Until 1933 As first German confederation of unions at 14 March 1892 the
Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften Deutschlands was founded in
Halberstadt. It represented 57 national and some local unions with approximate 300,000 people in total. After World War I unions had to reorganise. During a congress in
Nuremberg from 30 June until 5 July 1919 the
Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (ADGB) was founded as an umbrella organisation of 52 unions with more than 3 million members. The ADGB may be seen as predecessor of today's DGB. Like today, there also existed a conservative counterpart of lesser importance. Curiously, this conservative organisation was named
Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB. On 2 May 1933 all trade unions were
dissolved by the
Nazis.
1946–1949 After World War II German unions had to reorganize once again. Various regional and issue-specific unions formed under the Western occupations of Germany. On 9–11 February 1946 the
Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (
FDGB) was founded in Berlin as a confederation of 15 unions in the
Soviet occupation zone. On 23–25 April 1947 the
Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB was founded in
Bielefeld as a confederation of 12 unions in the
Allied-occupied Germany. Foundations in the
American occupation zone: 24/25 August 1946: Freier Gewerkschaftsbund Hessen 30 August – 1 September 1946: Gewerkschaftsbund Württemberg-Baden 27–29 March 1947: Bayerischer Gewerkschaftsbund Foundations in the
French occupation zone: 15/16 February 1947: Gewerkschaftsbund Süd-Württemberg und Hohenzollern 1/2 March 1947: Badischer Gewerkschaftsbund 2 May 1947: Allgemeiner Gewerkschaftsbund Rheinland-Pfalz On 12–14 October, the 7 umbrella organisation in
West Germany merged into the West German DGB as a confederation of 16 single trade unions. == Reunification – Present ==