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A Source Analysis in German Women's History: Factory Inspectors' Reports and the Shaping of Working-Class Lives, 1878–1914

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 December 2008

Jean H. Quataert
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Sources are the building blocks of the historical narrative. The search for source materials and their critical cross-examination are integral parts of the historian's task. Yet these efforts usually are hidden from view: historians favor presenting the completed narrative rather than discussing the important steps in research. In some fields of history, the question of appropriate sources is exceedingly critical. Women's history is one such field, quite simply because the secondary literature has tended to neglect women's lives and the more common primary archival sources similarly are mute. Societal prejudices that kept women out of our documented history also have limited their appearance in the original sources. For example, Saxon officials in the textile villages of the Oberlausitz drew up detailed lists of wage-earning weavers around the mid-nineteenth century. These lists are remarkable for the absence of women, who were very active in home weaving, due to an administrative decision to limit the survey to those with the franchise.1 In the history of lower-class women are found the same complications that social historians experience in tracking the lives of people who left sketchy and incomplete records. And much of the published material that exists on working-class women challenges the historian for its class as well as gender and ideological biases.

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Articles
Information
Central European History , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , June 1983 , pp. 99 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © Conference Group for Central European History of the American Historical Association 1983

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References

1. Staatsarchiv Dresden, Aussenstelle Bautzen (hereafter referred to as B), Amtshauptmannschaft Zittau (referred to as AZ), Nr. 6002, Bl. 8–77: municipal lists, 1865.

2. I will not develop this very broad theme of workers' reactions, here. It is best left to its own article. My analysis will merely touch on the issue briefly. But in assessing the modern character of work, historians have not shown much interest in looking at the values, norms, and assumptions that are part of public policy and social legislation. I am doing this in my broad study of work and family life in the German textile and garment industries during the nineteenth century.

3. Anton, Günther K., Geschichte der preussischen Fabrikgesetzgebung bis zu ihrer Aufnahme durch die Reichsgewerbeordnung (Leipzig, 1891), pp. 55–56.Google Scholar

4. Minister für Arbeit, Gesundheit, und Soziales des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, 125 Jahre Gewerbeaufsicht: Arbeitsschutz und Umweltschutz 1853–1978 (Düsseldorf, 1978), pp. 16–17Google Scholar: photocopy of von Zinnow's application. Also, Dodd, Arthur, Die Wirkung der Schutzbestimmungen für die jugendlichen und weiblichen Fabrikarbeiter und die Verhältnisse im Konfektionsbetriebe in Deutschland (Jena, 1898), p. 2Google Scholar; 125 Jahre, p. 12.

5. Reichs-Gesetzblatt, no. 24 (07 22, 1878).

6. 100 Jahre Gewerbeaufsicht in Baden-Württemberg (Stuttgart, n.d.), p. 18Google Scholar; 100 Jahre Bayerische Gewerbeaufsicht 1879–1979 (Bayreuth, n.d.), p. 17.Google Scholar

7. 100 Jahre … Baden, pp. 17 and 25; Bayerische Gewerbeaufsicht, photocopy of the law of 02 22, 1879.

8. Bayerische Gewerbeaufsicht, p. 18.

9. 100 jahre … Baden, pp. 17 and 26–27. For the Oberlausitz, , Amtliche Mitteilungen aus denJahres-Berichten der Gewerbe-Aufsichtsbeamten (hereafter referred to as JB) (1900), Berlin, 2: 285.Google Scholar

10. Jahresbericht des statistischen Amtes im K. Polizei-Präsidio zu Berlin für das Jahr 1852 (Leipzig, 1853), p. 3.Google Scholar

11. Zeitschrift des K. Sächsischen Statistischen Bureaus (hereafter referred to as ZSSB) 36 (Dresden, 1890): 7.Google Scholar

12. “Die Aufgaben der statistischen Bureaux und Zeitschriften in ihrer Verbindung mit Hochschulen und Lehrstühlen für Nationalökonomie und Statistik,” ZSSB 21 (Dresden, 1875): 2.Google Scholar

13. JB (1877), 1:270; (1879), Minden, 1:185.

14. Reichs-Gesetzblatt, no. 18 (06 9, 1891). The law expanded the jurisdiction of inspectors and it required employers to set up separate changing rooms for the sexes, to heat the dining areas in the winter and, on request, provide inspectors or the police with information about their workforce.

15. JB (1899), Magdeburg, 1:241; (1879), Hesse, 1:255–56.

16. The inspectors had absorbed notions of proper roles for men and women that had developed out of the bourgeois social world of the late eighteenth century. See Hausen, Karin, “Family and Role Divisions: The Polarisation of Sexual Stereotypes of Work and Family Life,” in Evans, Richard J. and Lee, W. R., eds., The German Family (London, 1981), pp. 51–81Google Scholar (trans, from the German); and Panke, Birgit, “Bürgerliches Frauenbild und Geschlechtsrollenzuweisungen in der literarischen und brieflichen Produktion des 18. Jahrhundert,” Frauengeschichte: Beitrdge 5. zur feministischen Theorie und Praxis (Munich, 1981), pp. 6–11.Google Scholar

17. Zentrales Staatsarchiv, Merseburg (hereafter ZStA), Rep. 120 BB, VII, 3 Nr. 2, Bd. 2 (1876–89), Bl. 95–97: detailed report on the problems encountered in employing men and women in one room. Also, JB (1877), Hesse, 1:256.

18. “Die Ergebnisse der von der Handels- und Gewerbekammer Zittau veranstalteten Enquête über die Frauen- und Kinderarbeit in der Fabriken der Lausitz,” Bericht der Handels- und Gewerbekammer zu Zittau 1871–1875 (Zittau, 1876), pp. 276–79.Google Scholar

19. As, for example, B, AZ, Nr. 993, Bl. 2–3: inspector report on the mill of Heinrich Wilhelm Kaluch in Cunewalde; Nr. 5089: reports on the mill of Friedrich Wilhelm Kloss in Cunewalde, 1894–1902. Also, JB (1883), Berlin, 1:9, for description of the virtues learned at work.

20. Jahres-Bericht der Handels- und Gewerbekammer zu Zittau (Zittau, 1886), pp. 20–21Google Scholar: details on cigar-making. Also JB (1879), Posen, 1:131–32 and 115–17 for the partition-wall in Merseburg and Erfurt; (1881) Potsdam, 1:28.

21. B, AZ, Nr. 5089, Bl. 6–7 and 12: on the Kloss mechanical mill; Nr. 5951: on Friedrich Wilhelm Kreutziger's mill in Heinewalde; Nr. 5952: building of the jute spinning mill in Ostritz in 1883; Nr. 5968: G. Haber's bleaching business in Olbersdorf, 1862–63. For the changes after the turn of the century see Nr. 991: F. F. Forster's mill in Beiersdorf, 1907. For the campaign see, among others, JB (1880), Chemnitz, 2:18, and Leipzig, p. 45; (1881), Lobau, 2:420, and Chemnitz, 2:339. In these early years literally each report discusses the campaign.

22. JB (1876), 1:264.

23. JB (1899), 1: Frankfurt a.d.O., Potsdam, Breslau, among other reports. For autobiographical accounts see Mein Arbeitstag—Mein Wochenende: 150 Berichte von Textilarbeiterinnen, gesammelt und herausgegeben vom Deutschen Textilarbeiterverband (Berlin, 1930)Google Scholar. The collection gave each respondent's age; many descriptions of childhood experiences were of the turn-of-the-century era or earlier. See also So Leben Wir: 1320 Industriearbeiterinnen berichten über ihr Leben (Vienna, n.d.).Google Scholar

24. Reprinted in Heidi Rosenbaum, Seminar: Familie und Gesellschaftsstruktur: Materialien zu den sozioökonomischen Bedingungen von Familienformen (Frankfurt a.M., 1978), pp. 309–33.Google Scholar

25. JB (1887), Baden, 3:237 and, for an example of the earlier notion, (1880), Oppeln, 1:70. For the rather mild nature of the reformers' critique see, for example, Wilbrandt, Robert, Arbeiterinnenschutz und Heimarbeit (Jena, 1906), pp. 7–8Google Scholar; and also Gaebel, Käthe, Die Lage der Heimarbeiterinnen nach den Erhebungen des Gewerkvereins der Heimarbeiterinnen Deutschlands in den Jahren 1907 und 1912 (Berlin, n.d.), pp. 103–5.Google Scholar

26. Mehner, “Der Haushalt,” p. 332; “Die Ergebnisse der Sächsischen Gewerbezählung vom 5. Juni 1882,” ZSSB, Zweites Supplement zum 32. Jahrgang (Dresden, 1888): 27.Google Scholar

27. A number of early German feminists had subjected women's housework to economic and social analysis. For example, Käthe Schirmacher called for wages for housework, Marianne Weber addressed a similar theme, Lily Braun proposed household cooperatives to overcome privatized domestic labor, and the housewife movement argued for rationalizing housework. See, particularly, Kittler, Gertraude, Hausarbeit: Zur Geschichte einer “Natur-Ressource” (Munich, 1980), pp. 40–81Google Scholar. For similar historic analyses and experiments in America see Hayden, Dolores, The Grand Domestic Revolution: A History of Feminist Designs for American Homes, Neighborhoods and Cities (Cambridge, Mass., 1982).Google Scholar

28. B, AZ, Nr. 8208: … Invaliditäts- und Alters-Versicherung der Hausgewerbetreibenden der Textilindustrie in …, 1895–1914. The documents cover 31 weaver village municipalities in the district of Zittau. They are an historian's gold mine, containing unique and exciting information. Each set contains a detailed survey of work in the weaver's home taken in 1895. Here is found information on family life, hours of work, wages, other sources of income, employers, family members' jobs outside the home, earlier employment patterns, etc. In addition, there are letters and petitions from the weavers as well as records of court cases that extend over several decades. I analyze the source more fully in Quataert, “Social Insurance and the Family Work of Oberlausitz Homeweavers in the Late Nineteenth Century,” in Fout, John C., ed., German Women in the Nineteenth Century: A Social History (New York, 1984)Google Scholar. The chapter describes the biases and misrepresentations that are in much of the literature on handweavers' work and home relationships published in imperial Germany.

29. Quataert, Jean H., “Teamwork in Saxon Homeweaving Families in the Nineteenth Century: A Preliminary Investigation into the Issue of Gender Work Roles,” in Jo Maynes, Mary and Joeres, Ruth-Ellen, eds., Condition and Consciousness: Proceedings of an International Conference (submitted to Indiana University Press).Google Scholar

30. ZStA, Potsdam, Reichsministerium des Innern (hereafter RMdI), Nr. 131 (Apr. 1895-Oct. 1895).

31. JB (1888), 3:251–53 and appendix.

32. JB (1901), 3:115–16.

33. As seen in a study by the assistants of single working women in Berlin, JB (1902), 1:78–92. Also, Staatsarchiv Potsdam (hereafter StAP), Pr. Br. Rep 30, Berlin C, Polizei- präsidium, Tit. 44–47, Nr. 2081: Lebensverhältnisse der unverheirateten Arbeiterinnen, which contains the archival materials for this inquiry. Another example of women's sensitivity is a study prepared by Gertrud von Bennigsen and Anna Reichert on women domestic industry workers in the ready-made garment industry in Berlin: StAP, Pr. Br. Rep. 30, Berlin C, Polizeipräsidium, Tit. 44–47, Nr. 2050, Bl. 3–35.

34. JB (1899), Plauen, 2:851 and 853, and Dresden, 2:578; also Potsdam, 1:50, and Giessen, 1:602.

35. Wilbrandt, Robert, a respected author who wrote a number of books on weavers in imperial Germany, focused in one case on the effects of female competition on men's work: Die Frauenarbeit: Ein Problem des Kapitalismus (Leipzig, 1906), pp. 3 and 31Google Scholar. “Weavers typify the problem of female competition in capitalism,” he stated in introducing the broad scope of his subject and then argued, “When the factory called the weaver, he … [assuming weavers were men] changed from master into underling and from man into girl [aus einem Mann ein Mādchen].” Given Wilbrandt's own focus, this “feminizing” of weavers was hardly a compliment; in fact, such a sentiment prevented rational analysis.

36. This comes out very clearly in the collection of autobiographical accounts that the German Textile Workers' Union published: Mein Arbeitstag—Mein Wochenende. The book is organized according to the life-cycle stage of the respondent: single, married, those with children, and older women.

37. Among many inquiries on women's health—particularly in jobs like weaving and sewing that they held typically during their adult life cycle, see: ZStA, Reichlandsbund, Pressearchiv, Nr. 7960: Frauenfrage; ZStA, RMdI, Nr. 11977, Säuglingssterblichkeit, Bl. 20–21: report on child mortality, Feb. 10,1926; Bl. 57–65: protection of pregnant women in the textile industry, Apr. 26,1926. Also, Umfang der Frauenarbeit in der deutschen Textil-industrie: Statistische Erhebungen über die soziale und wirtschaftliche Lage sowie die Familien-verhältnisse der in der deutschen Textilindustrie beschäftigten verheirateten und verheiratetgewe-senen Frauen, Deutscher Textilarbeiter Verband, 2d ed. (1923), the second section on pregnancy, pp. 35ff. Hirsch, Max, Die Gefahren der Frauenerwerbsarbeit für Schwangerschaft, Geburt, Wochenbett und Kindesaufzucht mil besonderer Berucksichtigung der Textilindustrie (Leipzig, 1925).Google Scholar