Changing living standards, 1918-32

Question 1

WW1 effects

Answer 1

severe shortages
horses requisitioned for the front; hard to farm
food production went to front
allied blockages made food hard to get

Question 2

food and malnutrition

Answer 2

‘alternative foods’ eg. ‘K-brot’ made from potatoes, oats, straw
high infant mortality- poor health of mother
90% of children in Berlin malnourished

Question 3

living standards after war

Answer 3

weimar government provided benefits to poorest
regulated pensions
standard of living improved immediately after war; more
employment; higher wages

Question 4

living standards after inflation

Answer 4

• people took jobs with poor pay and long hours
• women took home-based work paid for by the piece; must
  work all day and night to make enough money
• 8 hour day disappeared

Question 5

housing conditions

Answer 5

cramped housing, shared toilets
poorest shared 1 room, no running water
Berlin 1925: 130,500 people were lodgers and 44,600 paid to sleep in a bed with no lodger facilities

Question 6

skilled workers

Answer 6

skilled workers and low-level clerical workers experienced rising unemployment and spent savings; had to claim benefit
men lost jobs in clerical sector; businesses preferred women who had to be paid less

Question 7

businesses

Answer 7

small family businesses scraped by

many lost business and house

Question 8

black market

Answer 8

rich exploited situation; black marketers bought up property and crammed tenants into them, providing few amenities
industrialists exploited workers

Question 9

may 1920

Answer 9

Reich Pension Law regulates pensions, especially to paid veterans, war widows and parents of dead
soldiers

Question 10

february 1922

Answer 10

Labour Exchange Law sets up government offices to provide training to help workers find work

Question 11

february 1924

Answer 11

Economic Enabling Law restructures unemployment benefit and sets rates for employers’
contributions
Reich Social Welfare Law pulls together all post-war benefits and relief systems (federal and regional)
and sets up municipal welfare offices to administer them

Question 12

July 1927

Answer 12

Unemployment Insurance Law introduces unemployment insurance to give benefit to all those out of
work, not just temporary unemployed due to sickness