Using the example of the Weimarer Republik, the author describes and evaluates different forms of protest by the unemployed, including organizing attempts within the workers movement and self-organization. Until now, such activities from the Weimar and other periods have hardly been taken notice of as a genuine part of the workers movement; they have simply been forgotten. However, insistence on autonomous organization and demonstrations of unusual headstrongness led to the development of a movement of the unemployed, the historical significance of which is gradually becoming discernible.