The Working-Class Pub as a Site of Socialist and Antifascist Resistance in the German Empire and the Weimar Republic

This article analyzes the political significance of the urban working-class pub in Germany and how it became an antifascist space in the 1920s. The tavern has represented an important social space for the working class since the nineteenth century. It also held great significance as a political space: The workers’ pub was the place to create a collective identity for the working class. During the nineteenth century, the German state exercised considerable control over the labor movement and attempted to suppress it through bans; however, the pub was resistant to state power and continued to be a site of left-wing political activity. In the Weimar Republic, several working-class pubs became antifascist hubs. In the 1930s, they were constantly taken over by fascists, altering their political significance. This article assesses these political developments, reflects on the role of the innkeepers, and finally asks how antifascist spaces have developed in Germany up to the present day.