Otto Brenner

Otto Brenner (8 November 1907 – 15 April 1972) was a German trades unionist and politician. Between 1956 and 1972 he was the leader of the powerful IG Metall (Industrial Union of Metalworkers). In a tribute published in 1967 to celebrate Brenner's sixtieth birthday the politician-commentator Peter von Oertzen wrote that "Otto Brenner ... embodies more than any other German trades union leader that generation – a link between the older generation of the Weimar years [before 1933] and the younger generation that grew to maturity after 1945 – which rescued the best traditions of the German labour movement to the present day, bridging the intervening abyss of the Fascist rule". The Otto-Brenner Foundation for the promotion of scientific research and knowledge is named after him, as is the annually awarded . Life