The German Worker
eBook - PDF

The German Worker

Working-Class Autobiographies from the Age of Industrialization

  1. 350 pages
  2. English
  3. PDF
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - PDF

The German Worker

Working-Class Autobiographies from the Age of Industrialization

About this book

In the two generations before World War I, Germany emerged as Europe's foremost industrial power. The basic facts of increasing industrial output, lengthening railroad lines, urbanization, and rising exports are well known. Behind those facts, in the historical shadows, stand millions of anonymous men and women: the workers who actually put down the railroad ties, hacked out the coal, sewed the shirt collars, printed the books, or carried the bricks that made Germany a great nation. This book contains translated selections from the autobiographies of nineteen of those now-forgotten millions. The thirteen men and six women who speak from these pages afford an intimate firsthand look at how massive social and economic changes are reflected on a personal level in the everyday lives of workers. Although some of these autobiographies are familiar to specialists in German labor history, they are virtually unknown and inaccessible to the broader audience they deserve. This book provides translations that are at once useful, interesting, and entertaining to a wide range of historians, students, and general readers.

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Information

Publisher
University of California Press
Year
1987
Print ISBN
9780520061248
eBook ISBN
9780520908499
Edition
1
Topic
History
Subtopic
Economic History
Index
History
43
8
Index
Wages,
16-17,
18,
20-21,
23,
24,
26;
of
barmaids,
258, 
259;
of
brick-
yard 
workers,
98; 
of
cigar 
makers,
407,
412,
417;
of
coal 
miners,
330,
334;
of
domestic
servants,
23;
of
farm 
workers,
195, 
213, 
219,
234,
401,
402;
of
glass 
workers,
392,
394-95;
of
metalworkers,
244,
373, 
374, 
375-76;
of
rail-
road 
excavators,
57,
61;
of
seam-
stresses,
68, 
69,
70-71,
72; 
of
straw
hat
makers,
256, 
257, 
277,
280;
of
waiters,
77,
84-85;
of
women
factory
workers,
68, 
69,
70-71,
72,
130, 
253, 
254, 
256,
257,
378,
381;
of
woodworkers.
233,
236
Waiters,
75-86
Wanderjahre.
15, 
16,
376-88, 
410-14
Weber,
Max,
7, 
9, 
44, 
204
Wettstein-Adelt,
Minna,
6, 
29, 
32, 
38
Wilhelmll,
37, 
409
Women 
workers:
in
agriculture,
2
1
,
188-91,
194-97, 
208-12, 
400;
attitude
of,
toward 
Social 
Democ-
racy,
38-40, 
73-74,
115,
174,
178,
180, 
234-35, 
257, 
389,
395-98,
401;
autobiographies
by,
5;
as
barmaids,
252, 
258-68;
diet
of,
28n.77,
69,
124,
131-32,
150;
as
domestic 
servants,
21, 
23—
24,
25,
39-40, 
135-59, 
253-54,
257,
359;
education
of,
65-66,
67,
390-91;
in
factories,
68-72,
121,
123-26, 
129-34, 
253-58,
378,
381,
392-96;
in
glass 
indus-
try, 
389-98; 
health 
of, 
66-67,
165,
249,
257-58,
394, 
397-98;
as
homemakers,
25—26;
and
home
work,
21, 
26, 
29, 
39,
72-73,
233,
235,
244, 
273, 
310, 
312,
390-92, 
412;
kinds
of
work
of,
21—26;
leisure 
time
of, 
22, 
34,
124,
126. 
238, 
244,
355-57,
360;
and
marriage,
23, 
24,
25-26,
31-
32,
189-90, 
231-38, 
244, 
248-
51,
264-66,
308-9, 
361-69,
381,
400-402;
as
mothers,
18,
26, 
31, 
32,
165, 
192, 
194, 
232,
235-36,
249-51,
308,
316,
366-
69,
393-94, 
395, 
400;
numbers
of,
21; 
as
prostitutes,
21,
23, 
24,
68,
133, 
266, 
383;
reading
habits
of,
124, 
126, 
355;
relations
among, 
358-
-60;
as
seamstresses,
67-74;
sexual 
abuse
of, 
23, 
39,
79,
124-26,
133, 
252, 
255, 
258,
259-61, 
267, 
378-79, 
383;
in
So-
cial
Democratic 
party,
38;
in
to-
bacco 
industry,
310,
312; 
unem-
ployment
of,
122-23;
wages
of,
23,
24, 
26, 
68, 
69,
70-71,
72,
130, 
233,
253, 
254, 
256, 
257,
258,
259, 
378, 
381, 
392, 
394-
95;
working 
hours
of, 
23, 
68, 
69,
70, 
72,
130, 
141-44, 
195, 
197,
253,
254,
255,
261, 
378, 
381,
390
Woodworkers,
236-43, 
245-48
Workers:
as
autobiographers,
1-1
1;
numbers
of,
11—13,
skill 
levels
of,
14-16,
17, 
18,
22-23,
24, 
41
Workhouse,
37,
204,
213,
229, 
287-
306

Table of contents

  1. Contents
  2. List of Illustrations
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. A Note about Currencies
  5. Introduction
  6. Karl Fischer, Railroad Excavator
  7. Ottilie Baader, Seamstress
  8. Franz Bergg, Apprentice Waiter
  9. Wenzel Holek, Brickyard Worker
  10. Adelheid Popp, Factory Worker
  11. Doris Viersbeck, Cook and House Maid
  12. Nikolaus Osterroth, Clay Miner
  13. Franz Rehbein, Farm Worker
  14. A City Man on a Farm
  15. Moritz Bromme, Woodworker and Metalworker
  16. A Barmaid
  17. Otto Krille, Factory Worker
  18. Ernst Schuchardt, Workhouse Weaver
  19. Ludwig Turek, Child Tobacco Worker
  20. Max Lotz, Coal Miner
  21. Frau Hoffmann, Retired Maid
  22. Eugen May, Turner
  23. Aurelia Roth, Glass Grinder
  24. Fritz Pauk, Cigar Maker
  25. Suggestions for Further Reading in English
  26. Index

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