Social Developments
The class hierarchy
Elitism and the culture of militarism
The condition of working people
1. Elites - landed aristocrats/ top of industry
extremely powerful
actively involved in politics - either directly or through pressure groups.
2. Industrial managers/ educated professionals
increasingly prominent in urban communities
formed 'upper' middle class
'stalwarts' of local community
involved in Lander politics/ town gov and supporters of church
3. White-collar workers
'Mittelstand' - clerks, small businessmen, shop-keepers, minor officals.
lower middle class
aspirational
wanted education for children & local gov positions
leaned towards conservatism
4. Urban working class
- foremen and highly skilled workers
- semi-skilled workers
- 'lower working class' - unskilled workers
most vulnerable to economic fluctuations and lay-offs
'Lumpenproletariat'
largely apolitical and uninterested in revolutionary advancement
e.g coal miners
keen to support movements of reform
conscious of perceived superiority over others
5. Peasants
status varied between landless labourers and substantial peasant proprietors
conservative in outlook
victims of industrial change
practise of dividing estate between sons
leave country and join towns to join working class ranks
Junker landowners
position threatened by falling income of agriculture
some landowners forced to sell to newly rich upper middle class
political and social dominance in Prussia remained strong
pressure on national politics disproportionate to number
Position of women
Changes
Bund Deutscher Frauenvereine 1894 campaigned (unsuccessfully) for women's right to vote
1914 - women in lower middle class seized office work
Urban women
factory jobs
sweatshops
'horror stories' - prostituion and illegitimate children
Traditional women
Upper class = charity work
upper middle = running home
dependent on husbands - no voting rights, income, etc
peasant women
manual labourers
tilled fields alongside men
August Bebel wrote tracts for women's equality
Elitism
Bismarck Junker and elite
'alliance of steel and rye'
junkers, military officers, factory workers
extended wealth and power - backbone of empire
anti-semitism
many right wing pressure groups - e.g Pan German League - had anti-semitic views.
ban on jewish immigration, blamed jews for growing 'liberalisation in politics'
influenced by Social Darwinism & work by Houston Stewart Chamberlain
Militarism
Wilhelm II
expansion of military influence for 'Weltpolitik'
loved tradition, military uniforms, male dominated military culture
Constitution
troops took personal oath to Kaiser not state
strong military prescence = power
Power of military
power of aristocracy
higher ranks filled with junker class - over half of officers had titles
Overruled Reichstag
Budget
1874 - budget only discussed every 7 years
Germany army of 4 million men by 1914 (8 times size in 1890)
expenditure reached 60 million 1913-1914
Zabern Affair 1913
military could overrule civilian authority
Wilhelm II condoned violent military actions
liberal outcry
1880s - Bismarck's 'state socialism'
May (1883) - medical insurance. Covered 3 million workers, paid by both gov and employer
June (1884) - accident insurance. payed by employer. benefits and funeral grants. 1886 - extended for 7 million agricultural workers
May (1889) - Old age pensions introduced for people over 70
Reforming legislation - Caprivi & Posadowsky-Wehner
recognition of trade unions: allowed to arbitrate in wage disuptes and sit in on industrial tribunals from 1890
Changes to employment law: reduction in women's maximum working hours to 11, guaranteed minimum wage, prohibited Sunday employment (1891) & restrictions on child employment
progressive income tax = more person earned, more they payed
accident insurance extension to time they could claim (1900)
extension to healthcare insurance (1903)
Statistics
Changes
growth in leisure activities
spread of education & job opportunities
increase in white collar postions
better transport, advance of cinema, telephone
1910 - 1000 cinemas in Germany
lower working class
cramped conditions
wages rose, but acute poverty
life compared unfavourably with UK and US
attracted to SPD
'working class' peasants
1907 - industrial Rhineland & Westphalia absorbed over 1 million internal immigrants
1871 - only 8 towns with 100,000 inhabitants, by 1910 there were 48
spread of scientific farming
fortunate could deem themselves better off
1895-1913 - real wages increased by 25%
1914 - 15 million Germans sickness insurance, 28 million accident insurance, 1 million annual pensions
200,000 trade union workers per year went on strike
average German working day 2 hours longer than US and UK, wages one third lower