Syndicalism is a revolutionary current within the labor movement that seeks to unionize workers according to industry and advance their demands through strikes with the eventual goal of gaining control over the means of production and the economy at large. Developed in French labor unions during the late 19th century, syndicalist movements were most predominant amongst the socialist movement during the interwar period which preceded the outbreak of World War II.
Council communism is a current of communist thought that emerged in the 1920s. Inspired by the November Revolution, council communism was opposed to state socialism and advocated workers' councils and council democracy. It is regarded as being strongest in Germany and the Netherlands during the 1920s.
Johann Joseph "Hans" Most was a German-American Social Democratic and then anarchist politician, newspaper editor, and orator. He is credited with popularizing the concept of "propaganda of the deed". His grandson was Boston Celtics radio play-by-play man Johnny Most.
The Free Workers' Union of Germany was an anarcho-syndicalist trade union in Germany. It stemmed from the Free Association of German Trade Unions (FDVG) which combined with the Ruhr region's Freie Arbeiter Union on September 15, 1919.
The Free Association of German Trade Unions was a trade union federation in Imperial and early Weimar Germany. It was founded in 1897 in Halle under the name Representatives' Centralization of Germany as the national umbrella organization of the localist current of the German labor movement. The localists rejected the centralization in the labor movement following the sunset of the Anti-Socialist Laws in 1890 and preferred grassroots democratic structures. The lack of a strike code soon led to conflict within the organization. Various ways of providing financial support for strikes were tested before a system of voluntary solidarity was agreed upon in 1903, the same year that the name Free Association of German Trade Unions was adopted.
Die Einigkeit was a German newspaper, which appeared from 19 June 1897 to 8 August 1914. It was the organ of the radical socialist Free Association of German Trade Unions (FVdG). Its original editor was Gustav Kessler, but he was replaced by Fritz Kater after his death in 1904.
Fritz Kater was a German trade unionist active in the Free Association of German Trade Unions (FVdG) and its successor organization, the Free Workers' Union of Germany. He was the editor of the FVdG's organ Einigkeit and—after World War I—owner of the publishing houses Fritz Kater Verlag and Syndikalist.
Andreas Kleinlein (1864–1925) was a German anarchist. He came into contact with anarchist ideas through his travels to France. He was active in the musical instrument-maker union in Berlin and a founding member of the Free Association of German Trade Unions (FVdG), one of the most influential anarchists in the organization.
Fritz Köster was a German anarchist editor and trade unionist.
Karl Roche (1862–1931) was a German syndicalist and left communist trade unionist. Roche joined the Free Association of German Trade Unions (FVdG) around 1900 as a seaman. He became a prominent member of the organization.
Carl Windhoff (1882-1940) was a German syndicalist trade unionist.
Gustav Kessler (1832–1904) was a German trade unionist.
Milly Witkop(-Rocker) was a Ukrainian-born Jewish anarcho-syndicalist, feminist writer and activist. She was the common-law wife of the prominent anarcho-syndicalist leader Rudolf Rocker. The couple's son, Fermin Rocker, was an artist.
The First International Syndicalist Congress was a meeting of European and Latin American syndicalist organizations at Holborn Town Hall in London from September 27 to October 2, 1913. Upon a proposal by the Dutch National Labor Secretariat (NAS) and the British Industrial Syndicalist Education League (ISEL), most European syndicalist groups, both trade unions and advocacy groups, agreed to congregate at a meeting in London. The only exception was the biggest syndicalist organization worldwide, the French General Confederation of Labor (CGT). Nevertheless, the congress was held with organizations from twelve countries participating. It was marked by heated debate and constant disagreements over both tactics and principles. Yet, it succeeded in creating the International Syndicalist Information Bureau as a vehicle of exchange and solidarity between the various organizations and the Bulletin international du mouvement syndicaliste as a means of communication. It would be viewed as a success by almost all who participated.
Max Seydewitz was a German politician. Between 1947 and 1952 he was the Minister-President of Saxony in the German Democratic Republic.
Raphael Friedeberg was a German physician, socialist and anarchist.
German individualist philosopher Max Stirner became an important early influence in anarchism. Afterwards Johann Most became an important anarchist propagandist in both Germany and in the United States. In the late 19th century and early 20th century there appeared individualist anarchists influenced by Stirner such as John Henry Mackay, Adolf Brand and Anselm Ruest and Mynona.
Johann Rudolf Rocker was a German anarchist writer and activist. He was born in Mainz to a Roman Catholic artisan family.
Sepp Oerter was a German politician and journalist. As a young man he was an activist member of various anarchist groups. He later moved over to socialist groupings and parties, including the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and, after the SPD split, the anti-war Independent Social Democratic Party . During and directly after the revolution, for two months during the first half of 1919 and then for more than a year during 1920/21, he served as head of the regional government / Minister-president in the Free State of Braunschweig (Brunswick). By the time of his death he had broken with the political left and joined the National Socialists.
Sozialistische Monatshefte was a German journal edited by Joseph Bloch from 1897 to 1933 and published by the Verlag der Sozialistischen Monatshefte in Berlin.
