The 1932 Berlin transport strike was an industrial labor dispute in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, during the

Weimar Republic The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

period of interwar

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. It took place in the context of the

November 1932 German federal election Federal elections were held in Germany on 6 November 1932.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p762 The Nazi Party saw its vote share fall by four percentage points, while there were slight increases ...

, which was held on 6 November, 1932.

History

The employers, the Berliner Verkehrsgesellschaft (BVG), were responsible for public transport in Berlin. It was one of the most significant strikes in the last days of the Weimar Republic. The strike began on 3 November. It was solid apart from one or two token trams run by management which hardly any passengers boarded. On 4 November the strike was declared illegal and armed police were placed on the few trams which made "demonstrative trips". The strikers blocked depots, ripped up track and fought with the police. There were over 500 arrests and four people were killed by the police. The strike ended on Monday 7 November, the day after the elections. It was organised principally by the ''

Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts Opposition The Revolutionäre Gewerkschafts Opposition (Revolutionary Union Opposition) was the communist trade union in Germany during the Weimar Republic.Larry Dean Peterson''German Communism, Workers' Protest, and Labor Unions: the Politics of the United F ...

or RGO (Revolutionary Trade Union Opposition), a union which had been founded by the

Communist Party of Germany The Communist Party of Germany (, ; KPD ) was a major Far-left politics, far-left political party in the Weimar Republic during the interwar period, German resistance to Nazism, underground resistance movement in Nazi Germany, and minor party ...

following their adoption of the concept of the

Third Period The Third Period is an ideological concept adopted by the Communist International (Comintern) at its Sixth World Congress, held in Moscow in the summer of 1928. It set policy until reversed when the Nazis took over Germany in 1933. The Cominte ...

, by which

Social Democracy Social democracy is a Social philosophy, social, Economic ideology, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports Democracy, political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achi ...

was castigated as

social fascism Social fascism was a theory developed by the Communist International (Comintern) in the early 1930s which saw social democracy as a moderate variant of fascism. The Comintern argued that capitalism had entered a Third Period in which proletaria ...

. The strike was also supported by the Nazi labor union

National Socialist Factory Cell Organization The National Socialist Factory Cell Organization (, NSBO or NSBZO) was a Labor union, workers organization in Nazi Germany. In 1927, some NSDAP workers in large factories, located mostly in the Berlin area, joined as an alternative to Social dem ...

.''"Die Revolutionäre Gewerkschaftsopposition"''
German Historical Museum. Retrieved August 11, 2011

References

Berlin 1932 Transport strike 1932 Berlin transport strike Berlin transport strike 1932 Strike 1932 Berlin transport strike 1932 labor disputes and strikes November 1932 in Europe {{Germany-hist-stub

History

See also

References