Research Project

Citizen and trade unionist: Ludwig Rosenberg 1946-1977

This research project is dedicated to the biography of Ludwig Rosenberg in the second half of his life. Thus, it fits in the rise of biographies of trade unionists of the last few years in which the gaps of knowledge about the trade union elite in general and about the trade union history in the Federal Republic of Germany. Being first and foremost a political, organizational, but also social-historical biography, the project also contributes to the debate on basic tendencies of the West German economic, social and political development of the postwar period.
The biography explores the political problems of trade unions in the 1950s and 1960s, their freedom of action, their internal structures and external relations and the changes in the social position of trade unions in this period. Finally, it is asked how Rosenberg can be categorized among the elite of the trade union.
The biography of Rosenberg conveys an in-depth study of the internal structures of the Federation of trade unions, of the relationship between the chairman of individual trade unions and the executive chairman of the federal board and to shaping the political culture of the trade unions. The aim of the project is to create an intelligible written biography of the period between 1946 and 1977.

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This project is supported by the Hans-Böckler-Stiftung.