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The Elberfeld System: Poor Relief And The Fluidity Of German Identity In Mid-Nineteenth Century Germany, James Willis

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The Elberfeld System is synonymous with the development of the welfare state in the German Empire. Historians underscore the Elberfeld System’s “Germanness” because of its adoption by numerous nineteenth-century Prussian industrial cities. Their interpretation is useful for understanding the development of the welfare state in the German Empire, but fails to appreciate the Elberfeld System within its own context. This thesis explores the social and economic reasons that the Elberfeld System succeeded when and where it did. Elberfeld was one of the earliest industrialized centers in continental Europe in the first half of the nineteenth century. Industrialization created class stratification …