6 - social Flashcards
1
Q
Urban working class/blue collar workers
Bismarck [1871-1918]
A
- Sickness Insurance (1883) which provided 13 weeks’ pay to 3 million workers — they paid 2/3rd and employers 1/3
- Old Age pensions (1889) to those over 70 — many did not live that long
- Ban on child labour extended to all industries in 1903
- Anti-socialist laws [1878] = trade unions were banned
2
Q
Urban working class/blue collar workers
Weimar Germany [1918-33]
A
- 2 million houses were built to alleviate overcrowding in cities
- SPD continued to be the largest party until 1932
- The Great Depression hugely affected the working calss with 9 million uneployed by 1933 vs. real wages increased by 12% in 1928
- Weimar constitution granted employees equal rights with employers + 8 hour working day
3
Q
Urban working class/blue collar workers
Nazi Germany [1933-45]
A
- The working class grew by 10% from 1929-1938 = preparing for war
- Nazis banned trade unions = May 1933 trde union offices were raided and seized by Nazi stormtroopers.
- DAF only trade unions allowed - KdF holidays created in Nov 1933 by the DAF – 1938 over 10 million taken
4
Q
Urban working class/blue collar workers
West Germany [1945-90]
A
Guest workers = from Turkey and Greece — 14 million by 1973 = underclass
74% lived in urban areas by 1980
8.3% lived in rural communitires in 1970
5
Q
Artisan
Bismarck [1871-1918]
A
- The Mittelstand [lower middle class] were affected by industrialisation in 1871; factories could mass produce their goods
- 1882-85, one-man artisan businesses dropped by 13.5% and suffered even more decline from 1897-1907
- 1897 = the government enacted protectionist Craft Laws, however, these were not effective
- 1908 = the right to train apprentices was restricted to examined handcraft masters
6
Q
Artisan
Weimar Germany [1918-1933]
A
- Mittlestand supported the Nazi party during the 1920s
- In the Nazis’ origninal manifesto (the 25 point programme) there were a number of policies aimed at supporting small traders [e.g. shutting down larger businesses and giving thier premises to smaller ones at a reduced rate]
- Skilled workers made up 33% of the Nazi party membership in the 1920s despite only making up 27% of the population as a whole
7
Q
Artisan
Nazi Germany [1933-45]
A
- Hitler supported the Mittelstand from 1933 as a way of thanking them for thier continued support – e.g. the army ordered boots and uniforms from artisans and from 1931-36, the number of artisan business rose by 20%
- Trade unions banned in May 1933 and the DAF only union — KDF holidays a bonus
- 1936-39 artisan businesses declined by 11% and department stores were more successful
8
Q
Artisan
West Germany [1945-90]
A
- Marshall Plan 1947 so the economy began to recover
- Artisans were given special status - causing them to increase
- 1955 = over 3.5 million Germans were employed in the artisan business [an increase from 1 million from 1939]
9
Q
Juker’s decline
Bismarck [1871-1918]
A
- The Prussian voting systemm meant that Junker’s votes were more than middle and lower votes
- Riots in Prussia following 1908 election in which the SPD won just 7 seats with 23% of the vote in contrast to the Junker Conservatives who won 212 seats with just 16% of the vote.
- By 1912, the SPD became the largest party in the Reichstag with just 110 seats and over 4 million votes.
- The Silent dictatorship
10
Q
Junker’s decline
Weiamar Germany [1918-33]
A
- Junker Paul von Hindenburg was President of Germany from 1925-34 = retained high positions
- von Seeckt refused to fire upon the Freikorps during the Kapp Putsch in 1920 — ended by Ebert, who called a genral strike and Kapp fled = power of Ebert and the support of the workers
- REVOLUTION: 28th October = reformist Prince Max pushed through reforms + November 9th Kaiser abdicated
- Von Papen’s cabinet of barons + Hindenberg president
11
Q
Junker’s decline
Nazi [1933-45]
A
- Hitler manipulated Junkers: Night of the Long Knives June 1934 in response to concers over the SA’s recklessness
- Hitler was a dictator so everyone had litte power = Fuhrer in August 1934 when Hindenburg died
- Powerful Junkers in Hitler’s cabinet gradually went; 1834 Franz von Papen left and in January 1938 Werner von Blomberg was forced to resign
12
Q
Decline in peasantry
Bismarck [1871-1918]
A
- 1900 = agriculture made up 30% of German national income, but by 1989, this was under 2%
- German workers in agriculture jobs declined from 49% in 1871 to 2% in 1989
- It was Junkers who pursuaded Bismarck to introduce import tariffs in 1879 to increase their income as to stop cheap grain from being imported from Russia and the US
= Marriage of Iron and Rye—- the coalition of interests between industry and agriculture that supported the adoption of protectionism in Imperial Germany by the Tariffs
13
Q
Decline in peasantry
Weimar [1918-33]
A
- Food shortages during the war = Turnip Winter 1916-17
- Kriegsbrot = war bread was made from flour from potatoes and later sawdust to bulk it out
- Wall Street Crash 1929 and the Great Depression
- Hyperinflation in 1920 = by 1923 $1 was equal to DM4.2 trillion [DM9 trillon for a loaf of bread]
14
Q
Decline in peasantry
Nazi [1933-45]
A
- Farm life was ideolised through the ‘Blood and Soil’ programme
- The phrase was populised by Richard Walther Darré — Reich Minister of Food and Agriculture
- In 1939, Germany had become 83 percent self-sufficient in basic crops = autarky through invading other countries
15
Q
Decline in peasantry
West Germany [1945-90]
A
- Farming machinery was subsidised by the government vs. 1950-60 = the rural economy lost 50% of its workforce = mechanicisation + modernisation
- Technology more prominent in the West Germany ecoonomy = their GNP trebled furing the 1950s due to these investments
- ‘62 Common Agriculture Policy had common prices
- 1.6% of GDP agricultural by ‘89
16
Q
The rise of white-collar workers
Bismarck [1871-1918]
A
- From 1882-1907, the number of white collar workers grew from 4.7% to 10%
- In Prussia, the civil service grew from 40,000 in 1850 to 250,000 by 1907
- The number of tecahers grew by 43% between 1891 and 1913 and the number of doctors doubled from 1876-1913
- In 1901, white-collar political groups formed the Co-ordinating Committee, which argued for state-insurance for white-collar workers = in 1911, they were successful.
17
Q
The rise of white-collar workers
Weimar [1918-33]
A
- The years1924 to 1929have been referred to as Weimar’s ‘Golden Years’
- The number of white collar workers doubled in 1907-25 whilst unemployment rose for the working class, increasing the resentment between the different layers of society
- However, the hyperinflation of the 1920s hit them later than the working classes = in 1928, there were 183,371 white collar workers unemployed
- 90,000 of them received no unemployment support at all
= Hyperinflation and the Great Depression
18
Q
The rise of white-collar workers
Nazi [1933-45]
A
- By 1933, 60% of university graduates were unemployed
- Younger white collar workers made up 20% of Nazi party members from 1929-32 —– by the end off 1933 they were 65% overrepresented in relation to their population size
- They gained benefits due to the Nazis: could only be sacked with 6 weeks notice [vs. 1 week for blue-collar workers] and formally addressed as ‘Sie’ rather than workers who were rreffered to as ‘du’ (informal)
19
Q
The rise of white-collar workers
West Germany [1945-90]
A
- From 1950-64, real wages doubled = fuelled consumerism
- Living standards imroved by 58% from 1953 to 1960 = compared to only 25% in Britain
- By 1989, 66% of the population was employed in the service industry
20
Q
Women
Bismarck [1871-1914]
A
- By 1891, women were guaranteed 6 weeks’ maternity leave and an 11 hour working day and were barred from working in mines
- Traditional roles = Emma Ihrer fought against this through the Society for the Protection of Women Worker’s interests = 1,000 members when banned in 1886
- Emma Ihrer in 1890 became the only women elected to the General Commission of German Trade Unions
- The SPD have a women’s section led by Clara Zetkin = rare and few examples of women in power
- Rosa Luxemburg was a prominent member of the SPD
- WW2: turning point = shortage of male workers so women worked in previously forbidden areas = heavy industry — iron, steel, chemicals, engineering
21
Q
Women
Weimar [1918-1933]
A
- The liberated ‘Weimar Woman’
- In the Weimar constiution women were given the right to vote
- Women made up 9.6% of the new Weimar Parliament from 1919 = 2% of MPs were female in Britain and the Senate in the US had none
- Women made up 6.1% of the German state [lander] parliaments
- 20% of university sudents were women
22
Q
Women
Nazi [1933-1945]
A
- NSV only women’s group
- Mother’s cross = B-4, S-6, G-8
- 4 children in 5 years = don’t re-pay marriage loan of 600 RM (introduced in 1933)
- Lebensborn programme included state funded brothels (for SS soldiers on Eastern front) = 11,000 children born as a result
- Better healthcare as a result - infant mortality dropped by 1.1% from ‘33-‘36
- Kinder, Küche, und Kirche = children, kitchen, church - traditional roles
—– status due to their role in society so supported = rural young women benefitted
23
Q
Women
West Germany [1945-1990]
A
- West German Basic Law of 1949 guarenteed legal equality for women
- 1957 = wives given legal equalty with thier husbands
- 1980 = women were just 39% of the workforce; guest workers instead
- Women’s pay was 30% lower than men’s by the 1980s
- FEMINIST MOVEMENT = 41% of university students were women by 1989
- Rita Süssmuth was President of the Bundestag in 1988
- 4% of doctors were women + 5% of uni proffessors were women
