German National Association of Commercial Employees | |
Native Name: | Deutschnationaler Handlungsgehilfen-Verband |
Native Name Lang: | de |
Formation: | 1893 |
Dissolved: | 1933 |
Type: | Far-right trade union |
Purpose: | Promotion of reactionary politics |
Membership: | 400,000 |
Membership Year: | 1932 |
Language: | German |
The German National Association of Commercial Employees, also known as the German National Union of Commercial Employees (German: Deutschnationaler Handlungsgehilfen-Verband, DHV) was a German nationalist and anti-Semitic labour union founded in Germany in 1893. It had links with the German Social Party and the Pan-German League.[1]
The DHV was directed against social democracy,[2] had an anti-democratic and anti-liberal ideology and supported the concept of a conservative revolution.[3] It promoted the interests of the merchant class. To prevent the spread of social democratic thoughts, it propagated patriotic and Völkisch mentality.[4] It is considered a proto-fascist or pre-fascist movement,[5] and was vocally anti-feminist.[6] It existed between 1893 and 1933.[7]
By 1914, the DHV had 160,000 members and by 1932 it had over 400,000 members.[8] It cooperated with the Nazi Party and sought to unite Nazism and political Catholicism together.[9]