REMINDER
Before and After the German Revolution 1918
the Construction Union Pioneering in Germany
By Jörn Janssen
After ten years of disputes with the respective employers’ federation culminating in 1910 with eight
weeks national lockout, the employers had been defeated and in 1912 the construction workers
became united in the first national industrial union.
After the Revolution at the end of the First World War the Social Democratic government, instead of
socialising its industries, restored capitalism. Under these conditions the construction union, in an
attempt to socialise its industry, set up a national Federation of Social Construction Companies
(Verband sozialer Baubetriebe) including social housing owned by the union and its workers.
Despite the final dissolution of this construction conglomerate by the Nazi Regime this experiment
of socialisation had been most successful under capitalist conditions. Many of its sites are now on
the list of the UNESCO World Heritage.
ALL WELCOME!
Jörn Janssen, born in Düsseldorf in Germany, studied architecture in the 1950s
and worked as an architect from1960 to 1970. He was awarded his PhD in political
sciences (rer. pol.) in 1973 and became a Professor in construction economics at the
Fachhochschule Dortmund from 1972 to 1997. He was a Visiting Professor at the
University of Westminster 1997-2001, and since 1997 has been researching the
history of labour-property relations.
SEMINAR SERIES
No 32
Friday, 31 January 2020
6:30pm - 8:30pm
VENUE:
Meeting Room 3,
Finsbury Park Trust FinSpace
225-229 Seven Sisters Rd,
Finsbury Park, London,
N4 2DA
Easdale Foundation for Labour Research
Correspondence Address: 152 Fairfax Road, London, N8 0NL, UK
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