Why did economic growth not result in social change in Germany after unification?

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  • Created by: leahgreen
  • Created on: 24-09-14 13:28
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  • Why did economic growth not result in social change in Germany after unification?
    • Small businesses
      • One-man workshops were  common. People still made products themselves without mechanization.
        • These people were contracted but did not work in large factories with heavy machinery. Often they worked in their back gardens
      • Wandergeselle (migrant journeymen) still wandered around as skilled craftsmen and carried their trade to a factory operative.
    • Larger industries
      • Chemical
        • In Stassfurt, a rich deposit of potassium salts were found which gave the advantage to Germany as a they had access to this resource.
        • Dyes were popular and there were many companies set up by the 1880's such as Hoechst near Frankfurt
      • Electrical
        • In 1867 the dynamo was invented by Siemens which gave Germany the leading edge in electrical goods.
      • The depression of the 1870's meant that the most effective businesses were able to stay open whereas the sole traders lost work
    • The Aristocracy
      • Because the wars leading to unification were dominated by the Prussian forces, aristocracy and the elite classes did not move from their powerful position and remained the rulers of Germany.
      • In other European countries like Britain, industrialisation had taken place over a much longer period of tme and had included small business owners holding shares and imprving their own personal businesses in order to increase their personal wealth. However, in Germany this was not the case and industrialisation had been run by a few select people with a lot of control over large companies.
        • Furthermore, these workers were  not able to become a wealthier class because they had no shares in compainies. For example Siemes employed around 57,000 people. These typical workers did not experience any social change because they did not reap the profits of the business as small business owners couls do in Britain
    • Limitations on freedom
      • Baron von Stumm-halberg banned his employees from being subscribed to a non-conservative newspaper, being a member of a trade union and being a social democrat member. They had to be 24 to marry and had to have savings.
        • This conservative outlook kept social change to a minimum as people were banned from being socialist and therefore, a conservative, traditional outlook ensued.

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