Order 1017647: political, social, religious and ethnic composition of german society from 1871-1924

From 9:45-10:45 a.m. a visit was made to the tavern Schweer, Rostocker Straße 9. About 14 workers were present; they sat at various tables, some playing cards, others talking. The conversation of a few workers concerned, among other things, the right of association [Koalitionsrecht], in that one worker said: “The government could save itself the attack it is willing to launch on the right of association, because under the laws today the courts already have so much leeway that there is really no need for new legal regulations to constrain the workers in the exercise of the rights given to them by the law. Just recently the court issued another decision, brought on by the joiners’ strike on Südstraße, which demonstrates clearly enough that the court doesn’t give a damn about the rights of the workers if it can strike a blow at Social Democracy. These sorts of decisions are not rare, because every strike has cases where workers who acted in good faith – that is, who struggled in accordance with the rights granted to them by the Commercial Code – were punished with long prison terms for doing so.”