Trawling through the archives: tracing British influences on German post-war economic reconstruction

The Friedrich-Ebert Stiftung's Archive in Bonn, Germany, is a treasure trove for anyone interested in trade union history. I spent a happy fortnight there during my current sabbatical, thanks to a British Academy Small Research Grant, immersed in correspondence and reports drafted by exiled German trade unionists based in London during the Second World War. Even a cursory glance through some of the documentation from that period provides evidence of the strong role that the Trades Union Congress (TUC) played in supporting exiled European trade unionists; a role that has long since been forgotten but which serves as a timely reminder of the importance of solidarity in times of crisis.