Gustav Bauer declared that the "Jewish gang" must be dealt with, in attempt to drive them out of their faction. Robert S. Wistrich classifies Carl Legien as belonging to a group of whom some had antisemitic tendencies. During the war he worked in variety of ways to help German war effort. He threw down calls from socialists in USA to mediate an end of the war with the German government, while defending the resumption of submarine warfare by German Kriegsmarine as response to the rejection of "Germany's sincere offer of immediate peace negotiations" On 15 November 1918 he signed the Stinnes-Legien Agreement with industrialist Hugo Stinnes, an agreement in which the German employers for the first time accepted nationwide unions as legitimate workers-organisations and which introduced an eight-hour day, workers councils in plants with more than 50 employees and parity employment offices. The employers agreed to stop discrimination of union members and their support of "house unions" (yellow unions) while the unions rejected radical socialists’ demands. Most of the agreement's regulations became part of the Weimar German constitution. In 1919 he became the first Chairman of the Allgemeiner Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund. To Legien the expected loss of Upper Silesia to Poland after World War I would intensify the 'psychological' impact of the "draconian peace" on the German working class. He countered the right-wing Kapp Putsch of March 1920 by organizing a massive general strike in Germany with about 12 million employees following the joint call of the legal government and the unions. The strike immediately halted all production, transportation, mining and public services, it was "the strongest mass movement the German proletariat ever created" and "gave the Kapp régime its death blow". At that time he declined Friedrich Ebert’s offer to become Chancellor of Germany. Legien died after a short illness in Berlin and was buried at Zentralfriedhof Friedrichsfelde. Honours In 1922 the Stinnes-line named "MS Carl Legien" in his honour. Bruno Taut's "Wohnstadt Carl Legien", a social housing project of the 1920s and part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site Berlin Modernism Housing Estates, bears his name as well as several streets all over Germany. A memorial was erected in Berlin-Kreuzberg. References External links 1861 births 1920 deaths People from Malbork People from the Province of Prussia Social Democratic Party of Germany politicians Members of the 9th Reichstag of the German Empire Members of the 11th Reichstag of the German