German Trade Union Confederation

The German Trade Union Confederation (; DGB) is an umbrella organisation (sometimes known as a national trade union center) for eight German trade unions, in total representing more than 5.4 million people (31 December 2025). It was founded in Munich on 12 October 1949.

The DGB coordinates joint demands and activities within the German trade union movement. It represents the member unions in contact with the government authorities, the political parties and the employers' organisations. However, the umbrella organisation is not directly involved in collective bargaining and does not conclude collective labour agreements. The DGB has persistently pushed for codetermination, wherein workers also serve in managerial functions along with the ownership.

Union delegates elect committees for 9 districts, 66 regions and the federal centre. The organisation holds a federal congress every four years. This assembly sets the framework for trade union policies and elects five Federal Executives. Together with the presidents of the member unions they constitute the DGB's executive committee. The members of the executive committee, together with the DGB regional presidents and 70 delegates from the unions, form a Federal Council which meets once a year to make decisions on national issues. The DGB also has a youth organisation, DGB-Jugend.

The DGB has its headquarters in Berlin. It is a member of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).

History

Until 1933

As first German confederation of unions at 14 March 1892 the Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften Deutschlands was founded in Halberstadt. It represented 57 national and some local unions with approximate 300,000 people in total. After World War I unions had to reorganise. During a congress in Nuremberg from 30 June until 5 July 1919 the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (ADGB) was founded as an umbrella organisation of 52 unions with more than 3 million members. The ADGB may be seen as predecessor of today's DGB. Like today, there also existed a conservative counterpart of lesser importance. Curiously, this conservative organisation was named Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB. On 2 May 1933 all trade unions were dissolved by the Nazis.

1946–1949 After World War II German unions had to reorganize once again. Various regional and issue-specific unions formed under the Western occupations of Germany.

On 9–11 February 1946 the Freier Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund (FDGB) was founded in Berlin as a confederation of 15 unions in the Soviet occupation zone.

On 23–25 April 1947 the Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB was founded in Bielefeld as a confederation of 12 unions in the Allied-occupied Germany.

Foundations in the American occupation zone: 24/25 August 1946: Freier Gewerkschaftsbund Hessen 30 August – 1 September 1946: Gewerkschaftsbund Württemberg-Baden 27–29 March 1947: Bayerischer Gewerkschaftsbund

Foundations in the French occupation zone: 15/16 February 1947: Gewerkschaftsbund Süd-Württemberg und Hohenzollern 1/2 March 1947: Badischer Gewerkschaftsbund 2 May 1947: Allgemeiner Gewerkschaftsbund Rheinland-Pfalz

On 12–14 October, the 7 umbrella organisation in West Germany merged into the West German DGB as a confederation of 16 single trade unions.

+ Number of members, 30 June 1949 Allgemeiner Gewerkschaftsbund Rheinland-Pfalz 232,117 Badischer Gewerkschaftsbund 92,257 Bayerischer Gewerkschaftsbund815,161 DGB of the British zone 2,885,036 Freier Gewerkschaftsbund Hessen 397,008 Gewerkschaftsbund Süd-Württemberg und Hohenzollern 75,502 Gewerkschaftsbund Württemberg-Baden 464,905 Total 4,961,986

Reunification–present In 1990, the members of the FDGB of the German Democratic Republic joined the members of the DGB. In recent years, many member unions of the DGB have merged, so today the DGB has only 8 members. This was seen as a progress by many unionists who hoped for stronger representation, while others claim that strong member unions like ver.di with its two million members have considerably weakened the DGB as a roof organization.Hans-Otto Hemmer: Nur noch ein Restposten? – 60 Jahre DGB, in: Jahrbuch für Forschungen zur Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung, No. III/2009.

In general, the influence of German trade unions has declined since 1990 and had to accept shrinking real incomes and a reform of the welfare system in 2004 ("Hartz IV laws"), which put additional pressure on wages. For some years, the DGB and its member unions have been campaigning for a minimum wage to be introduced in Germany. Well into the 1990s, they had rejected this idea because they got better results from their strong position in the German system of collective bargaining.See also Hemmer 2009.

Affiliates

Today

Members of DGB unions 2025 Union Women Men Non-Binary In totalIG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt (Construction, Agriculture, Environment) IG BAU 53,766 28.79% 132,965 71.21% 186,731 3.44%IG Bergbau, Chemie, Energie (Mining, Chemicals, Energy) IG BCE 125,229 22.90% 421,466 77.08% 91 0.02% 546,786 10.07%Gewerkschaft Erziehung und Wissenschaft (Education and Science) GEW 197,041 71.77% 76,188 27.75% 1,303 0.48% 274,532 5.05%IG Metall (Metalworkers) IGM 369,389 18.33% 1,645,819 81.66% 287 0.01% 2,015,495 37.10%Gewerkschaft Nahrung-Genuss-Gaststätten (Food, Beverages and Catering) NGG 70,251 38.65% 111,424 61.30% 90 0.05% 181,765 3.35%Gewerkschaft der Polizei (Police) GdP 63,398 29.67% 150,207 70.31% 41 0.02% 213,646 3.93%Eisenbahn- und Verkehrsgewerkschaft (Railway Workers) EVG 40,529 22.14% 142,495 77.83% 60 0.03% 183,084 3.37%Vereinte Dienstleistungsgewerkschaft (United Services Union) ver.di 953,075 52.07% 877,192 47.93% 1,830,267 33.69%DGB in total DGB 1,872,678 34.47% 3,557,756 65.49% 1,872 0.04% 5,432,306 100.00%

Former affiliates Union Acronym Year merged Merged into German Railwaymen's Federation GdED 2010 EVG Textile and Clothing Union GTB 1998 IGM Wood and Plastic Union GHK 2000 IGM Building and Construction Union IG BSE 1996 IG BAU Horticulture, Agriculture and Forestry Union GGLF 1996 IG BAU Union of Mining and Energy IG BE 1997 IG BCE Chemical, Paper and Ceramic Union IG Chemie 1997 IG BCE Leather Union GL 1997 IG BCE German Postal Union DPG 2001 Ver.di Trade, Banking and Insurance Union HBV 2001 Ver.di Public Services, Transport and Traffic Union ÖTV 2001 Ver.di Printing and Paper Union DruPa 1989 IG Medien Arts Union Kunst 1989 IG Medien Media Union IG Medien 2001 Ver.di

Other unions

In 1978 the Gewerkschaft der Polizei (GdP, see above) joined the DGB as 17th union.

The Deutsche Angestellten Gewerkschaft – DAG – was a large white collar trade union. Although the DAG in the British zone 1946 was a member of the DGB in the British zone, the West German DAG never joined the West German DGB as a single member union. In 2001 the DAG merged with four existing DGB unions to become the new DGB union Ver.di.

The railway union Verkehrsgewerkschaft GDBA was a member of the other labour federation, the German Civil Service Federation. In 2010 the GDBA merged with existing DGB union TRANSNET to form the new DGB union EVG.

Presidents 1949: Hans Böckler 1951: Christian Fette 1952: Walter Freitag 1956: Willi Richter 1962: Ludwig Rosenberg 1969: Heinz Oskar Vetter 1982: Ernst Breit 1990: Heinz-Werner Meyer 1994: Dieter Schulte 2002: Michael Sommer 2014: 2022: Yasmin Fahimi

Structure

districts with regions Baden-Württemberg: 4 regions Bayern: 14 regions Berlin/Brandenburg: 4 regions Hessen/Thüringen: 6 regions Niedersachsen/Bremen/Sachsen-Anhalt: 10 regions Nord (Niedersachsen/Bremen/Sachsen-Anhalt): 7 regions Nordrhein-Westfalen: 11 regions Sachsen: 4 regions West (Rheinland-Pfalz/Saarland): 6 regions

German Trade Union Confederation

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