Siegfried Aufhäuser (1884-1969). Politisch-gewerkschaftliche Biografie eines jüdischen Sozialisten

• Applicant: Christian Zech
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 552703025

This text presents the life of Siegfried Aufhäuser (1884-1969) focusing on his political und trade union involvement. Over the course of time, his contexts and scopes of action, as well as his objectives, are traced. Moreover, strategies for asserting interests and the processing of individual experiences and influences are highlighted. Here, the key question is how far historical ruptures and dynamics can be found in Aufhäuser’s biography and which social and political developments he himself forced or helped to shape. By reconstructing Aufhäuser´s professional development as white-collar trade unionist and his commitment to social democracy, his involvement in numerous upheavals and far-reaching events in 20th century German history can be revealed. Using a biographical approach to accessing history reveals the open nature of the historical moment and the complexity of social developments. This brings a wide range of different subject areas and research fields into focus: The developments of social democracy and the white-collar union movement from the German Empire to the Federal Republic is examined in detail from a biographical perspective. Aufhäuser was committed to a fundamental democratizing of the economy, fought against National Socialism, and participated in the democratic reconstruction of Germany before and after his remigration to West-Berlin. Along with his experiences as Jewish Socialist in exile and his ambivalent relationship with Judaism, all of this points to the diverse evolutionary paths of democratic traditions that have influenced and still influence German history and its political culture(s).

• DFG Programme: Publication Grants