Syndicalisme et unification allemande : un essai d’historiographie contemporaine

Abstract

Can one analyze the fall of the GDR and German Unification without even considering the actions and positions taken by the trade unions ? The numerous works dealing with these events, which almost completely disregard the trade union movement, could lead one to believe just that. The essays on the German trade unions during the course of the events of 1989-1990 appear to back up this conclusion. The West-German unions are depicted as having been overwhelmed by the rapid changes taking place in East Germany. The reforms of the East German unions are described as attempts by defenders of the Regime to save their heads. The “merger” of the trade unions through the dissolution of the East-German organizations and the subsequent affiliation by East-German workers to the Western unions are seen as the logical result of the fall of the GDR, a necessary consequence which the German organized labor movement is said to have been long reluctant to accept. In other words, the literature tends to present the process from the point of view of its outcome. By doing this, it not only clearly underestimates the importance of issues and debates which shook the German trade union movement and which were at the heart of the unification process, but also disregards the fundamental part played by the trade unions during the course of this process.