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OXFORD PAMPHLETS ON WORLD AFFAIRS
No. 33
LABOUR UNDER
NAZI RULE
BY
WILLIAM A. ROBSON
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1940
HITLER'S achievement in abolishing unemployment has
been much admired outside Germany as well as inside.
The extent to which industrial servitude and regimenta-
tion have been exacted as the price of that achievement is
either not realized, or is glossed over as though it were
merely an irrelevant incident. This Pamphlet describes
the sweeping changes that have been made by the Nazi
regime in the status and organization of labour, from
the liquidation of the highly progressive German work-
ing-class movement in 1933 down to the system of
unmitigated industrial conscription introduced since
1938. 'The employed masses of German men and
women have ceased to be free citizens of the world of
labour. They have entered a state of peonage the like
of which has not been seen in the countries of Western
Europe for centuries/
Dr. W. A. Robson is University Reader in Admini-
strative Law at the London School of Economics; and
is an authority on industrial law and relations. He is
Joint Editor of the Political Quarterly and the author of
many well-known works on law and government.
First Published 4th July 1940
Reprinted r$th July 1940
Printed in Great Britain and published by
THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS, Amen House, E.G. 4
LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW NEW YORK TORONTO
MELBOURNE CAPETOWN BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS
HUMPHREY MILFORD Publisher to the University
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
THE position of the workers in a community
is not only extremely important as an index
of economic and social welfare, but it is also highly
significant from a political point of view. Funda-
mental changes in the purposes or constitution of a
regime are quickly reflected in an alteration of the
status and condition of the labouring masses. It
would be possible to cite innumerable instances
drawn from past and present times to illustrate the
close connexion between the status of the workers
and the political regime under which they live.
The tremendous change which German labour
has undergone since the accession to power of the
Nazi party is, therefore, in no way a matter for
surprise. It is, nevertheless, of great significance as
an indication of the underlying aims and philosophy
of the Hitler government.
Before 1933 Germany was one of the most
progressive countries in the world so far as the
position of organized labour was concerned. The
German working-class movement started to emerge
on its industrial side about 1860, and, except for a
period of legal proscription under Bismarck be-
tween 1878 and 1890, trade unions grew con-
tinuously until 1922, when the membership reached
a peak of over nine millions. Thereafter the num-
bers declined to rather less than six millions in 1929.
On its political side, the movement founded the
Social Democratic party as early as 1890; and by
1914 this party polled nearly \\ million votes, a
third of the whole electorate. Bismarck, although
4655-33
4 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
strongly hostile and repressive towards the Socialist
movement, was a pioneer in initiating a system of
social insurance in Germany.
Labour under the Weimar Republic
After the Great War of 1914-18 the most striking
advances were made in German industrial relations.
Collective bargaining had hitherto not been fully
recognized under the civil law. One of the first
steps after the revolutionary upheaval which accom-
panied the defeat of Germany was an Order (dated
23 December 1918) regulating collective bargaining.
This decree gave exclusive recognition to trade
unions as contracting parties on the workers' side,
and conferred a new and enhanced status on the
collective bargain. The Order was confirmed by
an Act of the National Assembly in March 1919.
It gave an immense impetus to the practice of
collective bargaining, and in consequence to the
power of the trade unions. It authorized the Minis-
ter of Labour to extend a collective agreement,
under certain conditions, to unorganized workers.
By 1922 the conditions of employment of more
than 14 million workers were determined by collec-
tive agreements.
In 1919 legislation provided for a maximum
working day of eight hours and a maximum working
week of forty-eight hours, a break of thirty-six
hours of continuous rest during the week, a half-
holiday on Saturday, and restrictions on night work.
Although inroads were made later on these stan-
dards, it is nevertheless true that throughout the
life of the Weimar Republic Germany remained
substantially in advance of England and the United
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE 5
States in the protection afforded to her workers
against excessively long hours of work.
The most important feature of working-class pro-
gress in Germany was, however, the establishment
of works councils 'to protect the common interests
of employees against the employer'. The Works
Councils Act, 1920, set up works councils in all
establishments employing twenty workers or more.
The members were elected by the employees alone
from among their own ranks, and the number varied
from three to thirty according to the size of the
enterprise.
The works council was authorized to co-operate
with the management in improving industrial effi-
ciency and in introducing new labour methods. It
was empowered to promote industrial peace; to
supervise the carrying out of collective agreements ;
to negotiate with the employer on the question of
works rules. It was to assist the factory inspectors
in improving industrial hygiene and in reducing
the number of accidents. It was to co-operate in
the administration of welfare schemes in the
factory.
The works councils were not designed to usurp
the functions of the trade unions; on the contrary,
they depended for their success on the closest
collaboration with the unions. The general regula-
tion of wages and hours was not normally dealt with
by the works council, except in so far as this was
covered by works rules (Arbeitsordnung), for which
its approval was required. It could intervene to
prevent the dismissal of workers, or appeal on their
behalf to the Labour Court to secure reinstatement
or the payment of monetary compensation as an
6 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
alternative. It was charged with seeing that indus-
trial legislation was duly observed by the employer.
It could demand a quarterly report from the em-
ployer concerning wages, output, profits, and other
matters relevant to the claims of labour. It had
access to wages books and other information. It
could require the presentation of accounts with full
explanations. It had a statutory right to nominate
one or two members on the board of directors of a
joint stock company.
The works councils were extremely successful in
regard to that part of their work which concerned
the safeguarding of the employees' immediate in-
terest: in such matters, for example, as the super-
vision of collective bargains, the protection of in-
dividual workmen against victimization or harsh
treatment, and in generally upholding the workers'
rights in office, mine, and factory. They were on
the whole far less effective in respect of those func-
tions which were intended to enable them to parti-
cipate in the management of the enterprise.
Taking it all in all, the Works Councils Act un-
questionably constituted a decisive step in the direc-
tion of industrial democracy. The works council
movement represented, indeed, the most notable
rise in the status of the workers by hand and brain
which occurred in the Western countries during the
last twenty years.
Another progressive measure was the Labour
Courts Act, 1926. This set up local Labour Courts,
district Labour Courts of appeal, and a Reich
Labour Court at Leipzig to act as the ultimate
tribunal of revision.
The jurisdiction of these courts was very wide,
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE 7
and included all labour cases previously coming
before the civil courts. They were competent to
decide questions relating to particular disagree-
ments between individual employers and employees,
and disputes arising out of collective agreements.
Elaborate machinery for conciliation was also set
up. This was of two kinds: official conciliation
boards or conciliators appointed by the Ministry
of Labour; and unofficial or voluntary conciliation
organs.
Where no settlement of a trade dispute could be
obtained by agreement, one of the conciliation
officers (Schlichter) or the Minister of Labour could
in the last resort declare a decision to be binding
on both parties. Such awards were intended to be
imposed only in very exceptional circumstances;
and the main responsibility for determining the
conditions of employment was originally left with
the representatives of the industry.
Gradually, however, more and more use came to
be made of the Government's powers until, under
the Briining administration, the actual declaration
or the contingent possibility of a compulsory wage
award by one of the conciliation officials became of
great importance in industrial negotiations. This
development had the effect of weakening the power
and undermining the influence of the trade unions
because they were unable to demand conditions
better than those fixed by the official award or likely
to be so fixed. It thus contributed to the disastrous
breakdown in the power of organized labour when
it was faced with the Nazi challenge in 1933.
This brief account will give some idea, however
inadequate, of the remarkable position attained by
8 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
labour under the Weimar Republic. Great advances
were made in the power of trade unions; a vast
extension took place in the scope of collective bar-
gaining; the works councils enabled the employees
to safeguard and uphold the rights of the workers
in a new and unprecedented manner; the labour
courts gave the representatives of the workpeople
an equal share with the employer's representatives
in the judicial determination of industrial disputes ;
while the conciliation machinery did much to pro-
mote the peaceful settlement of large-scale conflicts.
The trade unions were, moreover, entrusted with
important functions in the administration of the
social insurance system.
At every point the right of the organized workers
to be represented by men of their own choosing
was recognized. At every stage the force of law was
given to rights previously non-existent or existing
only precariously here and there as a matter of
practice. In every instance the manifest aim of the
State was to promote freedom and responsibility
for the workpeople, and to assist them in the
struggle for industrial democracy. The regime re-
mained capitalist, and therefore did not satisfy the
revolutionary wing of the working-class movement,
which demanded a fundamental change in the
economic order; but its achievements represented
an enormous advance for labour over the previous
condition of affairs.
The Liquidation of the Working-class Movement
The subject of industrial relations engaged the
attention of the Nazi Government shortly after its
accession to power. Hitler became Chancellor in
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE 9
January 1933. On 2 May the Nazis seized all trade-
union buildings, arrested all the union leaders, and
confiscated the trade-union property. In the follow-
ing month the Social Democratic party was sup-
pressed and the few remaining leaders taken into
custody. In July the formation of all new parties
was forbidden. From that moment the German
labour movement was liquidated. It has been
truly said that Germany no longer has any working-
class organization in the accepted meaning of the
term.
In January 1934 the Nazis promulgated the 'Act
for the organization of national labour 1 in which the
leading principles of the new dispensation are to be
found. This statute repealed eleven Acts and Orders
containing almost the whole mass of labour law
which had been passed since 1918.
The first part of the National Labour Act deals
with the leader of the establishment and the con-
fidential council. In each establishment the owner
of the undertaking as the leader (or Fuhrer) and the
salaried and wage-earning employees as his followers
or vassals (Gefolgschaft) are directed to 'work to-
gether for the furtherance of the purposes of the
establishment and for the benefit of the nation and
the State in general'. There are several exhortatory
provisions of this kind which have no precise mean-
ing and no legal significance whatever.
The proprietor of a business is transformed by
the Act into its Fuhrer ', but the change is merely
verbal. The Act lays it down that the leader is to
make decisions for his followers in all matters
affecting the establishment. He is enjoined to pro-
mote their welfare, and they in turn are bidden to
10 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
be loyal to him as fellow members of the works
community. The owner, or directors of a company,
may appoint a person taking a responsible part in
the management to represent him or them.
In establishments employing not less than
twenty persons Vertrauensmanner ( c confidential
men') are to be appointed from among the followers
to advise the leader. Under his presidency they
constitute the Vertrauensrat ('confidential council')
of the works or business.
The Confidential Council
The size of the confidential council varies
from two to ten persons, according to the magni-
tude of the undertaking. A confidential man must
be not less than twenty-five years old. He must
have worked in the undertaking for at least a year
and have been engaged in the same occupation
for at least two years. He must be in posssession
of civic rights and belong to the German Labour
Front. He must, moreover, be 'characterized by
exemplary human qualities, and guaranteed to
devote himself unreservedly at all times to the
National State'. He must, in short, be a complete
Nazi.
That this is the obvious intention is made clear
by the method of appointment. The Act required
that once a year the leader of the establishment
should draw up a list of confidential men in agree-
ment with the chairman of the Nazi 'cell' or party
unit in the business. The faithful vassals were
then supposed to have the privilege of voting for
or against the list by ballot. If the works Ftihrer
and the local Nazi chairman could not agree on
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE 1 1
the persons to be nominated, or if the followers
failed to approve the list, the Labour Trustee a
State official of whom more will be said later was
authorized to appoint the confidential council.
Even this slight opportunity given by the
original Act for the workers to register their
approval or disapproval of the list of persons
nominated for the confidential council was with-
drawn at an early stage. Since 1935 there have
been no further 'elections', and the confidential
men who then held office have been continued in
their positions ever since.
The functions of a confidential council are vastly
different from those performed by a negotiating
organ in countries where the workers are free to
appoint their own representatives to bargain or
co-operate with the employer or his association.
The all-important questions of wages and hours of
work are removed from its jurisdiction.
Instead, the council is entrusted with the duty
of 'strengthening mutual confidence within the
works community'. It may give advice concerning
measures directed to increasing efficiency; the
formulation and carrying out of the general condi-
tions of employment; safety measures, and the
strengthening of the ties which bind the various
members of the establishment to one another and
to the establishment. It must endeavour to settle
disputes within the factory. Its views must be
obtained before penalties are imposed under the
factory rules.
In all these matters the council exercises only
advisory powers. The employer is not compelled
to accept its recommendations. Nor is there any
12 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
indication of the manner in which the bonds of
community within the undertaking are to be
strengthened.
On National Labour Day (i May) the members
of the confidential council are required to take a
solemn oath before the followers 'to perform the
duties of their office exclusively for the benefit of
the establishment and of the nation as a whole,
setting aside all private interests, and to set an
example to the members of the establishment by
the life which they lead and the way in which they
perform their duties'. This ludicrous ceremony
scarcely amounts to more than an attempt to
overcome the conflict of interests between employer
and employees by means of a verbal incantation.
It is obvious that where the instruments of pro-
duction and distribution are privately owned (as
they are in Germany) the interests of the partners
in production labour and capital are in some
respects similar and in other respects conflicting.
As against other industries or rival undertakings in
the same industry or as against consumers or in
any sphere where there is a struggle to obtain a
larger share of the national income, there is within
a particular commercial or industrial undertaking
a genuine identity of interest between employer
and employees. But within each industrial or
commercial firm there is also a conflict of interest
between the employees, who desire a higher rate of
wages, and the employer, who seeks a higher rate
of profit or increased earnings of management. No
mouthing of verbal formulae emphasizing the
works community and the subordination of private
interests to the common welfare will abolish this
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE 13
conflict so long as the objective conditions which
produce it are unchanged. There is no objective
change of this kind in Nazi Germany.
The confidential council is to be convened when
necessary by the leader of the firm or at the
request of half the confidential men. The office is
an honorary one, and terminates when the holder
of it leaves his employment or resigns. A confi-
dential man may not, however, be dismissed unless
economic conditions necessitate the closing of the
works or department in which he is employed;
or unless he commits misconduct. But he may be
removed by the Labour Trustee on the grounds of
his unsuitability in circumstances or person.
The Labour Trustees
The all-powerful labour trustees (Treuhdnder
der Arbeit] are Reich officials appointed by the
Government for large economic areas. They come
under the direction of the Minister of Labour.
Their task, broadly, is to ensure the main-
tenance of industrial peace. They are aided im-
mensely in this task by the fact that strikes and
lock-outs are not tolerated and although not
formally proscribed by law would be instantly
suppressed by strong-arm methods; that there are
no trade unions; that agitators or even critics of
industrial conditions are sent without delay to a
concentration camp. But they are given a number
of positive powers by which to achieve their
statutory purpose. They supervise the formation
and activities of the confidential councils; they
are authorized to give decisions where an appeal is
lodged by a majority of the confidential council
14 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
against the general conditions of employment
formulated by an employer a power which is
seldom invoked since the confidence men are not
the representatives of the workers ; they supervise
the observance of the factory or workshop rules;
they lay down principles guiding the general
lines on which factory rules and individual con-
tracts of employment are to be framed. Most
important of all, they can lay down wage-rates for
all classes of workers. At first their power in this
respect was confined to the fixing of minimum rates
of remuneration in cases where it was 'urgently
needed for the protection of the persons employed
in a group of establishments'. Between 1934 and
the end of 1937 several thousand wage determina-
tions of this kind were issued. The policy was to
maintain the basic wage-rates operating at the
beginning of 1934. But these were minima, and
employers were free to offer higher rates if they
wished.
Since 1938, however, a decree promulgated to
implement the Four- Year Plan has enabled the
labour trustees to fix maximum as well as minimum
rates in all branches of industry. Any departure
from the scheduled rate is punishable by imprison-
ment or fine of unlimited amount. On the outbreak
of the present war the labour trustee was authorized
to lay down employment conditions even for a par-
ticular factory or firm. In this way the control over
remuneration has passed from the trade union and
the employers' association to a non-elective public
official; the voluntary collective bargain has been
superseded by the coercive wage determination.
The labour trustees have many other powers and
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE 15
duties, some of which will be mentioned later.
They act as the eyes and ears and mouthpiece of
the central government in all matters concerning
labour conditions. The tendency has been to
increase their powers and importance since they
were first created in 1934. Under the National
Labour Act it is a criminal offence for any person
wilfully and repeatedly to contravene instructions
issued by a labour trustee.
The labour trustees were required to appoint
councils of experts from the various branches of
industry in their territory for consultation on
general questions. Three-quarters of the members
were to be chosen from lists drawn up by the
German Labour Front, and had to contain a
considerable proportion of confidential men and
an equal number of employers. The labour
trustees may also appoint committees of experts to
advise them in individual cases. These advisory
bodies are of so nebulous a character, and their
powers so ill defined, that they need not be
seriously considered as a brake on the wheel of
autocracy. In practice they have been a dead letter.
On i September 1939 a decree was issued per-
mitting the labour trustees to determine the
guiding principles for establishment rules and
individual contracts of employment, and to issue
collective rules, without consulting a committee of
experts.
Social Honour Courts
The National Labour Act set up a series of
institutions known as Social Honour Courts.
These consist of the Labour Court judges sitting
1 6 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
with assessors appointed from nominees of the
German Labour Front drawn from employers and
confidential men. They are authorized to try
'gross breaches of the social duties based on the
works community' which constitute offences against
social honour.
Offences of this kind are deemed to have been
committed when an employer or other person in a
managerial position abuses his authority by 'mali-
ciously exploiting the labour of any of his followers
or wounding their sense of honour'; when a
follower that is, an employee endangers indus-
trial peace by maliciously provoking other followers,
and in particular when a confidential man interferes
unduly in the conduct of the business or disturbs
the community spirit within the works; when a
worker repeatedly makes frivolous and unjustifiable
complaints to the labour trustee or obstinately
disobeys instructions ; and when a member of the
confidential council reveals without authority any
confidential information or technical or business
secrets.
Where it is proved that by one of these means
an offence against the highly sensitive German
social honour has been committed, the Honour
Court may warn or reprimand the culprit, fine
him up to 10,000 Reichsmark, disqualify him from
holding the position of leader of the establishment
or confidential man, or remove him from his post.
It is worth noting that where a leader is disqualified,
the proceedings apply only to his capacity as
Fiihrer under the National Labour Law and do not
affect his proprietory position as employer. The
labour trustee is once again placed in a pivotal
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE IJ
position, since it is on his application that the
matter comes before the Social Honour Court.
He may attend the trial and make recommendations.
Once again, too, we find in this part of the
National Labour Act an incantation reflecting the
position of submission into which the labouring
masses have been forced by their present masters.
Every member of a works community, it is declared,
shall be responsible for the conscientious perfor-
mance of the duties incumbent upon him in conse-
quence of his position in that community. 'He shall
conduct himself in such a manner as to show him-
self worthy of the respect due to his position in the
works community. In particular, he shall devote all
his powers to the service of the establishment and
subserve the common good, always bearing in mind
his responsibility.' This is not law by any possible
definition. It is a mere doctrine of obedience at all
costs and in all circumstances.
The Social Honour Courts were probably never
intended to be much more than a window-dressing
display. A number of cases were brought before
them in 1934 and 1935, but since 1936 they have
possessed little importance.
The Abolition of Unemployment
The most conspicuous feature of the Nazi regime
in the field of industry has been the abolition of
unemployment. The number of unemployed when
Hitler took office was in the neighbourhood of
7 millions, and one of the first aims of his govern-
ment was to remove this dangerous threat to econo-
mic and political stability.
The elimination of the curse of unemployment
1 8 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
from the Third Reich is an undeniable fact. The
unchallenged statistics show a progressive reduction
of unemployed workers from 6 millions at the be-
ginning of 1933 to 4-8 millions in June 1933 and
37 millions in October of the same year; thence it
fell to an average of 2,268,000 in 1934, 2,150,000 in
1935, 1,076,000 in October 1936, and 502,000 in
1 937. Since then there has been a continual shortage
of labour in Germany. The unemployment prob-
lem has disappeared, and persons out of work are
either unemployable, in course of changing their
jobs, or disqualified from being employed.
No one who is conscious of the misery and waste
caused by the chronic unemployment which has
existed for so long in Britain and the United States
would be disposed to question the magnitude or
importance of this achievement. It has been accom-
plished by a radical transformation of the economic
system involving the most stringent controls over
every aspect of economic life prices, profits, wages,
hours, consumption, output, foreign trade, currency,
foreign exchange, &c. A study of these changes is a
technical task for the professional economist. Here
we are concerned only with those aspects of econo-
mic policy which bear directly on the position of
labour. The extent to which industrial servitude
and regimentation has been exacted as the price for
the elimination of unemployment is either not
realized by those who emphasize only the final
result or glossed over as though it were merely an
irrelevant incident.
The first step was the introduction of 'substitute
employment* on a large scale. By this is meant
work performed not for money wages but for mere
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE 19
maintenance. This was provided through the labour
service, the land service, and relief works. There
was an average of 800,000 persons engaged in labour
of this kind in 1934, and in the spring of that year the
number exceeded a million. These people were given
maintenance in kind on a subsistence level, often
under conditions involving considerable hardship.
In June 1933 a law was passed to reduce un-
employment, and this indicates the principles on
which relief works were supposed to be undertaken
almost from the beginning of the Nazi regime. The
Minister of Finance was empowered to expend
Rm. 1,000 millions with a view to promoting
employment in Germany. Among the purposes
specifically named were repairs and additions to
dwelling-houses and buildings used for administra-
tive work; bridges and other public structures;
repairs to farm-buildings and dwellings for agricul-
tural workers ; the construction of small suburban
settlements and agricultural settlements; the recti-
fication of watercourses ; the provision of plant for
supplying gas, water, and electricity; subterranean
constructional work undertaken by public authori-
ties. It was expressly declared that the unemployed
workers engaged in these tasks were not to be
regarded as having entered a relation of employ-
ment or service within the meaning of the labour
laws, and were therefore not entitled to either the
protection or the status of an employee. They were
to receive unemployment relief (i.e. unemployment
benefit, emergency benefit, or public assistance),
vouchers to the value of Rm. 25 a month, for the
purchase of clothing, linen, and household utensils ;
and a hot meal on every working day.
20 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
The objectives named in the Act were in fact
not pursued. The labour made available by it was
actually directed almost entirely to rearmament pur-
poses, direct or indirect, including such items as
the building of military roads.
Labour Service
In June 1935 the Labour Service Act was passed,
by which the German Labour Service was made a
permanent feature of the regime. It requires of all
young Germans of either sex that they shall serve
as industrial conscripts on work of public utility.
The strength of the Labour Service was subse-
quently fixed at 200,000 men and the period of
service at six months. Normally the calling up takes
place in the nineteenth year of age, but liability to
service extends between the ages of 18 and 25.
On 4 September 1939 the strength of the female
corps of the National Labour Service was brought
up to 100,000 working girls. The National Work
Leader was authorized to call up unmarried women
between 17 and 25 years of age not engaged in
full-time employment, not attending vocational or
educational courses, and not urgently required to
assist their families in agricultural work. Thus,
300,000 persons a year were absorbed into the
Labour Service as industrial conscripts.
In May 1934 a statute was passed regulating what
it described as 'the allocation of employment'. This
enabled the president of the Reich Institution for
Employment Exchanges and Unemployment In-
surance to prohibit the engagement, in districts with
a high percentage of unemployment, of wage-earn-
ing or salaried employees not resident therein.
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE 21
Astriction to the Soil
The president could also order that persons em-
ployed in agriculture at the date of his instructions,
or who had been so employed during the previous
three years, should not be employed on other work
without permission. Furthermore, industrial or
commercial firms, or even private persons employ-
ing workers who had formerly been agricultural
labourers at any time during the preceding three
years, were bound to dismiss them when directed to
do so. A little later (in February 1935) the qualifica-
tion of three years was removed, and the restriction
could then operate so as to prevent the further
employment of workers who had been engaged in
agricultural pursuits at any time.
Thus there was introduced by the Nazi Govern-
ment one of the most reactionary measures in the
history of the" modern world: an astriction to the
soil similar to that which obtained in the Middle
Ages, except that whereas in feudal times it was the
villein or serf with land of his own who was bound
to the soil, in twentieth-century Germany it is the
landless agricultural labourer who is not merely
bound to the soil but forced to return to the land
after he has left it.
The peasant was dealt with by the Hereditary
Farms Law of 1933 on similar lines. This Act,
which applied to farms not exceeding about 300
acres, prohibited the owners from alienating or
mortgaging their land. They were entailed so as to
pass automatically from father to son. More than
5 million persons living on about 700,000 farms
22 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
about a third of the agricultural population of Ger-
many were affected by this law.
The Land Help
Another step in the same direction was the Land
Help (Landhilfe) which was established early in the
Hitler regime. The purpose of this was to settle
young unemployed persons on the land. Farmers
who engaged such workers received a monthly grant
payable out of unemployment insurance funds. The
workers themselves received a small allowance in
money in addition to their keep. About 160,000-
180,000 young men and women were set to work on
the land in this way by a method which is strangely
reminiscent of the Speenhamland system which
prevailed in England during the Napoleonic wars.
The essential feature of this system was an allow-
ance paid out of the rates to supplement the wages
of able-bodied workmen in low-paicj employment.
It was often associated with a bread scale graduating
the relief according to the price of bread. The
complaints which have been made against the
modern German Land Help indicate to competent
observers that its main use is to reduce unemploy-
ment benefit, provide landowners and farmers with
cheap labour and strengthen the machinery of com-
pulsion over the individual.' 1
From 1936 onwards a series of measures were
introduced covering the rest of the employed popula-
tion which were of the utmost importance. The
frenzied intensification of military preparations by
the Nazi leaders, the decision to speed up the con-
1 Organized Labour in Four Continents: 'Germany', by Erich
Roll, p. 114.
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE 23
struction of the Western fortifications, and the
deliberate intention of placing the entire nation on
a war footing at a time when Germany was still
nominally at peace with her neighbours, led to the
imposition of a policy which deprived the industrial
population of Germany of the characteristics of free
men and marked them with the stigma of helots.
This enslavement of the workers was not caused by
any external pressure on Germany. It was adopted
deliberately as a settled policy.
Industrial Conscription
In June 1938 a decree empowered the govern-
ment to require any one to perform work of urgent
national importance. This order contained a proviso
guaranteeing that those who were called up should
receive not less remuneration than the wages they
had formerly earned. In February 1939 a further
decree declared that the official employment ex-
changes should have power to requisition the ser-
vices of all persons resident in German territory for
the performance of 'any work which the Commis-
sioner for the Four- Year Plan (Goering) might
designate to be of particular importance and
urgency'. For this purpose private and public em-
ployers can be required to release persons in their
employment.
The new system is one of unmitigated industrial
conscription. There is no stipulation that a man
shall be employed in his own" trade or occupa-
tion, and it is even expressly provided that workers
requisitioned for service may be required to under-
go a course of training to prepare them for the
compulsory work which they have to perform.
24 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
There is no limit of time for the period of conscrip-
tion, no restriction as to the place in which the work
is to be carried out, and no provision for enabling
married men to be accompanied by their wives and
families. Men called up are bound to use their own
tools if required.
Workpeople engaged on compulsory labour have
no voice whatever in the determination of their
wages, hours, or conditions of employment,
although they are often required to serve private
firms engaged in carrying out the Four- Year Plan
on a profit-making basis. They merely have to
submit to the terms, whatever they may be,
Applicable to the new place of employment'; and
a contract of service is deemed to be concluded
on the terms stated in the requisitioning order.
The decree of February 1939 introduced another
striking change. The Minister of Labour was
given power 'for special national reasons' to
prohibit employment from being commenced or
terminated without the consent of the employment
exchange. A workman is thus not at liberty to
leave his employment of his own free will if he is
dissatisfied with the wages or conditions or because
the employer has treated him badly or because a
foreman has been oppressive or for any of the
multitudinous reasons which lead to a change of
situation under free conditions when discontent
or friction arise. He cannot take a better or more
convenient job, or move from one town to another
for domestic reasons. He cannot refuse to accept a
situation which he regards as unsatisfactory or
unsuitable, for he can be prevented from obtaining
employment elsewhere. The employer, on his part,
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE 25
is not able to discharge an unsatisfactory or inefficient
or discontented workman unless he can satisfy an
official that there is good cause for his so doing.
On i September 1939 a slight modification was
introduced by a further decree. The withdrawal
of the right of employers and wage-earning or
salaried employees of all grades (including trainees,
improvers, and apprentices) to terminate their
employment without consent of the Government
was reaffirmed, and all notices to quit work given
without previous consent were declared null and
void. But certain exceptions to the general rule
were admitted. Thus, where both parties agree to
terminate the contract, the consent of the govern-
ment employment exchange is not required. The
same applies in the case of an employee who has
been engaged on probation or as extra assistant
and the employment is terminated within one
month. A further exception is made if the business
has to suspend operations.
The first of these exceptions is the most impor-
tant. It has the effect of permitting a dissolution
of the employment relation by mutual consent,
but of not permitting it without the assent of the
State where only one of the parties desires to
terminate. Thus, the dissatisfied employer must
prima facie remain dissatisfied with his workman;
and the discontented workmen continue at their
work unless the Government wills it otherwise.
This same decree of September 1939 elaborates
further the restriction on the engagement of
employees laid down in the earlier regulations.
It forbids not only business or administrative
undertakings of all kinds, but
26 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
holders, from engaging workers without the consent
of the employment exchange. These provisions
are applied also to relatives who regularly assist
members of the family, even if they are not
employed for wages or salary. Thus, a wife cannot
help her husband in his business, nor a son his
father, without permission from the State.
Any contrayentior^ or evasion of the decree is a
criminal offence punishable with fine or imprison-
ment, or both.
In the National Labour Act, 1934, much space
was devoted to 'protection against dismissal'. It
contained provisions (adopted with certain modifi-
cations from the Works Councils Act) whereby if a
worker were dismissed after having worked for a
year in an establishment employing not less than
ten persons, he could lodge a complaint with the
Labour Court asking for a revocation of the
dismissal 'if it constitutes an undue hardship and
is not necessitated by conditions in the establish-
ment'. The Labour Court could then revoke the
dismissal, although it was obliged to award compen-
sation (which might amount to as much as four
months' remuneration) to be paid to the worker if
the employer preferred to make redress in that
form.
The National Labour Act, 1934 (again adapting
principles embodied in a decree of 1923), also
sought to control large-scale dismissals by requiring
every owner of a business employing fewer than
100 persons to notify the labour trustee before
dismissing more than nine workpeople; or in the
case of larger undertakings, before dismissing
10 per cent, of the persons usually employed
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE 27
there, and before throwing out of work more than
fifty persons in the course of a month. These
prospective dismissals would not become operative
without the approval of the labour trustee until a
period of four weeks had elapsed after sending him
the notification; and he could delay them for a
maximum period of two months. If the entre-
preneur were not in a position to keep his workers
fully employed for so long, the labour trustee could
authorize short time and a spreading of the work.
Despite several objections which could be
brought against these provisions, they were clearly
designed on the one hand to give the individual
worker an enhanced security, and on the other to
assist in reducing or preventing unemployment:
that was the manifest reason for interfering with
or delaying the employer's right to dismiss. There
was, moreover, no coercion or pressure of any
kind on the worker. He was free to leave his
employment, to change his situation, to enter a
fresh occupation at any time.
A State of Servitude
What a chasm separates the benevolent intention
of these provisions of 1934, which were essentially
a legacy from the Weimar Republic, from the
ruthless measures of 1938-9! Within five short
years the Nazis had adopted a policy of forced
labour for any work which falls within the scope
of the Four- Year Plan, whether carried out by
private firms for profit or by ^public authorities.
They had compelled those who had ever been
employed in agricultural labour to return to their
former occupation. They had astricted to the soil
a8 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
those actually engaged in agriculture whether as
farmers or as labourers. They had compelled men
to leave their jobs, their trades, their homes, their
families, their districts, to work in distant places as
industrial conscripts for unlimited periods of time.
They had prbHEItecL employees from freely leaving
their employment and from freely entering into
employment. They had deprived workers of any
voice in the settlement of wages, hours, and
working conditions. They had destroyed not
merely trade unions but the very bases on which
trade unionism is founded the right to strike and
the right to quit work.
With these oppressive measures riveted upon
them the employed masses of German men and
women have ceased to be free citizens of the world
of labour. They have entered a state of peonage
the like of which has not been seen in the countries
of Western Europe for centuries.
The workers of Britain and France are being
called upon during the War to accept a degree of
regimentation and State Control which may prove
not far short of that imposed on the German
people. But no comparison whatever can be
drawn. Here we give up liberty in order to fight
more effectively to retain our freedom. In Germany
there never has been and never will be freedom for
the workers under Nazi rule.
With us, the political and trade union organiza-
tion of labour remains intact, shouldering large
governmental responsibilities and filling a more
important r6le in national affairs than ever before
in its history. In Germany, it has been completely
obliterated, and will never revive until the Hitler
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE 29
regime is overthrown. With us, it is a war-time
necessity. With them, it is a peace-time policy*
Those who are unduly impressed by the abolition
of unemployment in Germany should therefore
consider the consequences of Nazi labour policy
on the position of the employed. A different
judgement is then likely to emerge as to the
desirability of that policy. It is true that the most
comprehensive suppression of the workers' freedom
came in 1938-9, after the worst phases of unemploy-
ment had been mastered. But the main principles
of the industrial tyranny practised in these later
years were inherent in the policies adopted from
1934 onwards. The solution of the unemployment
problem is a task for which everyone with any
intelligence or humanity must feel a deep concern ;
but no sane person would be willing to sacrifice the
elementary" rights, liberty, and welfare of the 80
or 90 per cent, of the working-class population
which is employed for the sake of the 10 or 15
per cent, which is without work.
The Labour Front
A word must now be said about the Labour
Front. This is the only association which the
workers are permitted to join; but it is in no sense a
genuine labour organization. It is a vast institution
containing both employers and employed a kind
of 'company union' (to use an American expression)
on a national scale, but one which is dominated
and directed by the Nazi party. Its aim was
described in sonorous phrases in a decree of
October 1934 as being the formation of 'a real
community of achievement amongst the whole
30 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
German people ... It must seek to ensure that
every individual can take his place in the economic
life of the nation in that mental and physical
condition which will make for his greatest achieve-
ment, and thereby secure the greatest gain to the
community as a whole. . . . The Labour Front
must seek to preserve industrial peace by incul-
cating in economic leaders an understanding of the
legitimate claims of their followers, and in the
followers an understanding of the situation and
the possibilities of the business in which they are
working/ And so on in similar vein.
The ostensible functions of the Labour Front
are threefold: it supervises vocational training; it
is concerned with various aspects of welfare, such
as working-class housing, amenities in factories
and workshops, the relief of distress among its
members; and it administers the ' Strength through
Joy' movement. In all these spheres it no doubt
gives or obtains for the workers benefits that they
would not otherwise obtain in the present state of
Germany, but which they obtained in larger measure
in pre-Nazi days through the activities of the trade
unions. It has at its disposal considerable financial
resources and the authority of the Nazi party.
The funds of the Labour Front are chiefly
derived from contributions levied on the members,
substantial in amount and compulsory in character.
No account is rendered of these funds. The
Labour Front is thus from one point of view a
powerful instrument for the collection of additional
taxation from employers and workpeople alike.
It also serves an ominous but highly important
purpose in keeping the authorities 'informed' of
LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE 31
any disloyalty or discontent manifested by em-
ployers and workers. Through its complicated
organization it is able to maintain a close sur-
veillance on the individual employer and workman.
The Labour Front is essentially a substitute
organization designed to fill, in appearance at
least, the aching void left by the disappearance of
the trade unions, the political parties, and the
working-class representation in local, provincial,
and central government just as the confidential
council is a substitute for the enormous gap made
by the abolition of the works council. The ghosts
of the past walk again.
The Labour Front has no jurisdiction in regard
to wages, hours, and conditions of employment.
The Ministry of Labour has, indeed, issued
frequent decrees and pronouncements enjoining
the officials of the Labour Front not to interfere
in these matters, which, as we have seen, are
determined by the labour trustees. Even in regard
to industrial welfare it can do no more than
recommend, though the Nazi officials who direct
it no doubt have at their disposal methods of
securing compliance.
* Strength through Joy *
The 'Strength through Joy' movement is essen-
tially a diversion. By providing millions of workers
with facilities for cheap holidays and travel excur-
sions, by organizing entertainments, concerts,
dances, athletics and games on a vast scale, it has
done much to keep the German working man
amused, or bemused, and his attention diverted
from present discontents. It is obviously derived
32 LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE
from the dopo lavoro instituted several years pre-
viously in Fascist Italy.
The name of the movement is significant. By
emphasizing the acquisition of strength through
the enjoyment of recreations and leisure time
activities, an attempt is made to keep the thoughts
of the workers headed away from the central fact
of the present situation: namely, the total annihila-
tion of their organized power.
Conclusion
Divergent views are held by observers in this
country and elsewhere as to the general trend of
the German economy. Some investigators regard
the Nazi regime as having re-established capitalism
on a basis of monopoly, autarchy, and governmental
control. Others consider the Third Reich to be a
form of perverted communism in which the sole
aim is the lust for State power. A third view
suggests that Hitler's Germany is simply a military
dictatorship in which the only criterion of economic
measures is the war potential of the nation.
It is not necessary to decide which, if any, of
these doctrines is the correct one, in order to arrive
at one conclusion of unquestionable truth: namely,
that the status, the freedom, the power, and the
conditions of work of the employed workers in
Germany have deteriorated to an almost incon-
ceivable extent under the Nazi Government.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
FOR those who wish to read in more detail about the
background and causes of the present state of the world,
the following notes may be of some assistance.
The best and most up-to-date general picture of
England as she was from the rise of Germany in 1870 to
the outbreak of the First World War is given in Mr.
Ensor's book England i8yo-igi4 (15$.)* which is Volume
14 of the new Oxford History of England. A reliable
German account of German foreign policy during the
same period is given in E. Brandenburg's From Bismarck
to the World War (trans, by A. E. Adams, 15$.)- Mr.
C. R. M. F. Cruttwell's History of the Great War 1914-
1918 (15$.) may be recommended as the standard one-
volume work on the subject. Mr. G. M. Gathorne-
Hardy deals with the period between the two wars in his
Short History of International Affair s, 1920-1938 (%s. 6d.) 9
a book issued under the auspices of the Royal Institute of
International Affairs.
The two volumes of Speeches and Documents on
International Affairs, edited by Professor A. B. Keith
(World's Classics, 2s. 6d. each), and the selection of
political writings in Sir Alfred Zimmern's Modern
Political Doctrines (js. 6d.) illustrate the conflict of
doctrines so much in evidence to-day.
The outbreak of the present war is described and
discussed in the brilliant series of lectures delivered to
crowded audiences in Oxford in the first ' war-term * of
1939 by H. A. L. Fisher, A. D. Lindsay, Gilbert
Murray, R. C. K. Ensor, Harold Nicolson, and J. L.
Brierly, and collected and published in one volume
under the title The Background and Issues of the
War (6s.).
The prices quoted above are net and held good in
January 1940, but are liable to alteration without notice.
OXFORD PAMPHLETS
ON WORLD AFFAIRS
1. THE PROSPECTS OF CIVILIZATION, by SIR ALFRED ZIMMERN.
2. THE BRITISH EMPIRE, by H. V. HODSON.
3. MEIN KAMPF, by R. C. K. ENSOR.
4. ECONOMIC SELF-SUFFICIENCY, by A. G. B. FISHER.
5. 'RACE' IN EUROPE, by JULIAN HUXLEY.
6. THE FOURTEEN POINTS AND THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES,
by G. M. GATHORNE-HARDY.
7. COLONIES AND RAW MATERIALS, by H. D. HENDERSON.
8. ' LIVING-SPACE' AND POPULATION PROBLEMS, by R. R.
KUCZVNSKI.
9. TURKEY, GREECE, AND THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN,
by G. F. HUDSON.
10. THE DANUBE BASIN, by C. A. MACARTNEY.
11. THE DUAL POLICY, by SIR ARTHUR SALTER, M.P.
12. ENCTRCLEMFNT, by J. L. BRIKRLY.
13. THE REFUGEE QUESTION, by SIR JOHN HOPE SIMPSON.
14. THE TREATY OF BREST-LITOVSK, by J. W. WHEELER-BFNNETT.
15. CZECHOSLOVAKIA, by R. BIRLEY.
16. PROPAGANDA IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS, by E. H. CARR.
17. THE BLOCKADE, 1914-1919, by W. ARNOLD- HORSIER.
18. NATIONAL SOCIALISM AND CHRISTIANITY, by N. MICKLEM.
19. CAN GERMANY STAND THE STRAIN? by L. P. THOMPSON.
20. WHO HITLER IS, by R. C. K. ENSOR.
21. THE NAZI CONCEPTION OF LAW, by J. WALTER JONES.
22. AN ATLAS OF THE WAR.
23. THE SINEWS OF WAR, by GEOFFREY CROWTHER.
24. BLOCKADE AND THE CIVILIAN POPULATION, by SIR WILLIAM
BEVERIDGE.
25. PAYING FOR THE WAR, by GEOFFREY CROWTHER.
26. THE NAVAL ROLE IN MODERN WARFARE, by ADMIRAL SIR
HERBERT RICHMOND.
27. THE BALTIC, by J. HAMPDEN JACKSON.
28. BRITAIN'S AIR POWER, by E. COLSTON SHEPHERD.
29. THE LIFE AND GROWTH OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE, by
J. A. WILLIAMSON.
30. HOW BRITAIN'S RESOURCES ARE MOBILIZED, by MAX
NICHOLSON.
31. PALESTINE, by JAMES PARKES.
32. INDIA, by L. F. RUSHBROOK WILLIAMS.
33. LABOUR UNDER NAZI RULE, by W. A. ROBSON.
34. RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY, by BARBARA WARD.
35. WAS GERMANY DEFEATED IN 1918? by CYRIL FALLS.
Other Pamnhlets are in active vrevaration
No. 33
Price 3d. net
LABOUR
UNDER
NAZI RULE
By WILLIAM A. ROBSON
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