This project examines the early phase of the Federal Labor Court, asking about the personnel, intellectual and legal continuities and breaks between the young Federal Republic, the period of National Socialism, and the phase before 1933. What shaped the legal understanding, ideas of labor relations and jurisprudence in the Federal Labor Court of the postwar period? What continuities in the history of ideas can be found with regard to "German work," "company community," and ideas of a "people's community" pacified by labor law? What breaks with the "Third Reich" become apparent at the same time, and can a democratization of the understanding of law and legal practice be detected? The focus of this study lies on the respective judges as actors. The project will use a collective biographical approach to illustrate how the first generation of judges from the Federal Labor Court were socialized and how their biographies shaped their legal understandings.