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18 November, 1999Former official of IG Metall and IMF assistant general secretary, Alfred Dannenberg was a man of great integrity and commitment to human and trade union rights.
GENEVA: Alfred Dannenberg, who served in both the German national trade union movement and international trade union movement, died today, November 19, at his home in Geneva, Switzerland, at the age of 93, from cancer.
His trade union work began already before the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933. He was a skilled toolmaker, like many German metalworker trade union leaders. When the Nazis smashed the German trade union movement on May 1, 1933, he went underground and was hunted by the police for "illegal" trade union activities. He managed to avoid arrest and escaped, not like his friend, Otto Brenner, former IG Metall and IMF president, who was arrested by the Nazis and spent two years in prison.
Alfred Dannenberg, Otto Brenner, Willy Brandt all belonged to the same Social Democratic group in favour of a broad left-wing coalition to fight Nazism. Dannenberg went to Great Britain where he worked as a toolmaker in metal factories. When the Second World War broke out, he was interned because of his nationality and deported to Australia. After a time, the British realised their error and brought him back to Great Britain, where he immediately joined ranks with other German immigrants publishing an anti-Nazi paper and then worked in the German Department of the BBC.
Immediately after the war's end, Alfred Dannenberg, like thousands of German anti-fascists, returned to their country to rebuild a democratic Germany and a strong, united labour movement. He started as an honorary official in IG Metall, while still working in the plant and helping to reconstruct his town. In the early 1950s, he became a fulltime official of IG Metall, and at the time he was elected assistant general secretary of the IMF, in 1954, he was district director for IG Metall in Hannover.
At the IMF, he started building up trade unions in the Third World, travelling a great deal through Africa and Asia and working to bring metal unions into the IMF. At the end of his working life, at the 1971 IMF Congress in Lausanne, he was praised for his outstanding record in the field.
Alfred was married to the daughter of a Swiss metalworkers' union fulltime official.
His trade union work began already before the Nazi takeover of Germany in 1933. He was a skilled toolmaker, like many German metalworker trade union leaders. When the Nazis smashed the German trade union movement on May 1, 1933, he went underground and was hunted by the police for "illegal" trade union activities. He managed to avoid arrest and escaped, not like his friend, Otto Brenner, former IG Metall and IMF president, who was arrested by the Nazis and spent two years in prison.
Alfred Dannenberg, Otto Brenner, Willy Brandt all belonged to the same Social Democratic group in favour of a broad left-wing coalition to fight Nazism. Dannenberg went to Great Britain where he worked as a toolmaker in metal factories. When the Second World War broke out, he was interned because of his nationality and deported to Australia. After a time, the British realised their error and brought him back to Great Britain, where he immediately joined ranks with other German immigrants publishing an anti-Nazi paper and then worked in the German Department of the BBC.
Immediately after the war's end, Alfred Dannenberg, like thousands of German anti-fascists, returned to their country to rebuild a democratic Germany and a strong, united labour movement. He started as an honorary official in IG Metall, while still working in the plant and helping to reconstruct his town. In the early 1950s, he became a fulltime official of IG Metall, and at the time he was elected assistant general secretary of the IMF, in 1954, he was district director for IG Metall in Hannover.
At the IMF, he started building up trade unions in the Third World, travelling a great deal through Africa and Asia and working to bring metal unions into the IMF. At the end of his working life, at the 1971 IMF Congress in Lausanne, he was praised for his outstanding record in the field.
Alfred was married to the daughter of a Swiss metalworkers' union fulltime official.