The Federation of German Employers' Associations: a Political Interest Group

• Author: Ronald F. Bunn
• Published date: 01 September 1960
• Date: 01 September 1960
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/106591296001300307
• Subject Matter: Articles

THE FEDERATION OF GERMAN EMPLOYERS’
ASSOCIATIONS: A POLITICAL
INTEREST GROUP
RONALD F. BUNN
University of Texas
OST
OF THE RECENT literature dealing with West German inter-
t est groups and their roles in the political process is intended either to
jL 1
provide initial and tentative typologies by which the groups can be
classified and distinguished or to demonstrate how a particular set of interests,
such as that of labor or of the business community, is broadly defined and pro-
jected into the political arena.’ While each of these approaches has much to
contribute to the eventual construction of theoretical models, studies of particular
interest groups may provide data by which these models can be verified and
refined. It is therefore the purpose of this paper to focus on a single West Ger-
man interest group, the Federation of German Employers’ Associations (BDA),2
2
giving primary attention to its internal structure and decision-making processes,
the techniques by which it seeks to influence public policy, and the ideology
which it has formulated both explicitly and implicitly as a statement and ration-
ale of its goals. The writer does not presume to develop on the basis of an exam-
ination of one group a conceptual schema describing the role and impact on
public policy of West German interest groups. Indeed, little effort is made to
discover empirically the political significance of the group under consideration.
Such an undertaking would involve an assessment of factors outside the scope
of the present inquiry. Moreover, it should not be inferred by the reader that
because the BDA
has been singled out, this is the most influential interest group
for West German businessmen. However, there is the underlying assumption
in this paper that the BDA is one of several business interest groups which, be-
cause of its scope of membership and activities, justifies special attention in view-
ing the interest group complex of the West German business community.
I
In 1949 the BDA
was established as the central federation of West German
employers’ associations. With its creation the business community virtually com-
pleted the revival in Western Germany of the employers’ association structure
1
I am referring paticularly to Rupert Breitling, Die Verbaende in der Bundesrepublik (Meisen-
heim am Glan, 1955); Theodor Eschenburg, Herrschaft der Verbaende
?
(Stuttgart, 1955);
Taylor Cole, "Functional Representation in the German Federal Republic," Midwest Journal
of Political Science, II (August, 1958), 256-77; Gabriel A. Almond, "The Politics of German
Business," in Hans Speier and W. Philips Davison (eds.), West German Leadership and
Foreign Policy (White Plains: Row, Peterson, 1957), pp. 195-241; Wolfgang Hirsch-Weber,
"Some Remarks on Interest Groups in the German Federal Republic," in Henry W. Ehrmann
(ed.), Interest Groups on Four Continents (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1958),
pp. 96-116; and Joseph H. Kaiser, Die Reprdsentation Organisiterter Interessen (Berlin,
1956).
2
Bundesvereinigung der Deutschen Arbeitgeberverbaende.
652

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653
which had been abolished by the National Socialist govemment.3 However, in
contrast to its counterpart of the pre-1933 era, the Vereinigung der Deutschen
Arbeitgeberverbaende (VDA), the BDA includes within its membership not
only employers’ associations in industry, but those also in banking, insurance,
transportation, trade, crafts, and agriculture. While no official claim is made by
the BDA, reliable estimates of the scope of its membership suggest that it speaks
for the management of sixty to eighty per cent of the privately owned enterprises
in the Federal Republic.4 The primary task of the constituent groups of the BDA
is to represent management in the collective bargaining procedure, which is con-
ducted generally within a Land or similar regional area on a multi-employer
basis. The BDA does not act as a collective bargaining agent, but is rather a
co-ordinating agency for the constituent members, advising them on labor poli-
cies, promoting a common front among employers in their relations with orga-
nized labor, and representing the managerial view in labor matters before the
public and various administrative and legislative agencies of the federal govern-
ment.5
The employers’ association structure, at the apex of which is the BDA, is
organized both vertically and horizontally.6 Organized on the vertical principle
are the associations, and their federations, which are confined to employers with-
in a single or closely related industry or branch of the economy. There are
several tiers within the vertical structure. For example, employers in the metal
industry belong directly to a Land metal employers’ association; the Land metal
employers’ associations are joined together into a national metal employers’ asso-
3
Historical accounts of the pre-1933 German employers’ associations are to be found in Gerhard
Kessler, Die deutschen Arbeitgeberverbaende (Leipzig, 1907), and A. Liebrock, Geschichte,
Organisation und Aufgaben der Arbeitgeberverbaende (Berlin, 1922).
4
Adolf Weber cites an estimate of 80 per cent in his Der Kampf zwischen Kapital und Arbeit
(6th ed.; Tuebingen, 1954), p. 114. A staff member of the BDA estimated in 1958 to the
author that at least 60 per cent of such employers are represented in the BDA structure.
5
The organization of the West German business community is patterned essentially after a
tripartite structure that is historicaly rooted in the nineteen century. In addition to em-
ployers’ associations and economic association (
Wirtschaftsverbaende
),
there are economic
chambers, which may be classified as either agricultural chambers (
Landswirtschaftskam-
mern), handicraft chambers (
Handwerkskammern
),
or industry and trade chambers (
In-
dustrie-und Handelskammern
).
Membership in the employers’ associations, economic as-
sociations, and economic chambers overlap to a certain extent. Whereas the employers’
associations confine themselves to labor policy matters and collective bargaining, the eco-
nomic associations exist to promote the economic interests of management, particularly in
the areas of import-export policies, cartel legislation, price and credit controls, tax matters
and the like. At the apex of the industrial economic associations’ structure is the Federation
of German Industry (
Bundesverband
der Deutschen Industrie). The economic chambers
are, in most Länder, public law corporations which supervise the licensing of businessmen
and artisans, maintain control over apprenticeship training, and advise the Land authorities
on matters affecting the occupational interests of their members. The central federation of
the industry and trade chambers is the German Industry and Trade Diet (Deutsches In-
dustrie-und Handelstag). The activities of the central federations of these three types of
organizations are co-ordinated through their common membership in the Gemeinschaft-
sausschuss der Deutschen Gewerblichen Wirtschaft, a general secretariat agency for entre-
preneurial and managerial organizations in Western Germany.
6
Outside the membership of the BDA structure are the employers’ associations which bargain for
public employers (their central federations are the Vereinigung der Kommunalen Arbeitge-
berverbaende and the Tarifgemeinschaft deutscher Länder) and a miscellaneous group of
private employers’ associations, including an association for the iron and steel-producnig
industry in the Ruhr (Arbeitgeberverband Eisen-und Stahlindustrie) as well as the employ-

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654
ciation, the Gesamtverband der metallindustriellen Arbeitgeberverbaende. This
federation is a member of the BDA. In the horizontal structure, the organiza-
tional principle is geographic rather than functional or industrial. Employers’ asso-
ciations of all types within a particular region (usually a Land) belong to a
regional or Land federation. These federations are also constituent members of
the BDA. Thus the employers’ association at the lowest level, consisting directly
of managerial personnel, is the basic unit of both the vertical and horizontal
structures. At present the BDA
membership consists of fourteen Land or regional
federations and thirty-seven national functional federations. Including the con-
stituent units of the BDA member associations, there are over 600 separate
groups within the structure which is capped by the BDA.
Any horizontal or vertical federation of employers’ associations whose appli-
cation is approved by the Board of Directors may become a member of the BDA.
Obligations incumbent upon a constituent group are enumerated in the BDA
charter. The member association is bound by all decisions of the governing
bodies of the BDA insofar as these decisions are compatible with the provisions
of the BDA charter and is obligated to keep the BDA informed of all &dquo;import-
ant&dquo; developments in the field of labor relations which occur within its region
or branch of the economy. Retaining formal independence in the field of wage
policy, an employers’ association or its federation which acts as a collective bar-
gaining agent cannot be bound by any BDA suggestions as to the concessions
which should or should not be made to the union in negotiating a contract.
Whenever the BDA does recommend wage policies, the recommendation must
have the unanimous approval of its Board of Directors.
In considering the relationship between the BDA and its constituent groups,
it should be emphasized that the...