Hirsch-Duncker Trade Unions

reformist trade unions in Germany, 1868-1933. They were founded by M. Hirsch and F. Duncker, who were active in the bourgeois Progressive Party. In 1869 these trade unions were united in the Alliance of German Trade Unions, which had approximately 30,000 members.

The leaders of the Hirsch-Duncker Trade Unions propagated the notion that there was a “harmony of interests” between the employers and the workers, and they preached against the strike movement. In the political arena the Hirsch-Duncker Trade Unions supported liberal-bourgeois parties. In 1913 these unions had 106,600 members and in 1932, 600,000 members, approximately two-thirds of whom were office employees. From 1920 the Hirsch-Duncker Trade Unions were members of the Trade-union Association of German Workers, Office Employees, and Civil Servants. In May 1933 the Hitlerites dissolved the Hirsch-Duncker and other trade unions in Germany.