[1] These large-scale agreements have broad coverage and lead to considerable standardization in wages and employment conditions across the country.
The eight different unions that belong to it cover many sectors of German industry, public services such as police, and higher and professional education.
Unions are considered to be social policy coalitions that are especially protected under the constitutionally guaranteed right of forming associations for the preservation and promotion of working and economic conditions.
Agreements that restrict or obstruct this right are therefore invalid and illicit (Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, article 9, paragraph 3).
The General German Cigar Workers Society ("Allgemeiner Deutsche Cigarrenarbeiter-Verein"), established in Leipzig in 1865, was the first centrally organized union in Germany.
After the Weimar Constitution allowed civil servants the right of freedom of association, VDL became the Union of German Engineers (Gewerkschaft Deutscher Lokomotivführer (GDL)).
After decades of repression and obstructions through authorities, unionist organizations emerged in the pre-March era and during the German revolutions of 1848–1849 and articulated their demands.
This increase in power and the danger for the governing system caused authorities to ban unions or to obstruct them by law.
Generally prohibited were unionist activities between 1878 and 1890 through Otto von Bismarck's Socialist Law ("Bismarcksches Sozialistengesetz").
The SPD leadership insisted on the primacy of politics, and refused to emphasize support for union goals and methods.
The syndicalist Free Workers-Union Germany ("Freie Arbeiter-Union Deutschlands (FAUD)") completely opposed party politics.
The wealth of the unions was transferred to the Nazi German Labour Front ("Deutsche Arbeitsfront (DAF)") under Robert Ley.
In 1949, the Charter Congress of the Federation of German Trade Unions took place in Munich under the leadership of Hans Böckler.
Despite the calls to unite, the occupationally oriented association of civil servants and the German Salaried Employees' Union ("Deutsche Angestellten-Gewerkschaft (DAG)") were founded.
In 1950, the Christian Trade Union Federation of Germany ("Christlicher Gewerkschaftsbund") was established but it never reached a high number of members.
The Soviet Military Administration in Germany increasingly required Communists to be represented in trade union leadership.
[4] After the foundation of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany (German: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED) through a forced merger between the KPD and the SPD in 1946, purges were implemented immediately.
After the failed uprising in the GDR on June 17, 1953, the remaining independent unionists were considered to be "reenlistee" (German: Kapitulanten) or western agents and were dismissed from their office.
[citation needed] Because certain specialized branches considered themselves to be poorly represented through the DGB, they founded their own separate unions.
They shape and supervise the execution of the frameworks set by trade unions, company policies and negotiate works agreements.
[citation needed] Trade unions in Germany define themselves as being more than a "collective bargaining machine", but as important political players for social, economical and also environmental subjects, especially also for labor market policy and professional education.