Rosenberg was known for his embrace of the social market economy, which put him at odds with party-line Marxists in the labor movement.

[1] Rosenberg was born to a middle-class Jewish family in Charlottenburg in 1903.

In June of 1933, Rosenberg avoided arrest by the Nazis by fleeing to the United Kingdom.

Following World War II and the Holocaust, Rosenberg returned to Germany in the Fall of 1945.

He served as the chairman of the German Federation of Labor Unions from 1962 to 1969.