Democracy Destroyed The First 100 Days of Nazi Rule

Day 93, Tuesday 2 May 1933: SA and SS occupy the trade union offices across Germany; union leaders arrested

Day 93 of 100

SA and SS occupy the trade union offices across Germany; union leaders arrested

At ten in the morning, the day after the “Day of National Labour”, SA and SS men occupied every building of the free trade unions in Germany, together with their newspapers and their bank. Theodor Leipart, Peter Graßmann and other leaders were taken into “protective custody”, the unions’ property was seized and Nazi commissioners took over. In Duisburg four union officials were murdered. The Hoppegarten racecourse opened its season the same afternoon.

A line of uniformed SA men standing in front of the doorway of a large building
SA men guard the entrance of a trade union headquarters in Berlin, closed during the suppression of the unions on 2 May 1933. The men are not identified. Photographed on this day Unknown author Unknown author. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The action had been prepared in parallel with the May Day celebrations by an “Action Committee for the Protection of German Labour” under Robert Ley. At 10:00 on Tuesday SA and SS units, with men of the Nazi factory cell organisation (NSBO), occupied the buildings of the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB), the salaried employees’ federation (AfA-Bund), all their member unions, the editorial offices of the union press and the branches of the Bank of Workers, Employees and Civil Servants. The unions’ property was seized and their accounts frozen; commissioners appointed by Ley took the places of the elected officials, and the staff were told to carry on working under NSBO supervision.

The free trade unions had tried to save themselves by distancing themselves from the SPD, declaring political neutrality and joining in the May Day celebrations. It did not help. The regime’s leaders had seen in the factory council elections of March 1933, where the NSBO won only about a quarter of the votes, how little support they had among workers in the big plants. Ley told the press that it was not enough for National Socialism that the union leaders professed their loyalty.

The arrests were planned. In Berlin Theodor Leipart, Peter Graßmann and Rudolf Wissell were taken into “protective custody”, as were the chairmen of the member unions, the directors of the workers’ bank and the editors of the union papers. Ley’s committee spoke of about fifty arrests. In Duisburg four union officials were murdered during the occupation of the union house: Julius Birck, Emil Rentmeister, Michael Rodenstock and Johann Schlösser.

The other union federations placed themselves “voluntarily” under Ley’s committee. In the weeks that followed the Nazis tried to justify the seizure with charges of corruption and waste in the union movement, none of which they could prove. By the end of June all the union federations had been forced into the German Labour Front, founded on 10 May.

Politics and power

Government, terror and persecution

  1. Terror 10:00, Berlin and throughout Germany

    Union buildings occupied across the Reich

    In a single coordinated operation at 10:00, SA and SS units occupied all the buildings of the free trade unions, their federations and affiliated economic organisations throughout Germany, including the ADGB headquarters in Berlin. Their property was confiscated and Nazi commissioners installed.1,2,3

  2. Persecution Berlin

    Leipart, Graßmann and Wissell arrested

    Leipart, Graßmann and Wissell, the last of whom according to the press happened to be in the building to check his account, were arrested in Berlin. Ley’s committee gave the number arrested as about fifty, among them the chairmen of 28 member unions, twelve leading ADGB officials, two directors of the workers’ bank and three union editors.1,3

  3. Terror Duisburg

    Four union officials murdered in Duisburg

    During the occupation of the Duisburg union house, Julius Birck, Emil Rentmeister, Michael Rodenstock and Johann Schlösser were murdered by Nazis.1,4

  4. Persecution Berlin

    Nineteen teachers suspended at Berlin University

    The Prussian culture minister Rust placed 19 teachers at Berlin University on leave with immediate effect under the civil service law and withdrew the teaching contracts of several lecturers; nine professors were suspended at Cologne.5

  5. Propaganda Berlin

    Nazi press chief heads the journalists’ association

    The delegates’ assembly of the Reich Association of the German Press elected Otto Dietrich, the Nazi Party’s Reich press chief, as its chairman.5

Everyday life

What else was happening in Germany

  1. Education Berlin, Unter den Linden

    Eugen Fischer elected rector

    Berlin University elected the anthropologist Eugen Fischer as its rector on the day the minister suspended nineteen of its teachers.5

  2. Sport Hoppegarten

    Hoppegarten opens its season

    The Union Club’s course at Hoppegarten opened the flat-racing season. The Preis von Dahlwitz brought together the three leading horses of the Derby year and was won by Janitor, ridden by O. Schmidt.6,10

Voices

It is not enough for National Socialism that the leaders of the free trade unions profess their devotion.

Robert Ley, head of the Nazi "Action Committee for the Protection of German Labour" Statement to the press in Berlin on 2 May 1933, explaining the occupation of the unions, as reported in the Marbacher Zeitung Translated by this site.3

In Berlin today

A pale six-storey office building on a street corner, its front divided into a grid by its concrete frame
The former ADGB headquarters by Max Taut and Franz Hoffmann at the corner of Wallstraße and Inselstraße, photographed in April 2022. Gunnar Klack / CC BY-SA 4.0. CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

ADGB Bundeshaus (Hermann-Schlimme-Haus)

Wallstraße 61–65, corner of Inselstraße 6, 10179 Berlin-Mitte

Then
The headquarters of the General German Trade Union Federation, a model of the New Building movement by Max Taut and Franz Hoffmann (1922–23), was occupied in 1933 and the ADGB expropriated; on 2 May its leaders were taken into “protective custody”.1,7,8
Today
The listed building was restored in 1997–98 and is used by the IGBCE, the mining, chemical and energy workers’ union, and its foundation.

Open in OpenStreetMap

A long red-brick building with stepped gables and arched ground-floor windows behind bare trees
The former trade union house at Engeldamm 62–64, built in 1899–1900, photographed in March 2010. Jörg Zägel / CC BY-SA 3.0. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Former union house, Engeldamm 62–64

Engeldamm 62–64, 10179 Berlin-Mitte

Then
One of the first union houses in Germany, built in 1899–1900 with money from the physicist Leo Arons, it was occupied by the Nazis on 2 May 1933; Arons’s grave in the courtyard was destroyed.9
Today
A glass memorial plaque by Erika Klagge, unveiled in 2002, records that the destruction of the free trade union movement began with the occupation of this house on 2 May 1933.

Open in OpenStreetMap

More pictures

A glass plaque with text and a small portrait mounted on a building wall
Memorial plaque at Engeldamm 62–64 in Berlin-Mitte, recalling Leo Arons and the occupation of the union house on 2 May 1933, photographed in 2009. For context OTFW, Berlin. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Portrait of a man with close-cropped grey hair, a moustache and a pointed beard, in a dark suit
Theodor Leipart, chairman of the General German Trade Union Federation (ADGB), in 1924. He was arrested on 2 May 1933. For context Unknown author Unknown author. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Sources

  1. Chronik der deutschen Sozialdemokratie, Band 2: Stichtag 2. Mai 1933 Franz Osterroth and Dieter Schuster; electronic edition, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung Library
  2. LeMO: Zerschlagung der Gewerkschaften Deutsches Historisches Museum
  3. Marbacher Zeitung (Bottwartal-Bote), 3 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 1, report on the occupation of the union buildings (Berlin, 2 May)
  4. Mahnmal am DGB-Haus Stadt Duisburg, Kulturbüro
  5. Erzgebirgischer Volksfreund, 3 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 3, items datelined Berlin, 2 May
  6. Hamburger Fremdenblatt, Reichsausgabe, 3 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 10, "Janitor in großem Stil. Hervorragender Sport in Hoppegarten"
  7. Denkmaldatenbank: Bürohaus des Allgemeinen Deutschen Gewerkschaftsbundes, Hermann-Schlimme-Haus Landesdenkmalamt Berlin
  8. Gewerkschaftshaus der IGBCE Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz, Tag des offenen Denkmals
  9. Gedenktafeln in Berlin: Leo Martin Arons (Gewerkschaftshaus) Aktives Museum Faschismus und Widerstand in Berlin, Gedenkstätte Deutscher Widerstand, Holger Hübner
  10. Westfälische Zeitung (Bielefelder Tageblatt), 3 May 1933 Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek, Zeitungsportal, p. 12, Hoppegarten results

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