Abstract
The Miners' Gild (Knappschaft) in the Ruhr district was set up by Frederick the Great at the end of the eighteenth century. The members of the Gild were given many privileges such as an exemption of military services by the prussian government. At the beginning of the nineteenth century the Ruhr miners lost these privileges, but they got the qualification for membership of the newly-organized miners' Gild, which could give them priority for employment opportunity. In the regulation of the miners' Gild of 1824, the government specified the punishment clauses. It also trained the miners on the basis of the regulation and prohibited the unskilled to join the miners' Gild. At the same time the government controlled the miners' private life and then the miners were under the tutlage of government officials, especially of the local mining inspectors. As the results, the miners' Gild built up a community which isolated the members from other industrial workers. The miners' community was supported financially with the funds of miners' Gild which gave the miners free medical care.
In the 1830's and the 1840's, however, the miners' community gradually lost its effectiveness to organize the miners due to the development of the Ruhr coal-mining industry, an increase in the number of labors, especially of the daily hired labors, and the growing influence of the mineowners (Gewerke) over the miners.
