Turning The Tide? The KPD and Right Radicalism in German Industrial Relations, 1925-8

Germany's defeat in the first world war discredited the monarchy and created conditions in which a parliamentary republic was established and some major advances achieved in the realm of economic and social policy. However, it is well understood that the republic's failure to remove the imperial elites in the administrative, military, judicial and, not least, economic sector left this new Weimar Republic resting on fragile foundations. These elites were soon to attempt to reverse the constitutional and socio-economic gains represented by the republic; the captains of heavy industry being as active in this as other establishment groups. That said, relatively little is known about the precise nature this employers' counter-offensive took within the factories, particularly during the mid-1920s - the superficially peaceful, 'golden' years of Weimar. It is well known that sections of capital were increasingly ready to confront organized labour during this period, but attempts by employers to divide their work-force and thereby undermine the coherence of the labour movement, in conjunction with willing allies among the revived company or 'yellow' unions, have received far less attention, and the crucial role of the right-radical nationalist leagues of the Weimar era has remained largely undiscussed.' In part, this reflects the dearth of source material which has hitherto come to light. Because this campaign achieved relatively little in the short term the Free Trade Unions (ADGB) who were inclined towards the republican Social Democratic Party (SPD) were largely unaffected contemporary republican commentators paid relatively little attention to the phenomenon and what discussion there was tended toward the academic.2 The revolutionary Left, by contrast, which was organized within the Communist Party (KPD), was relatively weak within the factories and, therefore, appreciated the potential threat posed by this

Archaeology · Economic history · German · Political radicalism · Political science · Politics · European history and politics · History · Law

• Schwerindustrie in der Weimarer Republik

  Donald Pryce, Bernd Weisbrod•German Studies Review•1980

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• The KPD and Nazism

  Open Access•Conan Fischer•European History Quarterly•1985

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