Kaiserreich
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The Kaiserreich
Social Problems 1890-1914



During the Kaiserreich, the JUNKERS (nobility) still enjoyed privileges - they diminated both the officers and the diplomatic corps, and Germany's protectionist economic policy intended to keep grain prices up - the East Elbian Junker estates profitted most from this law, at the expense of the workers who had to spend much of their hard earned wage for bread.
The difference between nobility (AGRARIAN BARONS) and industrialists (STEEL BARONS) became less visible. Alfred Krupp built his VILLA HUEGEL, a representative estate few noblemen could afford, in which he, among others, entertained Kaiser Wilhelm II. Some of the industrialists acquired noble titles by marriage, or were ennobled.
Since the unification the Army stood in high esteem. In Germany's bourgeois society, the UNTEROFFIZIERSPATENT (NCO's patent) was regarded the most desiable goal. It opened many career opportunities. The military was overrated, few viewed it critically. Military music (MARCHES) were very popular, as were uniforms of any kind. The Kaiserreich has often been associated with MILITARISM, a militarism which was romantic rather than oppressive.
The SOCIAL DEMOCRATS, workers striving for much improved living conditions and a society offering equal chances in education, political representation etc., rejected the Kaiserreich's militarism, it's colonial policy, the state itself.

The well-to-do could afford lavish households with staffs of servants. The railways offered seats in 4 different classes. The HIGH SCHOOL was intended for sons of the high society, focussing on the classic languages (Latin, Greek), preparing for university studies. The REALSCHULE, focussing on Mathematics, Physics, modern languages, was to educate engineers and clerks, jobs the Junkers and the more traditional of the city merchants looked down upon. The VOLKSSCHULE (elementary school) was for the working masses, for whom 4 years of basic education were regarded sufficient.
Women were expected to stay at home and accept the role of housewife and mother. There were separate higher schools for women; universities cautiously admitted women, for whom the careers of school teacher and nurse stood open.

In 1890 the era Bismarck ended, and with him the Anti-Socialist Laws. The SDAP had become the largest political party in Germany; trade unions had reached a size in which they could paralyze the economic life, thus gaining the means to achieve improvements in labour negotiations. Yet the employers' concessions were small in scope, and strikes became a regular feature of economic life.
Labour legislation also continued, the most important piece being legislation banning child labor (below the age of 11, 1903), passed in order to meet complaints of the army - too many young men had been exempted from military service because they were unfit, a fact caused by too hard work at too young an age.
Numerous private organizations took care of the needs of the simple folk, such as the WANDERVOGEL, which led groups of students out of polluted cities into the countryside; to provide lodgings for them, the first YOUTH HOSTELS were built (1907).







EXTERNAL
FILES
DOCUMENTS Documents from psm-data geschichte :
Statistical Tables Regarding the Housing Situation around 1900
Costs of Living and Gross Wages in Industry and Agriculture, 1890-1914
Working Women by Profession, in Relation to Total Number of Workers, 1882 and 1907
Statement of the Ruhrgebiet's miners' organizations of January 7th 1905, pertaining to the strike on the Bruchstrasse mine
The German Social Democratic Party's executive board appeals for support for the striking miners in the Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr District), January 17th 1905;
Paul Göhre on the housing and living conditions of workers' families, c. 1891
The Worker Moritz Bromme Describes his Family's Living Conditions (c 1905):
Statistical Table Illustrating the Social Background of Students of the Schools of Higher Learning in the city of Barmen (1906);
Karl Retzlaw describes in his memories how he fared when he as a 12-year-old arrived, with his mother, in Berlin in 1908
Else Conrad on the Living Conditions of Workers' Families in München (c. 1909)
Oberschlesien (Upper Silesia), Percentage of Coal Miners who work in a shift of up to 8, 8 to 10, 10 to 12 hours per shift
REFERENCE Lily Braun, Die Frauenfrage, ihre geschichtliche Entwicklung und wirtschaftliche Seite [The Question of the Status of Women, its Historic Development and its Economic Aspect] (1901), posted by Gutenberg Library Online
VIDEOS Berlin in the Kaiser's Days, documentary film distributed by Inter Nationes, 1984, 90 min.


This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2000, last revised on November 12th 2004

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