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Commemorating German Labour
Monuments to the history of labour and trade unions in Germany
Given that Germany had the strongest socialist labour movement in Europe until the First World War, and that socialist parties have since played a major role in shaping both the constitution and government policy, it is surprising how few monuments are dedicated to trade unions and socialist parties in Germany today. This applies equally to the Free Socialist, Christian and liberal Hirsch-Duncker’s trade unions, which merged after the Second World War to form the West German Confederation of Trade Unions (DGB) and the East German Free Trade Union Confederation (FDGB).
In West Germany, places of remembrance are dominated by the names of streets, parks, squares and housing estates that commemorate trade unionists such as former DGB chairmen Hans Böckler and Otto Brenner, as well as outstanding social democratic politicians such as party leaders August Bebel and Friedrich Ebert. A culture of remembrance that focused on political and trade union organisations as such existed only in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), which derived its entire right to exist from the German socialist labour movement. But it was based only on the Free Socialist organisations.
In the Federal Republic of Germany, it is above all the busts of individual personalities that commemorate their achievements. In addition, members of the trade union movement are commemorated on certain occasions, either as victims of political violence in the course of the suppression of the trade union movement in early May 1933 - such as the trade union memorial in front of the DGB building in Duisburg - or as resistance fighters against Nazi rule, such as the stele in Berlin commemorating the trade union leader Wilhelm Leuschner, who was executed by the Nazis in 1944 for his involvement in the July 20th conspiracy. In the Ruhr area, the "Glück auf" monument (Good Luck), created by the artist Silke Wagner, is dedicated to the protest movement of the miners in the Ruhr area, starting with the first major strike in 1889. However, these commemorative plaques and monuments are not usually associated with any honouring or commemoration of the German labour and trade union movement as such.
The statue of Karl Marx in Trier is an example of the reluctance to pay tribute to a widely known representative of the socialist labour movement in Germany. It was not created by the city of Trier, Marx's birthplace, on its own initiative, but was donated to the city in 2018 on the 200th anniversary of Marx's birth by the Chinese artist Wu Weishan on behalf of the People's Republic of China. Acceptance of the gift was highly controversial in the city council, and was ultimately approved primarily because of Marx's international fame, rather than his significance to German history.
Memorial to trade unionists persecuted under the Nazis
The Nazi seizure of power put an end to free trade union activity in Germany until 1945. On May 2, 1933, the trade union centres were occupied by the National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) and the unions were brought into line. Their assets were transferred to the German Labour Front (DAF), the unified workers' and employers' organisation set up by the Nazis. The "Law on the Order of National Labour" of January 20, 1934 finally abolished any form of worker co-determination in commercial enterprises. Many trade union leaders, including those who had been active in resistance to the Nazis (those in the underground trade unions, for example) were persecuted, tortured or murdered by the Nazis, and some were imprisoned in concentration camps.
Today, a memorial stone at the site of the former Sachsenhausen concentration camp commemorates the trade unionists who were tortured and murdered there. The memorial stone, donated by the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB), was inaugurated on May 1, 2008, the 75th anniversary of the destruction of the trade unions. Trade unionists imprisoned in Sachsenhausen concentration camp included Lothar Erdmann (1888-1939), Erich Flatau (1879-1946), Gottfried Könzgen (1886-1945), Rudolf Lentzsch (1900-1945) and Carl Vollmerhaus (1883-1979).
Monument to the revolutionary labour movement
Since 1970, four fists have stood twelve metres high on the newly designed Ernst Thälmann Square in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) in Halle, symbolising the long and bitter struggle of the socialist labour movement for a better future. Commissioned by the Socialist Unity Party (SED), the monument was intended to legitimise the GDR as the fulfilment of socialist visions of the future in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Engraved dates marked the historical path from the March Revolution of 1848, through the German November Revolution of 1918 and the Communist uprisings in Central Germany in 1921, to the founding of the GDR in 1949 and the adoption of its second constitution in 1968. From a later West German perspective, however, the monument distorted public memory by omitting negative milestones such as the workers' uprising of 1953 and the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961. As a result, it was demolished in 2003 following a decision by the city council, despite massive protests from sections of the local population. In this way, the politically motivated 'correction' of public memory also erased a living memory in parts of the population for which there is little public evidence today.
Monument to the history of the German Labour Movement at the site of the 1869 Eisenach Party Congress
Monuments to the labour movement were erected in Germany after the Second World War only in the German Democratic Republic (GDR), where they served to situate the socialist state in German history. The Monument to the History of the German Labour Movement, unveiled on the 100th anniversary of Karl Marx's death on March 14, 1983, commemorates the founding of the first German Labour Party in Eisenach in 1969 and highlights the contribution of ordinary people to the construction of socialism. The four stone slabs, joined together to form a massive cube, show the party's roots in the German people through striking figures such as a poor worker's wife and a shackled worker, a resistance fighter and a "Trümmerfrau" (rubble woman), one of the women who helped clear and rebuild bombed-out German cities after the Second World War. After the fall of the GDR, the monument was preserved as a "testimony to the GDR state ideology", which used the socialist labour movement and its memory to legitimise its own existence. Today, the memorial is no longer maintained, a sign that the Federal Republic of Germany has distanced itself from the state ideology of the GDR and its misuse of the history of memory.
Wetter Ruhr: A memorial plaque at the station
Wetter Ruhr is a small town on the edge of the Ruhr area, a place where you might think that no historical events of particularly great national significance have taken place. However on March 15 1920 at the town's historic train station, armed workers were able to inflict a decisive defeat on the Freikorps under the command of Captain Hasenclever, successfully preventing the troops from moving on to Hagen. Violent fighting broke out between workers and the Freikorps at the train station. Today, a memorial plaque on the façade commemorates this conflict. It was attached to the station building in 1989. The plaque has an inconspicuous appearance and is not noticed by many passers-by. On March 14, 2020, the city of Wetter commemorated the 100th anniversary of the suppression of the Kapp-Lüttwitz Putsch with a commemorative event at the memorial plaque. The local trade unions were also present at this “ceremony”, where DGB educational advisor Mark Haarfeldt gave a speech here. The installation on the station forecourt in the heart of the city gives the commemoration public visibility and a certain reach, simply due to the number of people who walk past the plaque every day. Nevertheless, most people who walk past the memorial plaque likely know little about the events of 1920, and a connection to the general strike and the Red Ruhr Army is also unlikely.
Contributed by Jan England (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
(read more about General Strike 1920 and Red Ruhr Army: https://www.sfu.ca/union-memory/issues-themes/collective-action-and-strikes/germany.html)
Herne: a place of rememberance in the Ruhr region
The 1920 general strike did not stop at Herne and Wanne-Eikel (Link zu Generalstreik 1920 “Collective Actions and strike”). In March 1920, the industrial plants here also came to a standstill. After the general strike was successful and the putschists defeated, some of the striking workers were not satisfied and workers' councils were organized, which took control of the administration and police. As in the rest of the Ruhr region, the aim was to achieve the socialization of the economy. The ensuing military conflict between the Red Ruhr Army, the Freikorps and the Reichswehr also led to brutal fighting in Herne. In Herne, the Reichswehr and the Freikorps took revenge on the fighting workers and reactionary terror spread through the workers' quarters.
Herne is a center of the culture of remembrance around the Red Ruhr Army and the resistance against the Kapp Putsch.
Every year, the trade unions in Herne and various social movements commemorate the general strike against the Kapp Putsch. Among the many victims of the terror in the Ruhr area, four workers from Herne are known by name and are buried in Herne's southern cemetery. As early as 1921, the trade unions in Herne set up a memorial for the victims among workers and the population. This was destroyed by the National Socialists in 1933 and rebuilt in 1997. In 2008, the memorial was supplemented by a bronze plaque donated by the DGB district association. Today, this place is a memorial to the workers' movement in Herne. Members of the various trade unions in Herne come together here every year to hold a commemorative event. The focus of these events is always on the aspect that the general strike defended democracy and the preservation of democratic values.
The events in Herne follow a recurring motif, the developments of 1920, the successful political strike against the reaction are seen as an excellent example of political activism against right-wing developments.
Contributed by Jan England (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
(read more about General Strike 1920 and Red Ruhr Army: https://www.sfu.ca/union-memory/issues-themes/collective-action-and-strikes/germany.html)