2022 Volume 14 Issue 1 Pages 37-50
Understandings of the significance of Germany’s social insurance system, which was introduced in the world in the late 19th century, varies among researchers. On the one hand, a positive view posits that it was an opportunity for workers to integrate into modern civil society by accepting values of diligence and efficiency and rational management ability. On the other hand, a negative view states that the system would control the workers, who were separated from the community-oriented aid system and involuntarily individualized both economically and legally, by binding them firmly to the nation through social insurance. This study analyzes the occupational accident cases （especially workers’ accident neurosis） and welfare cases within the German Imperial Post Office from the imperial period to the interwar period. We show that workers were building a new identity to exercise their social rights as actors negotiating with specialists in occupational accidents. Moreover, the Industrial Accident Insurance Act held employers accountable for the employees’ safety and health. It also shows how theories existing for some time but were ignored by parties and specialists―who linked occupational accidents to workers’ tactics to “swindle” or be “work-shy”―gained more support during the interwar period. Social-state material foundations and insurance agencies also suffered financial difficulties, whereas workers’ health, fitness, and living conditions were standardized through industrial psychology and other means.
Annals of the Society for the Study of Social Policy
