title: International Federation of Building Workers
text: # International Federation of Building Workers
  
  The International Federation of Building Workers (IFBW) was a global union federation bringing together unions representing masons.
  
  ## History
  
  The German Central Union of Masons gradually built up international contacts in the late 19th-century. In 1903, it called a conference in Berlin, to formalise these relationships by establishing an international trade federation.
  
  The federation was established as the Building Workers' International, and was based in Hamburg from its foundation. By 1925, most of its member unions had merged with the carpenters' unions in their country, and so it agreed to absorb the Carpenters' International. This gave it 26 affiliates, with a total of 756,059 members.
  
  On 1 April 1934, the federation merged with the International Federation of Wood Workers, to form the International Federation of Building and Wood Workers.
  
  ## Affiliates
  
  The following unions were affiliated as of 1922:
  
  | Union | Country | Membership |
  | - | - | - |
  | Central Association of Construction Workers | Austria | 87,154 |
  | General Union of Building, Furnishing and Other Industries | Belgium | 42,065 |
  | | Czechoslovakia | 42,413 |
  | | Denmark | 5,074 |
  | | Finland | 1,331 |
  | National Federation of Construction Workers | France | 6,353 |
  | German Construction Workers' Union | Germany | 588,271 |
  | | Hungary | 23,249 |
  | | Italy | 60,000 |
  | | Luxembourg | 1,105 |
  | General Dutch Construction Union | Netherlands | 9,061 |
  | Norwegian Union of Building Workers | Norway | 2,278 |
  | | Poland | 9,975 |
  | | Romania | 2,390 |
  | | Sweden | 3,999 |
  | Swiss Construction Workers' Union | Switzerland | 3,825 |
  | National Federation of Building Trades Operatives | United Kingdom | 253,000 |
  | General Workers' Union of Yugoslavia | Yugoslavia | 608 |
  
  ## General Secretaries
  
      1903: Theodor Bömelburg
      1913: Fritz Paeplow
      1919: Georg Käppler
      1933: Jaap van Achterbergh
  
  ### Presidents
  
      1919: Fritz Paeplow
      1927:
      1933: Nikolaus Bernhard
  