2-05-1933 Nazis occupy the headquarters, seize the funds, and imprison the leaders of two of Germany’s largest trade union federations; independent trade unions were abolished. [more]

5-05-1818 Karl Marx is born. [more]

7-05-1857 Clara Zetkin is born in the village of Wiederau, Saxony. She will go on to become a leading member of the Social Democrats and then German Communist Party, as well as organising the first ever International Women's Day. [more]

15-05-1525 Insurgent peasants were defeated at the Battle of Frankenhausen, ending the Peasant War, when workers and peasants demanded a “kingdom of heaven on earth”. [more]

18-05-1853 The legal minimum age to work in a factory is fixed at 10 years, and the work day limited to six hours for children. [more]

18-05-1942 The Baum group, Jewish communist factory workers, broke into a Nazi anti-Soviet exhibition and set fire to it. In retaliation, the Gestapo rounded up all 30 members, plus 500 others and executed them all. [more]

19-05-1933 The Nazi government abolished collective bargaining – the principle of workers collectively negotiating with employers over pay and conditions. Instead, conditions were to be regulated by labour "trustees", appointed by Hitler. [more]

23-05-1949 The principle of equal pay regardless of gender, origin, etc. is introduced into the Constitution. [more]