Sauerland. Brilon 2003, p. 221.
- ^ Heinrich August Winkler: Workers and Labor Movement in the Weimar Republic. Vol. 3, Berlin / Bonn 1990, p. 928 f.