Association of German Employers' Associations

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The Association of German Employers' Associations ( VggdA ) came into being on April 5, 1913 as a merger of the headquarters of German employers' associations and the Association of German Employers' Associations . The organization existed until the German Labor Front was founded and dissolved on December 14, 1933.

Organizational development

After the merger of the two original organizations, a unified employers' association was created. When it was founded, it comprised 61 main associations with a total of 1.65 million employees. Before the First World War, the association organized the employers of important sectors such as the coal and steel industry, the metal and textile industries, but around three quarters of all organized companies were not among them. This changed after the war. In 1929 there were 180 main associations with 6.4 million employees.

Until the end of the First World War, the association was close to the Central Association of German Industrialists and the Federation of Industrialists ; after 1919 it was closely associated with the now also unified Reich Association of German Industry .

Central working group

The organization had a considerable socio-political and general political significance. In the course of the First World War, the anti-union policies of the pre-war period proved to be no longer tenable. In October 1918 the association was forced to recognize the unions as representatives of the workers. Against the background of an impending revolution, the association also had to accept the establishment of equal work certificates, arbitration committees and collective agreements. This development came to an end in November 1918 with the establishment of the Central Working Group of Industrial and Commercial Employers and Employees of the Organizations of Employers and Employees.

Weimar Republic

With the RDI there was a division of labor. While the Reichsverband was responsible for economic and economic policy issues, the VDA concentrated on social and socio-political issues as well as on the collective bargaining disputes with the trade unions. The VDA was the socio-political representative of the member associations in the employer sense, was responsible for the conclusion of collective agreements and labor disputes. For compensation payments in the event of a strike, subsidiary organizations such as the "German Industrial Protection Association" were founded in some cases before 1914.

Relatively soon, the employers strove to turn away from the Stinnes-Legien Agreement of 1918. In the long run, they were hostile to the factory constitutionalism of the works councils. In contrast to the Ruhr industrialists, the VDA stuck to a line that was relatively willing to compromise during the rubble dispute .

In June 1933 the RDI and the VDA merged to form the Reichsstand der Deutschen Industrie . While the RDI subsequently continued to exist, the VDA became part of the German Labor Front in December 1933 .

executive Director

President

literature

  • Wolfgang Schmierer : Association of German Employers' Associations . In: Gerhard Taddey (Hrsg.): Lexicon of German history. 2. revised Ed., Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-520-80002-0 , p. 1272
  • Achim Knips: German employers' associations in the iron and metal industry. 1888 - 1914 (= quarterly for social and economic history / supplements , no. 124), also dissertation 1994 at the University of Marburg, Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 1994, ISBN 978-3-515-06748-5 , p. 267 u. ö .; Preview over google books

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Achim Knips: German employers' associations in the iron and metal industry. 1888 - 1914 (= quarterly for social and economic history / supplements , no. 124), also dissertation 1994 at the University of Marburg, Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 1994, ISBN 978-3-515-06748-5 , p. 267 u. ö .; Preview over google books