Arts Union (Germany) Explained

The Arts Union (German: Gewerkschaft Kunst) was a trade union representing cultural workers in West Germany.

The union was founded on 26 August 1949, at a conference in Frankfurt. It was initially based in Hamburg, but relocated to Düsseldorf in 1955.^[1]

The union initially had five sections:

• Association of Visual Artists
• German Musicians' Union
• Guild of the German Stage
• International Artists' Lodge
• Professional Association of Journalists and Writers (transferred to Printing and Paper Union in 1951)

Other sections were created later, including the Broadcast Television Film Union, the Union of Music Educators and Concert Artists, and the Jazz/rock/pop/improvised music group.^[2]

By 1988, the union had a membership of 29,613.^[3] The following year, it merged with the Printing and Paper Union, to form the Media Union.

Presidents

1949: Willi Feldmann

1954: Heinrich Wüllner

1962: Viktor de Kowa

1966: Wolfgang Windgassen

1973: Otto Sprenger

1980: Alfred Horné

Notes and References

1. Web site: Gewerkschaft Kunst . Ver.di . 14 November 2019.
2. Web site: Industriegewerkschaft Medien - Druck und Papier, Publizistik und Kunst (IG Medien) . Ver.di . 13 November 2019.
3. Book: Ebbinghaus . Bernhard . Visser . Jelle . Trade Unions in Western Europe Since 1945 . 2000 . Palgrave Macmillan . Basingstoke . 0333771125 . 309.