2001 Volume 67 Issue 2 Pages 125-148
The aim of this paper is to investigate the employment relationships of the civil servants (Beamte) in the Prussian State railway during the period from 1840 to 1870 when the German-Prussian railway system was under construction. Jurgen KOCKA's point about the close relationship between the 'pre-modern' bureaucracy and the 'modern' traffic sector in Germany deserves a thorough investigation. In this paper, the aim is therefore to investigate in detail the employment relationships of middle- and low-ranking civil servants in the Prussian State railways. The results of my social-historical examination of the 'exceptional' appointment of State railway civil servants indicate that the traditional systems of employment in the Prussian bureaucracy could not have been accepted by the railway sector without self-adjustment to a system that was more suitable to the introduction of the new technologies of the time. Contrary to KOCKA's view, the institutional problems of the early Prussian State railway could not be solved in the short term or without considerable friction; in addition it was necessary to seek assistance from outside the traditional bureaucratic system.
