The Trade, Banking and Insurance Union (, HBV) was a

trade union A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

representing workers in commerce and finance in Germany. During 1947 and 1948, German trade unionists were regrouping and the majority decided to establish the

German Trade Union Confederation The German Trade Union Confederation (; DGB) is an umbrella organisation (sometimes known as a national trade union center) for eight German trade unions, in total representing more than 6 million people (31 December 2011). It was founded ...

(DGB), with national affiliated industrial unions - unions covering the entirety of one or more industries. Leading figures in commerce and finance trade unionism disagreed with this approach, and formed the

German Salaried Employees' Union The German Salaried Employees' Union, in German ''Deutsche Angestellten-Gewerkschaft'' (DAG) was an independent trade union based in Hamburg. It did not belong to the German Confederation of Trade Unions until it became part of ver.di, the unite ...

(DAG), wishing to organise salaried workers across all industries and public sectors. The DAG did not join the DGB, and so leading figures in the DGB decided to form a rival union, restricted to the commerce and finance sectors. The union was established on 3 and 4 September 1949, at a conference in

Königswinter Königswinter (; ; Low Franconian: ) is a town and summer resort in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Königswinter is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Bad Godesberg, at the foot of the ...

. Initially small, by 1959 it had 130,000 members, and continued to grow, with strong representation among retail workers and bank branch staff, but little influence in other areas of finance. Growth continued, with a particular spurt following the

Reunification of Germany German reunification () was the process of re-establishing Germany as a single sovereign state, which began on 9 November 1989 and culminated on 3 October 1990 with the dissolution of the German Democratic Republic and the integration of i ...

, but then tailed off. By the end of 1999, it had 457,720 members. In 2001, the union merged with the DAG, the German Postal Union, the Media Union, and the Public Services, Transport and Traffic Union, to form

Ver.di (''Verdi'' (stylized as ''ver.di''; �vɛʁdiː; English: ''United Services Trade Union'') is a German trade union based in Berlin, Germany. It was established on 19 March 2001 as the result of a merger of five individual unions and is a m ...

Presidents

:1949: Wilhelm Pawlik :1961: Werner Ziemann :1965: Heinz Vietheer :1980: Günter Volkmar :1988: Lorenz Schwegler :1993: Margret Mönig-Raane

References

{{Authority control Finance sector trade unions Retail trade unions Transport trade unions in Germany Trade unions established in 1949 Trade unions disestablished in 2001 Trade unions in Germany