The German National Association of Commercial Employees, also known as the German National Union of Commercial Employees (German: Deutschnationaler Handlungsgehilfen-Verband, DHV) was a German nationalist and antisemitic labour union founded in Germany in 1893. It had links with the German Social Party, the Pan-German League and the Reich Citizens' Council.
The DHV was directed against social democracy,Joan Campbell. European Labor Unions. Wesport, Connecticut, USA: Greenwood Press, 1992. pp. 163–164. had an anti-democratic and anti-liberal ideology and supported the concept of a conservative revolution.Larry Eugene Jones, James N. Retallack. Between Reform, Reaction, And Resistance: Studies in the History of German Conservatism from 1789 to 1945. Berg, 1993, p. 20. It promoted the interests of the merchant class. To prevent the spread of social democratic thoughts, it propagated patriotic and Völkisch mentality.Matthew Lange. Antisemitic anticapitalism in German culture from 1850-1933. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006, p. 224. It is considered a proto-fascist or pre-fascist movement,Peter Davies, Derek Lynch. The Routledge Companion to Fascism and the Far Right. London, England; New York, New York, USA: Routledge, p. 4. and was vocally anti-feminist. It existed between 1893 and 1933.Matthew Lange. Antisemitic Anticapitalism in German Culture from 1850-1933. University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006. pp. 224.
By 1914, the DHV had 160,000 members and by 1932 it had over 400,000 members.Joan Campbell. European labor unions. Wesport, Connecticut, USA: Greenwood Press, 1992, p. 164. It cooperated with the Nazi Party and sought to unite Nazism and political Catholicism together.Joan Campbell. European labor unions. Wesport, Connecticut, USA: Greenwood Press, 1992. pp. 163–164.
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