Nędza u bogatych sąsiadów. Pauperyzm w Prusach w XIX wieku do 1871 roku
Poverty at Rich Neighbours. Pauperisation in the 19th Century Prussia up to 1871

Summary/Abstract: The term Sozial Frage, as well as “pauperization”, became popular in public discussion in the 1830s during the transformation of the feudal, guild and agrarian society into the democratic and capitalist one. As a result the institution of the family disappeared, at least as a productive and social unit, which guaranteed protection and safety; on the other hand, the number of population increased significantly, accompanied by big migrations from villages to towns, and a huge emigration, especially to the USA. The enormous deregulation of the production relations brought about a loss of sense of safety; it affected mainly the lower classes and workers. New phenomena appeared: unemployment, industrial accidents, many people fell into poverty as a result of diseases. On the other hand, the workers’ wages were very low in comparison to the elementary needs. The capitalism of that time meant mainly a rapid economic growth, but the threats and opportunities were very unequally divided – very few were given the opportunities and chances, whereas very many the threats and risks. The workers’ wages were growing faster than the prices, but the areas of poverty and pauperization, not covered by any protection or social care, were enormous. The housing conditions were awful, the food was very poor, which was a consequence of migration to towns from villages where both things were usually better; in towns food expenses ate up almost all the wages. Another question resulting from poverty was child labour, quite common in the 19th century. In craftsman and peasant families women had no time to look after their children. Peasants and craftsmen still used to think that their children should be accustomed to the jobs inherited from their parents as soon as possible. Child labour in the country and in factories was widespread, which delayed the dissemination of common education. In spite of that, in the first half of the 19th century Darwinian ideology was still alien to the Prussians. The early liberalism was based on the pre-industrialism and patriarchal ideas, and it was craft in the centre of such thinking, not industry. It was considered that all the people after receiving education and acquiring property became citizens. There was class consciousness, but the class structure of society was thought to be temporary. Before 1848 the Prussians knew about the English pauperism and tried to avoid it in their country turning to state’s interventionism, which at that time was not a taboo subject. It was analyzed how taxes might relieve the poorest. However, those ideas were rejected, at the earliest in the Rhineland. The liberal trends became stronger and stronger. It was them Karl Marx meant when he said that capitalism destroys all the values, including religion, and the only one that is left is profit.

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