Social protection of workers and employees in Germany during the 1920s

The article examines the development of the main forms of social protection of employees in Germany in the 1920s. The main sources for writing the article were the reports of the employees of the Scientific Bureau of the USSR People’s Commissariat of Labor, who studied the functioning of insurance institutions in Germany to develop recommendations for the development of the Soviet social insurance system, published in the journal “Insurance Issues”. The authors of the article note that the main reason for the emergence of nationwide forms of social protection of workers and employees in Germany at the end of the 19th century was the activation of the socialist and workers’ movement, which forced the ruling circles to abandon the ideas of Manchester theories and speak out for active intervention in the regulation of relations between workers and entrepreneurs. Thus, Germany was the first of the Western European countries, in which at the end of the 19th century at the state level, insurance was introduced against illness, accidents, old age and disability. This model of social insurance was later called “Bismarck’s”, and became a model for the foundations of social protection in other states. The defeat of Germany in the World War I led to a decline in economic life, as a result of which social tension in the country increased. In such conditions, the government took a course to revive social insurance as a financial basis for social protection of hired workers. An analysis of the occupancy rate of insurance funds shows that the largest share of insurance premiums fell on workers on temporary disability insurance. The accident insurance was the most massive type of social insurance in Germany in the 1920s. This type of insurance extended to almost all categories of industrial and agricultural workers. Workers, office employees, students, domestic workers, teachers and home workers were subject to social insurance in case of illness. A new type of state social insurance in Germany, the development of which falls on the post-war period, was unemployment insurance. Based on the analysis of the practical activities of insurance offices, the authors came to the conclusion that during the 1920s the institute of social insurance remained the main organizational and legal form of social protection of hired workers and employees in Germany. Having emerged at the end of the 19th century, even after the defeat of the country in the World War I and the collapse of the monarchy, it did not lose its position. Moreover, during this time, its regulatory framework has been improved, and the country’s econo mic revival programs have provided financial support for this institution. More than 10 million people who used its services were interested in its successful development, considering it an integral attribute of capitalist society.

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