Study On "Betriebsgemeinschaft"-NSDAP's Pattern Of Labor Relations

Although the lifespan of Nazi Germany was as short as 12 years, historians never cease their enthusiasm over this period. Today, historians' interests have expanded from the military, diplomatic and race policies of the 3^rd Reich to its social history. The labor relations stand out as an important as well as difficult segment of the research into the social history. The issue of labor relations is important, because no ruling party could get away with it since the industrial revolution. It is difficult, because, Germany, a country with the history full of labor resistance campaigns, had very few such incidents during the Nazi period. Researchers can not help but asking, how did the Nazi government manage to stabilize the labor-capital relations during its rule? The author of this article tries to answer this question.The labor relations in Nazi period demonstrated a totally different pattern from the periods of Weimer Republic or FRD of Today. This particular pattern of labor relations, named as "Betriebsgemeinschaft" in German, which means "Enterprise Community", first appeared in the 2^nd Reich, promoted by conservative industrialists in the late period of Weimar Republic, was adopted as part of Nazi Labor Law because of its consistency with Nazi's so-called "People's Community" (Volksgemeinschaft). This article looks into the historical origins, the practices and effects of "Betriebsgemeinschaft" during the Nazi period. From the perspective of social history, this article looks into the labor relations pattern of "Betriebsgemeinschaft", the real social environments of relevant parties, and the interactions between the two.This articles is composed of 3 parts: the prelude, the main text, and the conclusion. The main text has 6 chapters based on historical process: The analysis of the failure of the democratization process of the labor relations in Weimar period; The views of labor relations held by the right wing in the late period of Weimar Republic; the start-up, development and evolution of "Betriebsgemeinschaft" and the impacts of war on it.Chapter 1, the analysis of the failure of the democratization process of the labor relations in Weimar period, is the prelude of the whole article. As the first democratic republic in German history, Weimar demonstrated its democratic spirit not only in political systems, but also in economic activities. The dual mechanism: the Group Contract System across different enterprises, and the "co-determination" (Mitbestimmung) inside the enterprise, marked a major achievement of the democratization process of the labor relations in Weimar period. But these democratic mechanisms failed to yield concrete results, partly because the post-war adverse environment, e.g. war compensations, hindered Germany's economic revival, also because neither of the 2 parties, employers and employees, was ready to wholly accept the democratic spirit, they showed very little sincerity in cross-class collaboration. Since the government had to curb the labor disputes from threatening the social stabilities, the interventions imposed by the government greatly replaced the spontaneous negotiations between employers and employees.Chapter 2 analyses the views of labor relations held by the right wing in the late period of Weimar Republic. Conservative forces, including industrialists, intellectuals and NSDAP, put forward the concept of "community" as the solution to labor disputes. The idea of "Betriebsgemeinschaft", suggested by some industrialists, can be traced back into the 19^th century when some liberal industrialists had already put it into practice. This idea opposed both the negotiations between interest groups representing employers and employees, and the interventions from any organizations outside the enterprise itself, be the organization a trade union, or even the government itself. This new idea advocated for the dialog and co-determination mechanism with the participation of the industrialists and employees, and led by the industrialists. This idea also promoted the welfare policies in the enterprises in consistency with the mechanism, so that the employees might develop "the sense of belonging". NSDAP, then, was not equipped with clear and practical labor policies, apart from some vague and over-general political and economic guidelines. Noticing the similarities between "Betriebsgemeinschaft" and "Volksgemeinschaft", and hoping that the idea of "Volksgemeinschaft" might soften the labor conflicts, Nazi absorbed the idea of "Betriebsgemeinschaft" into its Labor Law after it took power.Chapter 3 looks into the start-up of the "Betriebsgemeinschaft" in 1933 and 1934. After it took power, the NSDAP founded a cross-class organization, "the German Labor Front" (die Deutsche Arbeitsfront), representing the thought of "Gemeinschaft" while getting rid of Weimar management mechanisms of labor relations with all possible measures. The biggest challenge facing the NSDAP then was to stabilize its rule, diminish the unemployment and promote the economic development. So, the first 6 months after it took power witnessed a shift in Nazi's economic policy: e.g. abandoning the idea of "Industrial Structure" (St(a|¨)ndischer Aufbau) originally written into the "22-Punkte-Programm", hooking in the conservative forces of the large enterprises, inviting Kurt Schmitt, former General Manager of Alliance Insurance, to take the position of Finance Minister, establishing the German Economic General Association participated by 12 major industrialists and bankers, ripping the German Labor Front of its function as a trade union, taking this action as a concession to those major industrialists and bankers. Finally, the new pattern of labor relations, "Betriebsgemeinschaft", was formally established with the enacting of the People's Labor Order Law (Gesetzes zur Ordnung der Nationalen Arbeit), thus, industrialists were granted maximum autonomous power.Chapter 4 is the most important part of this article. It researches in great details into the practices of "Betriebsgemeinschaft" from 1934 to 1936. In accordance with the People's Labor Order Law and the pattern of "Betriebsgemeinschaft", various mechanisms emerged, including, boards of labor trustees and social honor courts across enterprises, enterprise leaders, regulations, boards of trustees inside different enterprises. Also in this period, the German Labor Front gradually expanded its power out of the sphere of merely NSDAP ideology promotion, and seized the power of supervising "Betriebsgemeinschaft". But, with the main challenge still on unemployment elimination and economic development, NSDAP was not deeply involved with the activities "Betriebsgemeinschaft". It only encouraged enterprises to recruit more unemployed people through the boards of labor trustees.Chapter 5 lays down its focus on the evolutions of "Betriebsgemeinschaft" from the issuing of "4-year plan" in 1936 to the outbreak of war in 1939. After solving the unemployment problem and reviving the economy, NSDAP now shifted its goal towards the arms expansion and preparations of war. It required that German economy "should be ready for an all-out war in 4 years". But during this period of favorable labor market, employees started to hop from one job to a better one or demand a salary raise. The focus of NSDAP's industrial policy was shifted to the curb of workers' adverse sentiments and safeguarding the production. On one hand, NSDAP, through the German Labor Front, supervised industrialists and workers, introduced "Nazi Enterprise Efficiency Contest", enlarged the scope of workers' welfare, organized Plant Force within factories and plants; On the other hand, NSDAP enlarged the power of labor trustees so that they could cap workers' salaries, restrict job-hopping. Since NSDAP and the government strengthened its grip on industry, the labor relationship determined by "Betriebsgemeinschaft" changed. the enterprise autonomy promoted by the People's Labor Order Law was forgotten and abandoned.Chapter 6 is the epilogue of the whole article. It analyzes the impacts of war on "Betriebsgemeinschaft". In order to satisfy the demands of war, NSDAP started to fully control the nation's economy. It stopped any forms of job-hopping, prolonged the working day, started daily ration of food and necessities and strengthened the power of Gestapo. The boards of labor trustees expanded considerably and were now equipped with power to punish so as to supervise effectively the behaviors of every enterprise during the war period. "Betriebsgemeinschaft" was then nothing but a supporting force behind NSDAP in its outward aggressions.