ABSTRACT
The undercurrent of syndicalist sympathies in the German trade union movement arose out of strong opposition to the centralization of local unions. The question of the retention of local autonomy for those directly involved in a conflict was not the only basis of trade union localism. In 1891 the Berlin metalworkers refused to join the newly founded Deutscher Metallarbeiterverband because, among other reasons, they did not want to sacrifice their dual structure. The localist concept of organization was also directed against the social heterogeneity of the Social Democratic movement. The Free Alliance, like the Social Democratic Party, was a centralized organization of Vertrauensmanner. Rudolf Rocker, recently returned from internment in an English prisoner-of-war camp, was the intellectual leader of postwar syndicalism in Germany. In 1890-1 he had belonged to the radical left opposition in the Social Democratic Party in Mainz.
