SSOAR Logo
    • Deutsch
    • English
  • English 
    • Deutsch
    • English
  • Login
SSOAR ▼
  • Home
  • About SSOAR
  • Guidelines
  • Publishing in SSOAR
  • Cooperating with SSOAR
    • Cooperation models
    • Delivery routes and formats
    • Projects
  • Cooperation partners
    • Information about cooperation partners
  • Information
    • Possibilities of taking the Green Road
    • Grant of Licences
    • Download additional information
  • Operational concept
Browse and search Add new document OAI-PMH interface
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Download PDF
Download full text

(453.7Kb)

Citation Suggestion

Please use the following Persistent Identifier (PID) to cite this document:
https://doi.org/10.12759/hsr.suppl.34.2023.05

Exports for your reference manager

Bibtex export
Endnote export

Display Statistics
Share
  • Share via E-Mail E-Mail
  • Share via Facebook Facebook
  • Share via Bluesky Bluesky
  • Share via Reddit reddit
  • Share via Linkedin LinkedIn
  • Share via XING XING

Lohnarbeit und Lebenszyklus im Kaiserreich [1988]

Wage Labour and the Life Cycle in the German Empire
[journal article]

Ehmer, Josef

Abstract

The starting point of this chapter is an observation made by German sociologists during the early twentieth century concerning the occupational fate of elderly workers in large-scale industry. A series of studies on single enterprises led to the conclusion that at around the age of 40, workers in th... view more

The starting point of this chapter is an observation made by German sociologists during the early twentieth century concerning the occupational fate of elderly workers in large-scale industry. A series of studies on single enterprises led to the conclusion that at around the age of 40, workers in these industries experienced a "critical turning point" that led to a serious deterioration of their working conditions and living standards and, most frequently, to their expulsion from industry altogether. Sociologists have ar-gued that this "second phase" of an industrial worker's life course remained "in the dark." The aim of this chapter is to shed light on the experiences of these elder workers by going beyond single enterprises and industries and analysing contemporary comprehensive statistics. The German Empire's occupational statistics from 1882, 1895, and 1907 offer excellent data; parts of these surveys have been made machine-readable, which al-lows scholars to follow age cohorts over the entire period between 1882 and 1907. My analysis of this data reveals the strong impact of life-course related transitions from agriculture to industry (during the early years of one's working life) and back (in middle and old age), and from wage labour in crafts and trades to economic independence. I argue that in Germany during the era of "high industrialisation" in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, wage labour was still not yet an overall life-long attribute of the working life but was for the majority of workers a phase in the working life course or a preliminary step towards independence as peasant or craftsman, be it as small employer or through self-employment.... view less

Keywords
German Empire; wage labor; life cycle; industrial worker; elderly worker; working conditions; standard of living; job history; economic sector; age group; occupational distribution

Classification
Social History, Historical Social Research

Free Keywords
Altersstruktur; Altersdiskriminierung; Arbeitgeber; Selbstständige; work life course; industrial workers' age structure; missing elderly workers; age discrimination; agriculture

Document language
German

Publication Year
2023

Page/Pages
p. 152-176

Journal
Historical Social Research, Supplement (2023) 34

Issue topic
Arbeit, Bevölkerung, Alter und Migration - historisch und im interkulturellen Vergleich: Eine persönliche Retrospektive

ISSN
0936-6784

Status
Published Version; peer reviewed

Licence
Creative Commons - Attribution 4.0


GESIS LogoDFG LogoOpen Access Logo
Home  |  Legal notices  |  Operational concept  |  Privacy policy
© 2007 - 2025 Social Science Open Access Repository (SSOAR).
Based on DSpace, Copyright (c) 2002-2022, DuraSpace. All rights reserved.
 

 


GESIS LogoDFG LogoOpen Access Logo
Home  |  Legal notices  |  Operational concept  |  Privacy policy
© 2007 - 2025 Social Science Open Access Repository (SSOAR).
Based on DSpace, Copyright (c) 2002-2022, DuraSpace. All rights reserved.