Leuschner gegen Ley. Die Abfuhr für die Nazis auf der Internationalen Arbeitskonferenz 1933 in Genf / Leuschner vs. Ley. The rebuff of the National Socialists at the International Labour Conference, Geneva 1933

Tosstorff, Reiner 2004. Leuschner gegen Ley. Die Abfuhr für die Nazis auf der Internationalen Arbeitskonferenz 1933 in Genf / Leuschner vs. Ley. The rebuff of the National Socialists at the International Labour Conference, Geneva 1933. JahrBuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung 2004 (3) , pp. 70-90.

Full text not available from this repository.

Abstract

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) convened in Geneva for its annual conference in June 1933, one month after the suppression of trade unions in Germany. According to the ILO's charter, each national deputation had to comprise two delegates from the government, one from employers and one from workers, these last two to be drawn from the 'most representative' of their organisations. Instead, Hitler's government nominated Robert Ley, the head of the new compulsory 'German Labour Front', as the 'workers' delegate'. Appointing a 'workers' delegate' in Fascist Italy in this manner had always provoked some protest at the conference. The Nazis anticipated similar protests, and selected two former trade union leaders as 'advisors'. However, by their very refusal to state a position, these advisors revealed the amount of pressure that had been exerted on them. Their silence would probably have been insufficient to invalidate the mandate but in a private meeting with the German press, Ley made racist remarks about other delegates, which filtered through to the international press and created a furore. After several consultations with Hitler, the delegation was withdrawn. Although Ley's character played a part in this debacle, it was caused by the ILO's tri-partite structure; the protest came exclusively from the workers' (i.e. trade union) delegates, who also submitted a motion of support for Jewish refugees. The public defeat for the Nazis had only ever been mentioned in passing in the historiography, which concentrates on the more prominent international gatherings of the time at which the Nazis played a more successful role. This article is the first attempt to analyse the clash in detail. It also contributes to the biography of Wilhelm Leuschner, a key leader of the 20 July coup. The research was based on the ILO archives and contemporary press coverage.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > History, Archaeology and Religion
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DD Germany
Publisher:	Förderverein für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung
ISSN:	1610-093X
Related URLs:	http://www.arbeiterbewegung-jahrbuch.de/...
Last Modified:	12 Feb 2016 22:06
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/3946

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item