Central (C): Germany (CG). Labour Affairs in GDR

A file of correspondence and reports concerning labour issues in Germany. The correspondence covers East German press reports on disquiet over the actions of the East Berlin Office for Labour and Vocational Guidance, which is allocating careers to school-leavers without considering their own or their parents' wishes; and a speech by the East German leader, Walter Ulbricht, at a conference of German workers in Leipzig, where he defended the Berlin Wall, arguing that the "Bonn-Paris axis" had cemented the division of Germany. Further correspondence covers a meeting of the F.D.G.B. East German trade union organisation in Berlin; the establishment in East Germany of the Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate; and an article issued by the East German State Committee for Labour and Wages, paving the way for wage changes in state industry. The file also covers an engineering strike that has begun in Baden-Württemberg.