The Mobilization of the Unemployed in Germany (1998–2004)

Abstract

From July 2004 onward a growing number of unemployed people, their supporters, and their sympathizers started to demonstrate every Monday against the reform plans of the German government, led by Gerhard Schröder and his coalition of Social Democrats (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) and the Greens. These “Monday demonstrations” opposed vehemently the so-called Hartz reforms, because they would bring considerable aggravations for recipients of social benefits. What started as a small rally in Madgeburg with a couple of hundred people soon spread to other East German cities and developed into very popular, decentralized mass protests of several ten thousands of demonstrators. The discontent of the jobless was clearly pronounced by Andreas Ehrholdt, a long-term unemployed mainly responsible for kicking off these “Monday demonstrations” in Madgeburg and a well-known speaker at many of these occasions: Dear comrades. You will doubtlessly know that we live in a democracy. That means that we, who sweep through the streets today, we are the people. It also means, however, that Mr. Schröder and the likes of him are nothing but our employees. What would you think about signing them off? (Magdeburg, August 9, 2004; see Keßler 2005)

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