Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund

The Allgemeiner Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund (ADGB) was a confederation of German trade unions in Germany founded during the Weimar Republic. It was founded in 1919 and was initially powerful enough to organize a general strike in 1920 against a right-wing coup d'état. After the 1929 Wall Street crash, the ensuing global financial crisis caused widespread unemployment. The ADGB suffered a dramatic loss of membership, both from unemployment and political squabbles. By the time the Nazis seized control of the government, ADGB's leadership had distanced itself from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) and was openly cooperating with Nazis in an attempt to keep the organization alive. Nonetheless, on May 2, 1933, the SA and SS stormed the offices of the ADGB and its member trade unions, seized their assets and arrested their leaders, crushing the organization.

The ADGB was founded on July 5, 1919 in Nuremberg after the first postwar congress of free trade unions. The ADGB was founded as the new umbrella organization to succeed the Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften Deutschlands (General Commission of German Trade Unions). Carl Legien was elected as the first chairman.

It was an amalgamation of 52 German trade unions and was affiliated with the Allgemeiner freier Angestelltenbund (Federation of General Unaffiliated Employees) and the Allgemeiner Deutscher Beamtenbund (Federation of General German Civil Servants). The adjective "Allgemeiner" ("general") was added to the name because in March 1919, the Christian and liberal trade unions had already founded umbrella organizations called the Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund.

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