Poverty in the course of history

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Material poverty was shaped differently depending on the time and type of society . The understanding of poverty and how to deal with it will be considered in the following in four time periods:

  • The Neolithic to Archaic communities and the gift
  • Classical antiquity and public achievements
  • The Middle Ages and alms,
  • Industrial capitalism and aid from organizations.

From the Neolithic to the archaic communities

The people of primitive society were constantly confronted with shortages because they were existentially dependent on nature and its fruits.

It was important to live together in small groups, as mutual help was essential for survival. Assistance was therefore 'taken for granted' and ensured through communicative social control within the group . Was a group no stockpiling possible (food, fuel and. A. M.), So it can be as "poor" mean.

Accordingly, a "gift" (according to Marcel Mauss ) was a form of exchange between people (social actors ) and obliged the recipient. Individual interests took precedence over the welfare and responsibility of the community . Occasional high yields (hunting prey, herd growth, good harvests) were distributed within the group, but not in an egalitarian manner .

Classical antiquity

In ancient times, poverty was often attributed to entire societies, especially in the sense of absolute poverty, and could explain migrations or robberies .

In individual cases, beggars were dependent on the alms of wealthy people. Many slaves were also poor, at least when they belonged to poor slave owners. There was no public welfare service.

The poor were, however, involved in religious festivals, especially by local deities , and took part in public amusements and meals. The Greek theater , which was also accessible to the poor, developed from the church services . In many ancient republics (e.g. Athens, Syracuse, Rome) poor townspeople had civil rights and took part in popular assemblies and courts - sometimes paid for this in the later period.

In ancient Rome during the imperial era, many citizens ( proletarii ) were poor and had nothing but their children ( proles ), but retained political weight nominally as “ Quirites ” and in fact as a mass capable of revolt . They were able to win over emperors if they followed their desire for “bread and circus games” ( panem et circenses ).

middle Ages

In medieval feudalism , people were of course unequal, in Europe the class order prevailed . The society was structured hierarchically in the feudal system. In the Middle Ages, people were considered poor who could not secure their existence and had neither protection nor power. Poverty was seen in relation to dependence. Help for the poor was initially provided by the family, later in the cities by guilds, religious brotherhoods and the like. Support was guaranteed through membership.

An alms to the poor was begging and was no longer a mutual give and take on an equal footing. The churches provided the greatest help, motivated by their mission of charity . Alms-giving was also seen by the haves as a means of repenting sins. Through the poor, the rich could in a sense buy their salvation for themselves. Thus, in a certain way, there was an interdependence, but without any consideration. Furthermore, the alms giving was religiously and voluntarily motivated. However, the poor were only seen as objects that had no relation to one another. The order of the estates was regarded as given by God. Thus the result of the exploitation was not a social problem for the people. What was new in the life situation of poverty was that it was no longer reversible. The poor, however, were a natural part of social life. Four groups of poverty can be distinguished:

  • The voluntary poor who were recognized and lived in religious associations
  • the class poor, who had lost their livelihood through accidents, the death of the breadwinner, illnesses, disasters, but who were considered to be respectable people
  • the dependent servants (the servants in the country and town) who had no property and no property and were dependent on wage labor
  • The undisturbed by birth who did not belong to a class (e.g. beggars , travelers , robbers )

Industrial capitalism (early 19th century)

The situation for the poor changed rapidly with the advent of industrial capitalism . The development of the population and the development of production diverged further and further, which resulted in mass misery; the " social question " arose . The aid received from the Middle Ages, especially through the churches and alms, was no longer sufficient to counteract this new phenomenon. Neighborly help could only be given as long as the need was still manageable. New social groups pooled political and economic power. Due to an even higher pressure of exploitation on the peasants (" peasant laying "), mass exodus into the cities began. The situation in the cities was anything but advantageous for this group of people. In addition to money , labor was now also set as a new standard of value , since those who owned capital were dependent on the labor of those with poor capital. There were more and more differences in economic and legal ways. Large sections of the population were sidelined, which also made relationships between people increasingly anonymous . This created a level of poverty as yet unknown. Women in particular were affected by poverty if they were not or were not allowed to be gainfully employed. At the beginning of the 19th century, the poor were seen as parasites (parasites) and poverty as a scourge of society. Poverty was seen as non-work, which is why the poor were classified as work-reluctant, work-shy idlers. The poverty was accordingly condemned and presented as self-inflicted. They are characterized by an immoral attitude and immoral, lazy behavior . Thus the responsibility for the poor waned among the rich, as the connection between mercy , poverty and salvation began to dwindle, which was also due to increasing secularization . The alms were thereby devalued.

This also increased anonymity because the population no longer had anything to do with the poor and prejudices against the poor arose. The new cure for poverty was work. The "education for work" became a cultural mission in the empire to discipline tramps, beggars and marginalized groups . This development took place in four stages:

  • Communalization. Welfare for the poor was now taken over by the city council and the giving of alms was subject to strict regulations.
  • Rationalization . In this step criteria were established according to which the poor received support. The award should henceforth be measured objectively.
  • Bureaucratization . It created institutions , which took over the review of the need. More and more full-time social workers were working in these institutions . The poverty problem was managed .
  • Pedagogy . From the workers' point of view, the poor had a deficit, that of work. As a result, the poor had to be raised to work. The poor became an object of education in need of improvement. For this purpose served workhouses . Now the fight against and the handling of poverty was entirely on the side of the state, which had the consequence that the population withdrew from responsibility, the self-commitment to help and solidarity. The question of guilt for poverty became a matter for the poor themselves. The hierarchization and distancing between rich and poor became stronger and stronger, and Christian-motivated help became a sober administrative act .

In the 19th century, poverty also became a topic in fictional literature, for example with the Swiss poet pastor Jonas Breitenstein , who in his works addressed both traditional rural poverty and the poverty resulting from industrialization in many ways.

Poverty in the Federal Republic of Germany since 1950

In the Federal Republic of Germany there was hunger and hardship due to the lost war in the late 1940s. There was a great housing shortage in the cities. A sociological study by Hilde Thurnwald found that every fifth family in Berlin only had one room to live in. Around seven million people were homeless. There was a lack of everyday items, heating equipment and clothing. Mothers had to carry their children to school in winter because they had no shoes. As can be seen from these remarks, there was initially great poverty among the entire population. But soon there was a turn from “poverty of the people” to “poverty of the individual”. In 1949 the Emergency Aid Act was passed, and in 1952 it was replaced by the Burden Equalization Act. As early as 1953, the social welfare debate was about the inadequate provision of welfare recipients. The 1957 pension reform was also intended to combat poverty. In 1962 the Federal Social Welfare Act (BSHG) came into force, which ensured a minimum income for the socio-cultural standard of living. The collective poverty of the whole people was defeated by the economic miracle . In 1970 amendments to the BSHG were made. Poverty was seen as a plight by socially marginalized groups.

In the second half of the 1970s, however, there were signs of a crisis in the welfare state. One spoke of the " new social question ". This was increasingly discussed politically.

In the 1980s unemployment increased and “the new poverty” of the unemployed was now sociologically researched and publicly discussed. The “poor clientele” changed. So it was no longer just isolated unemployed people who were affected by poverty, but entire families. The proportion of children in the poverty population grew. The proportion of single parents among the poor also increased. One spoke of the " two-thirds society " (Glotz), the "three-quarter society" (Leibfried / Tennstedt) or the "four-fifths society" (Hauser / Becker). The situation has hardly changed until the present. Added to this are structural problems due to German unity, social policy cuts and the consequences of long-term mass unemployment. So there was even an increase in the number of poor. Some claim that while prosperity is increasing, social inequality is also increasing and the number of poor is growing. Families with underage children are overrepresented among the poor. The currently common definitions of poverty are also controversial. With the definition of poverty below a certain percentage of the average or median income, the poverty rate does not change if the prosperity of the entire population increases sharply but evenly.

Poverty in the GDR since 1950

Officially, poverty did not exist in the GDR. In 1961 it was decided to support “socially vulnerable” people. In the 1970s, however, they were discriminated against as “criminally endangered” or “work-shy rabble” . According to Section 249 of the GDR Criminal Code, a “work-shy way of life” was punishable and you could come into conflict with the law if you weren't working. From 1961 to 1984 the welfare rate fell from 9.2% to 0.7%. Minor children were less likely to receive welfare than adults in the GDR . The very low welfare rates are due to the fact that a large part of the social benefits was provided by the state and not by the companies. On the other hand, the criminalization of poverty did the rest. Although there was officially no poverty in the GDR and there was also a guaranteed minimum gross wage , pensioners and people with low incomes were often forced to look for a part-time job if they did not want to fall below the subsistence level . In 1970, 65% of retirees were poor (basis: equivalised household income). In the 1980s, 45% of retirees lived in income poverty.

Poverty / wealth in the world religions

The importance of poverty and wealth in Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Catholicism and Protestantism is explained in the handbook on the ethics of world religions.

See also

literature

  • Michael Klöcker , Udo Tworuschka (ed.): Ethics of the world religions. Ein Handbuch , Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-17253-1 ( poverty / wealth : Frank Usarski: Buddhismus , p. 32–33; Lidia Guzy: Hinduismus , p. 33–35; Klaus Hock: Islam , p. 35– 37; Heinz-Jürgen Loth: Judentum , pp. 37–39; Josef Senft : Katholizismus , pp. 39–42; Stephan Schleissing: Protestantismus , pp. 42–45).
  • Christoph Kühberger, Clemens Sedmak : Current trends in historical poverty research . Lit, Vienna 2005, ISBN 3-8258-7713-2 (= History: Research and Science. Volume 10).
  • Christoph Sachße, Florian Tennstedt : beggars, crooks and proletariat. Poverty and poor relief in German history. A picture-reading book . Rowohlt, Reinbek near Hamburg 1983, ISBN 3-499-17777-3 .
  • Wolfram Fischer : Poverty in History. Forms and attempts to solve the “social question” in Europe since the Middle Ages . Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 1982, ISBN 3-525-33465-6 (= Small Vandenhoeck series. 1476).
  • Frances Fox Piven, Richard A. Cloward: Regulating the Poor, the Functions of Public Welfare , Updated Edition: Vintage Books, 1993, ISBN 0-679-74516-5 .
    • Regulation of poverty: the politics of public welfare , Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1987, ISBN 3-518-10872-7 (analysis of the management of poverty in the USA).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Thucydides and Xenophon especially at Athens, Polybius on republican Rome.
  2. ↑ See pauperism
  3. ↑ See here in particular Max Weber , Die Protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus .
  4. ↑ See Wolfgang Ayaß : Das Arbeitshaus Breitenau. Beggars, vagrants, prostitutes, pimps and welfare recipients in the correctional and rural poor institution in Breitenau (1874–1949). , Kassel 1992.
  5. ↑ Lauterbach, Wolfgang Poverty in Germany - possible consequences for families and children . University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg University Speeches : ISBN 3-8142-1143-X , p. 14.
  6. ↑ a b Lauterbach, Wolfgang poverty in Germany - possible consequences for families and children . University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg University Speeches : ISBN 3-8142-1143-X , p. 15.
  7. ↑ a b Lauterbach, Wolfgang poverty in Germany - possible consequences for families and children . University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg University Speeches : ISBN 3-8142-1143-X , pp. 15, 16.
  8. ↑ a b Lauterbach, Wolfgang poverty in Germany - possible consequences for families and children . University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg University Speeches : ISBN 3-8142-1143-X , pp. 16, 17.
  9. ↑ Lauterbach, Wolfgang Poverty in Germany - possible consequences for families and children . University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg University Speeches : ISBN 3-8142-1143-X , p. 18.
  10. ↑ Michael Klöcker / Udo Tworuschka (ed.): Ethics of World Religions. Ein Handbuch , Darmstadt 2005, ISBN 3-534-17253-1 , Armut / Reichtum, pp. 32–45.