German Reunification
In May 1990, shortly before German reunification, the FDGB was dissolved. Many former members did not join the West German (now German) unions as their previous experience had led them to associate unions with state nannying, especially as old GDR functionaries had managed to get new positions there. Moreover, because of the lightning privatization of the GDR many had simply lost their jobs.
Read more about this topic: Free German Trade Union Federation
Famous quotes containing the word german:
“Sometimes, because of its immediacy, television produces a kind of electronic parable. Berlin, for instance, on the day the Wall was opened. Rostropovich was playing his cello by the Wall that no longer cast a shadow, and a million East Berliners were thronging to the West to shop with an allowance given them by West German banks! At that moment the whole world saw how materialism had lost its awesome historic power and become a shopping list.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)