During the 1932 Berlin Transport Strike, communists and the Nazis worked together in an uneasy collaboration.
The strike was organized by Joseph Goebbels, Gauleiter of Berlin and Walter Ulbricht, KPD chairman for Berlin(Future leader of East Germany).
The reason for the action being two pfennigs reduction in the hourly wage of the workers by the BVG (Berlin Transport Authority).
Ernst Thalmann, chairman of the KPD, called out for a co-operation with the national socialists: “When strikes are organized in companies, it’s of fundamental importance that Nazi’s are also included in the strike committees”.Â
Together national socialists(represented by National Socialist Factory Cell) and communists(represented by Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition) founded a central strike leadership that actualized demands such as more salary, a 40 hour workweek, better working conditions and most important the abolition of the agreements system (Hoffmannschen Akkordsystem).
The strike began on 3rd Nov 1932, for the next few wet, raw days the Communists and the National Socialists ate communally on the picket line. Side by side they pelted rocks at strikebreakers, tore up streetcar tracks and built barricades.
pinstripepride46 on
And where did that mutual distrust get them? Sent straight to the camps
2 Comments
During the 1932 Berlin Transport Strike, communists and the Nazis worked together in an uneasy collaboration.
The strike was organized by Joseph Goebbels, Gauleiter of Berlin and Walter Ulbricht, KPD chairman for Berlin(Future leader of East Germany).
The reason for the action being two pfennigs reduction in the hourly wage of the workers by the BVG (Berlin Transport Authority).
Ernst Thalmann, chairman of the KPD, called out for a co-operation with the national socialists: “When strikes are organized in companies, it’s of fundamental importance that Nazi’s are also included in the strike committees”.Â
Together national socialists(represented by National Socialist Factory Cell) and communists(represented by Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition) founded a central strike leadership that actualized demands such as more salary, a 40 hour workweek, better working conditions and most important the abolition of the agreements system (Hoffmannschen Akkordsystem).
The strike began on 3rd Nov 1932, for the next few wet, raw days the Communists and the National Socialists ate communally on the picket line. Side by side they pelted rocks at strikebreakers, tore up streetcar tracks and built barricades.
And where did that mutual distrust get them? Sent straight to the camps