GDR TRADE UNION FEDERATION IS TURNING SUBVERSIVE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700150203-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 203
• Publication Date: December 2, 1953
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/13: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700150203-8
COUNTRY GDR
SUBJECT Political - Trade unions
HOW
PUBLISHED Weekly periodical
WHERE
PUBLISHED ilamburg
DATE
PUBLISHED 9 Sep 1953
LANGUAGE German
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INFORMATION 1y53
REPORT
CD N0.
DATE OF
DATE DfST. ~ Dec 1953
N0. OF PAGES 3
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT N0.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
GDR TRADE UIuIOif FIDERATION IS TURNING SUBVLRSNE
~omment: The information in this report was condensed from an
article in the Hamburg pictorial wee}:ly Der Spiegel. This magazine
tends toxard the sensational style of reporting, and apparently re-
lies on its own reporters and correspondents for stories of this
type. No indication of the original source of the story is given]
The GDR Free German Trade Union Federation, FDGB, has become an nntigovera-
ment resistance organization. Minister President {falter Ulbricht made the re-
mark: "It is hard to believe hcw many comrades are discovering their capabili-
ties as trade unionists these days and are using the FDGB as an opposition plat-
form against the Party apparatus."
The FDGB, with its official membership of 5 :zillion, has become a hiding
place for old-line Communists and SID officials who are opposing Ulbricht. t:em-
bErship is compulsory for workers, and the organization has the largest funds of
any political organization in the GDP.. Its funds pay the expenses of moot of
the Communist prooaganda in the West and about 50 per cent of the salaries of
the "National Front" functionaries. A11 FDGB functionaries, from the top down,
are appointed by thr. SED; union functionaries in plants may net be elected with-
out the approval of the plant's party organizai:inn.
Nevertheless, on ]7 June 1953, at least 30 per cent of the FDGB functiena-
ries approved the strike calls. Federation headquarters i.n Be:?7.in i;. still re-
ceiving letters threattning strikes. At tilc 15th Session u; t}tc Central. Com-
sit9ee of the SEU, Ulbricht read a letter, written ?,y the FDGr. c;::tixr~::n of tae
Union of 9dministrati?:e, Bank, and Insurance Yorkers at Grimn:a, i.o the: ;:*ste
Control Commission: "If you knuckleheads in Berlin want our chal?womet: tc 1.aLe
advantage of their c -::,titutional right to stri're, Just keep it up: "Ulbricht
thereupon sharply nddx~tssed ..?.erbert Warltke, the chainran of tiro FDGB, and a for-
mer Communist ergani::er at zhe Blohm and Voss shipyards ai: ?famburg, with *.he
remark: "I must say, the trade union policy expressed in this letter i.s ntranrit
indeed." He, then demanded an investigation of the trade unior: memte??s and func-
tlonnries who engaged in provocations, in order to uncover their connections with
NSRB
FBI
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CLASSIFICATION RESTRICTL?D
CENTRALINTELLIGENCE~AGENCY
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/09/13: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700150203-8
underground organizations. He requested that these persons be isolated from the
other workers and that the proper organizatlonal measures be taken. A commis-
sion, made up of members of the SID Central Committee and the State Security Ser-
vice, was formed to compile a report on "The Situation in the FDGB." At the
beginning of September, this report xas submitted to Ulbricht.
The findings of the report are disastrous. It states that since 17 June the
FDGB has been unable to collect about 40 per cent of its membership dues. Nearly
one million compulsory members, most of them without any party affiliation, sim-
ply let their membership expire. In (order to combat the insistent) question:
"What is the FDGB doing with our money?" the press has been ordered to print in-
terviews wit:r workers returning from FDGB vacation homes.
The commission established another, even more alarming fact. The FDGB is
suffering from "diversionist infiltration." Ex-SID members, expelled prior to
and after 17 June, and dismissed party officials most of them old-line Communists
or "Titoists," have found a haven inside the FDGB. The only FDGB offices still
operating are those run by these men. These offices have connections with the
Yugoslav Trade Union Federation and with opposition groups in the Hest German
Trade Union Federation (DGB) which are against both h]oscow and the DGB leadership.
Wherever there are such offices of the FDGB in nationalized industries of
the GDR, they have the support of the workers. Despite personal visits by Polit-
buro members to these plants and despite large-scale operations by the State Secur-
ity Service, the Federation headquarters has been unable to replace these diver-
sionist functionaries with others who are loyal to the party line.
Discussions with these opposition groups can be risky ever. fcr functionaries
from FDGB headquarters.. Alex Stark, the former deputy chairman cf the FDGB, had
been arrested in 1951 and replaced by Rudolf fiirch:zer; later, he was rehabiliated
but is now back in ,jail. fie dared to attack an opposition group at the "Bau-Union
idord-Gst" ~ nationalized construction firm] at Torgelow. However, in his dis-
cussion with the old trade unionists there, he fared very badly. Consequently,
he was accused of "opportunism and defeatism" and arrested by the State Security
Service..
The Central Committee of the SID has now disco?rered that tryinG tc win dis-
cussions with FDGB oppositicn groups is useless. The best agitators and the most
experienced Communists are using the FDGB cs a cover. Many of the old conspira-
tors of the prewar IO?D (Communist Party of Germany) are organizing au underground
anti-Soviet move:aent within the FDGB.
As an example, the report of the commission cites the fact thst the entiz?e
courier service maintained by the strikers on 17 June 1953 was ,operated by the
railroad workers' union which, since. it had the technical facilities :rt its dis-
posal, also immediately contacted the nest German trade unions.
Wherever private and political liaison 'nroke down during the :. Ju*ie upris-
ing, the FDGB opposition groups formed "revolutionary staffs." The possibilities
for operation of these staffs must have been so fe.r-reaching, that they proa~pted
Ulbricht to make the remark: "!1'_thcuFh they rev^,-? aid any pclitica_ w n;: befor_,
a lot.of trade union lanctionarics suddenly became amazingly c?cti?.?z __. 17 June:"
After Ulbricht ?r.,atacls, iJarn'te immediately called e conf-renc> of tY.c FDGB
leaders in August. "h:~i conference brought some startling results. Re~ion:al~FDGB
headquarters present. de>ran~tr,~the wo^'rers which pr::ctically ^aou:;t,ed to demands
for tdze resignation eri the ,.:overnment, ~n3 FDGB f;anctionarl~s apnoznted L'y head-
quarters were thrown out by the :rd'rkers and their predecessors ~rere reinsta.ed.
Files containing conspiratnrinl material and belonging to the FDGD S;ert Corm..^,-
si'ms .disappeared, and Cemn:uz~st?seyJi~i?s of the West German DGB, who had llieLally
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participated in FDGB meetings, such as August Mueller of Wuppertal, Paul Freitag
~f Wanne-Eickel, and Helmut Bartsch of Berlin-Tiergarten, suddenly found themselves
exposed.by such FDGB Files supplied by unidentified sources.
? Those whom the FDGB had selected to subvert West German trade unions turned
out to be active in the DGB and to be in contact with Titoist trade union groups.
Warnke?commented: "For the first time in its existence, our whole organization
is at stake..: If we do not take energetic action, the FDGB will turn into a Fas-
cist underground organization."
It should be noted, however, that both Ulbricht and 'rlarnke were Mare of the
fact .that the FDGB had become a csmouflaged resistance organization of the rebels
of 1? Junc even before the commission submitted its report.
FDGB circles now believe that Warn::e will be replaced by his deputy, Rudolf
Kirchner, xho has much better connections xith the MGB offices at Karlshorst and
is very highly thought of by Ulbricht.
STAT