Social Protection Act

The **Social Protection Act** was an emergency act passed by the Trade Union Congress of Germany in early 1921 to "end the ideas and principles that threaten the foundation of German socialism". The act was quite controversial among the leftist world and it resulted in thousands being deported from German soil while hundreds were killed. In the end, the act did what it set out to, and by 1923 most German anti-socialist movements were dead, never to be revived again.

## History

### Background

In the time following the syndicalist victory in the German Civil War, the hopes and dreams of socialists that Germany would reinvent itself and become a socialist utopia were woefully unprepared for the reality of the situation. Chronic hunger was an issue before and after the revolution, but it was exacerbated after the civil war, with property, infrastructure and agricultural damage alongside widespread looting.

The first few years following the civil war was also the time when the anti-left German resistance was at an all time high. It slowly grew as the new revolutionary government was unable to improve the lives of German citizens which gave way for government paranoia to set in. Raids and attacks on soldiers, railways or even ordinary civilians occurred, but the final nail for the government’s relative intolerance of violence against the opposition began, when in Frankfurt an operating train station was sabotaged and bombed, killing 11 people and injuring over 34 others in December 1920. Paranoia about resistance and who may be a part of it was rampant in Berlin.

### The passing of the SPA and its aftermath

With many fearing for their lives and equally for the revolution, in January of 1921 the Social Protection Act was first introduced into the TUC to be voted on. It took only 2 weeks for the votes to be counted, with 78 out of 102 labor representatives voting in favor of the act, and on the 28th it was officially ratified and passed as a law nationwide. The Act would result in the ban of dozens of non-socialist organizations, neutral/centrist political parties and even trade unions that didn’t identify with socialist principles or had previously denounced the new government. It also ensured “Persons harboring beliefs that pose a threat to the worker’s state will be dealt with to the fullest extent of the law”, but this was vague and often interpreted differently by all kinds of people. But most within the TUC began to push for a witch-hunt of sorts to fully purge Germany of its non and anti-socialist past. And push it they did, as police and law enforcement in major cities were given orders to arrests anyone “deemed suspicious of reactionary activity”, along with a nationwide manhunt of thousands of people.

Soon enough, disorganized groups of police and radicals together began arresting thousands throughout Germany and people began to fear for their lives. People were arrested on vague charges and brought to prisons the same day to await their individual trial. Disorganized and violent police brutality brought the people's relationship with the TUC into question, with many being disappointed over what seemed like a hijacking of the social revolution just 2 years later. Reports were emerging by the hour of people thought to be anti-socialist, but many of those arrested were acquitted during their trials for lack of evidence, but regardless the situation grew out of hand. Socialist elements began hunting down suspected enemies and killing them on masse, most frequently in prison raids which held those arrested.

By March over 10,000 people were arrested, awaiting trial when news broke out that socialist spies infiltrated one of the most popular anti-leftist groups in Germany (known as the German People's Association, and was a pan-Germanic, conservative anti-semetic group formed in 1920 after the war had begun) and successfully captured its leader, Wolfgang Kapp. After 4 days of his arrest he was quickly brought to trial in Berlin, where he avoided the death penalty (it was outlawed in 1920) and instead was given hard labor. In his cell on March 15th however, his guard secretly murdered him in his sleep before being found several hours later. The guard's identity was kept a secret and he never went through a trial, which to many proved a rumor that the government was behind many of the assassinations and killings. Although random civilians were attacked, the SPA also helped target and find several resistance leaders, which was key to its collapse into the early 1920s. Without their leader, and with their base of operations found the GPA was never able to recover from these losses and in 1922 it disbanded, an example dozens of fractured anti-socialist groups experienced.

By early April the chaotic scene that many were experiencing in Germany began to die down. With dozens of German resistance leaders found captured, and a good majority of them dead under "mysterious circumstances", surveillance of citizens began to stop and so did the mass arrests. Each trial came and went and by May only sporadic arrests continued as the TUC felt that Germany had been rightfully purged of its enemies, at least for the time being.

**School purging is a WIP**

### The German Resistance Movement after 1921

The resistance by 1922 was severely fractured and a shadow of its former self. As much as they hated to admit it, the SPA was a major success for the Union of Germany. With their leaders either in labor camps indefinitely or dead, infighting began. Most did not want to see the resistance perish, but its survival into 1922-1923 only delayed the inevitable. Anymore operations were, for the most part failures which also likely ended in different reactionary leaders being caught and captured. Actively operating against Berlin proved to be more costly than beneficial, and by Fall of 1922 all operations ceased. In the months after, the resistance tore itself apart based on ideological differences and disagreements on planning. The resistance between 1920-1921 (before the passing of the Act) numbered at around 60,000 members. By 1922, it was at 45,000 and by 1923 the amount had fallen to a measly 20,000 members across Germany. With most knowing that German resistance was over, desertions began. Thousands left their organization to either assimilate in new syndicalist life, flee to a neighboring country, passively or actively work underground with the little reactionary movements that remained.

By 1922, in the aftermath of the Beer Hall Putsch, the German resistance movement was successfully put down, never to be revived again, and soon after hundreds of people, realizing the futility of the situation to fight, fled abroad, mainly to Austria.

### Impact and legacy

The Social Protection Act is seen by many as the first major change in syndicalist Germany since the revolution, and today it is still quite controversial within the worldwide socialist community. Some view it as a necessity, even within syndicalist circles, while others (mainly anarchists) argue that excessive force was used and the confusing time of January-April of 1921 proves how easily corruptible the revolution could become.

Most agree though that without it the German resistance movement would be a lot stronger than it is currently, and that it was one of the major laws that strengthened the TUC's grip over the German nation.