Berlin journeyman's health insurance system in the 19th century
The Berlin journeyman's health insurance in the 19th century was initially only intended for the health care of journeyman within a guild and changed to compulsory health insurance for everyone who was not self-employed in the respective trade.
The experience and development of the journeyman's health insurance funds in the larger cities of Prussia (and in Berlin as the largest city in Prussia) in the first three quarters of the 19th century served, in addition to the miners' insurance funds and factory funds, in many parts as a model for the organization of the health insurance system nationwide after 1883.
Journeyman's funds
The craft was organized in guilds in the Middle Ages and in the early modern period . Since the end of the Middle Ages, a guild has had championship on the one hand and societies on the other . Until well into the 19th century, the local societies saw themselves as a tightly knit community (brotherhood), whose mutual obligations included caring for sick and deceased members.
As a rule, the societies maintained their own journeyman's funds, financed by admission fees for newly added journeymen and regular contribution payments (conditions). In addition to festive activities, health and care costs for sick journeymen and funeral costs were paid from this fund. Unemployed journeymen also benefited from this health care, but journeymen who had just come to the village and had not yet been accepted into the local society were not supported.
Since the middle of the 18th century, the authorities in Prussia increasingly influenced the journeyman's coffers. Her main concern was to ensure that there was always enough money in the till to take care of sick journeymen and to cover any funeral expenses. Otherwise would namely sick or impoverished by illness of the poor fellows caring a burden. The championship also wanted to prevent having to pay for sick journeymen as part of its duty of care. As early as 1783, Frederick the Great had obliged the guilds to support journeymen who had not yet been employed in the city in the event of illness. Should the funds of the journeyman's insurance not cover the costs of medical care and the burial of the journeymen, the championship had to pay extra.
Already in the general privileges of the guilds in the Mark Brandenburg passed in 1734 and 1735, it was stipulated that the payment of the conditions, which took place every four weeks, should take place in the presence of the chief master of the guild . This was to prevent the journeymen from spending the money on alcohol again, for example.
In Berlin, the conditions were collected in the respective hostels maintained by the guilds for their journeymen, which were also the social meeting point of the respective societies. Around 1800, the Berlin magistrate urged that the collection of the conditions be regulated more precisely and that all those liable to pay contributions were asked to pay regularly in order to guarantee a regular income for the journeyman's funds. The conditions were no longer collected at the hostel, but a master appointed by the guild, who was also responsible for job placement, collected the conditions every four weeks at the workplaces. If a journeyman was currently unable to pay, his master had to pay the condition and could later deduct the amount from his wages. The journeyman's coffers were placed under the supervision of the masters, who were thus able to control the company's expenses. In addition to health care and funeral expenses, other expenses such as B. The salaries of the old journeyman and the rent for the hostel are financed from this fund.
A journeyman baker had to pay an entry fee of 1 thaler (T) 8 silver groschen (sgr) when joining the bakery society around 1800 , which was roughly equivalent to weekly earnings. There were then 2 sgr print runs per month. In return, in the event of illness, even with minor illnesses, he was entitled to accommodation in the Charité , with which the Berlin guilds had agreements. This ensured the supply and care of single journeymen. In addition, he received sick pay of 4 sgr a week to cover the loss of earnings. The Charité stay in 1823 cost the fund 1 T 5 sgr per month. However, this monthly rate could not be maintained in the long term and rose to 7½ thalers by 1836. Those who did not want to go to the Charité could also be cared for in the infirmary at the hostel. In addition to the necessary medication, he received 16 sgr support a week because he had to pay for food himself.
From the journeyman's fund to the journeyman's health fund
Since the 1830s, the number of journeymen immigrating to Berlin has risen steadily. In 1836 the Bäckergesellenkasse had around 550 members, of which only around 350 were in progress, in the 1940s it had between 700 and 900 members. The cash registers still only accepted proper journeymen. Unwild journeymen, i.e. all those who had not completed their apprenticeship with a guild master, were not allowed to join them. Due to the high number of members and the large number of unemployed, the journeyman's funds repeatedly got into financial difficulties, as the unemployed did not pay any contributions, but were entitled to medical care once they had paid in.
As early as the beginning of the 1830s, the magistrate demanded an increase in contributions as a tried and tested means, which led to some of the journeymen in work declaring that they would rather leave the fund and no longer pay any conditions. Since an increase in the journeyman's fund would inevitably have led to a discussion about wage increases, the masters in the guilds also opposed these suggestions. The result of all these debates was that although the requirements were not increased, since 1833 - as requested by the magistrate - the unemployed journeymen should also pay contributions. In addition, all other expenses that had previously been covered by the journeyman's coffers were discontinued and only treatment and funeral costs were paid from them. Logically, the term journeyman's health insurance has also been used since the 1840s .
The introduction of general compulsory health insurance for journeyman in Berlin
All Berlin guilds were already obliged to run journeyman's health insurance funds in the 1840s. In view of around 30,000 wage-dependent workers (family members not counting) with a civilian population of approx. 380,000 inhabitants, the journeyman's health insurance funds were of great socio-political importance because they relieved the city's social budget considerably.
The Prussian General Trade Regulations of 1845 took account of the importance of the journeyman's health insurance system by granting the municipalities the right to introduce compulsory health insurance for all journeyman, guild or non-guild, by statute. A corresponding local statute was issued in Berlin on November 1, 1850. On the basis of this local statute, the 69 Berlin journeyman's health insurance funds with around 24,500 members received statutes dictated by the magistrate in 1852/1853, with the previous organization being largely retained. Furthermore, the funds were financed solely by the admission fees and the monthly requirements that all journeymen - the guild and the non-guild - had to pay. No employer was allowed to employ a journeyman who was subject to health insurance without notifying the relevant health insurance company. There were no fixed employer's contributions to the contributions in these handicraft funds, but they were still subject to the supervision of the guilds, and the championship was obliged to assume costs in the event of underfunding of the fund.
The range of services offered by the individual health insurers was not uniform. For example, the journeyman baker's health insurance paid the outpatient doctor's costs and, in the case of hospital stays, the cost of cure and meals as well as 7 sgr sick pay per week. Sick pay for members who did not receive inpatient care during their illness, but stayed in their homes, was only granted since 1865. The insured person had to bear the drug costs himself. The sick benefit was paid continuously for a maximum of 12 months, after which the poor welfare had to step in. There was 25 tons for the funeral. The hatmaker journeyman's health insurance, on the other hand, also paid for the medication and granted its members 1 T 22 sgr home sickness benefits. In return, they saved on the funeral costs, here there were only 10 tons.
With the help of another local statute in 1853, the cash register was extended to factory workers. In contrast to the journeyman's health insurance funds, which historically developed from the journeyman's funds, the factory funds were often brought into being by employers from the outset. In contrast to the journeyman's health insurance, here the employers paid part of the contributions for their workers.
The first factory workers' fund in Berlin was founded in 1849 by the stuff and calico printers . In 1858 it was renamed the “General Factory Workers' Fund”. Since only men were insured in this fund, in 1853 the "Meyer's factory fund" was set up for women factory workers. The largest factory health insurance fund in Berlin was the Generalkasse der Maschinenbauer, founded in 1849/50, which had around 18,500 members at the end of 1868 alone. In the course of 1868, even if only for a short time, more than 93,000 journeymen and assistants were compulsorily insured in one of the 80 journeyman's health insurance funds and more than 54,000 workers in one of the seven existing factory health insurance funds. That was around 21% of the Berlin population at the time.
In 1876 the Auxiliary Funds Act was passed, which allowed replacement funds , provided they met certain performance criteria. The compulsory health insurance was thus converted into mandatory health insurance, since (at least in theory) every insured person was granted the right to choose a health insurance fund. It had little effect on the Berlin journeyman's health insurance system.
Introduction of compulsory health insurance in the German Reich
The "law concerning workers' health insurance" announced on June 15, 1883 proclaimed the "compulsory insurance " for all persons "who for salary or wages" in mines, salt works, quarries, factories, ironworks, shipyards and in the construction industry as well were employed in all craft businesses. Local health insurance funds should be set up in the municipalities for the insured , although not general local health insurance funds in the current sense, but - based on the model of existing journeyman's, miners' union, auxiliary and factory health insurance funds - separate local health insurance funds for individual professional groups.
In many parts of the German Empire, e.g. For example, compulsory insurance may have been an innovation in Württemberg - but not in Prussia and especially in Berlin. Many elements of the new health insurance system were taken over from existing institutions in Prussia, such as B. that the employer withheld the insurance contribution from the salary, or that he had to pay part of the health insurance contribution. Existing health insurances could be continued as long as the range of services was not below that of the new local health insurances.
In Berlin a large part of the journeyman's health insurance funds were transferred to local health insurance funds. At the end of 1884 there were 67 local health insurance funds for the various professions with quite different numbers of members and four company and guild health insurance funds. Persons subject to insurance who could not be clearly assigned to a professional group were assigned to the “General Local Health Insurance Fund for Industrial Workers” . By 1888, six local health insurance funds had to be closed due to insufficient membership. At the end of 1888, around 82% of the 300,000 people required to be insured in Berlin belonged to a local health insurance fund, 6.5% to a company health insurance fund, 2.5% to a guild health insurance fund and 9% to one of the 45 auxiliary funds.
In 1892, compulsory health insurance was extended to employees with an annual income of less than 2,000 marks and to home workers . It was also decreed that all those employed in a trade, including women and unskilled workers who had previously been assigned to the “Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse”, were now to be insured in the corresponding local health insurance funds. In 1899, Berlin made all those employed in municipal companies compulsory by means of a local statute. A company health insurance fund was set up for them. In 1902 the compulsory insurance was extended to house traders and in 1914 to servants .
In the local health insurance funds, employers were only entitled to a third of the votes in general assemblies and the executive boards, because they only paid a third of the health insurance contribution. The executive boards on the employee side, who made up the two-thirds majority, came largely from the ranks of the socialist labor movement. Many employers felt the influence of the socialists in the local health insurance funds as a threat and did not want to accept this distribution of votes. Numerous companies and guilds again founded their own company and guild health insurance funds, in which employers had to pay half of the health insurance contribution, but could also provide 50% of the votes and the board members. By 1910 a total of 67 company funds and 19 guild health insurance funds had been established and the number of local health insurance funds had fallen to 54.
As early as the 1880s, criticism of the fragmented local health insurance system and the demand for a summary had been raised. But it was not until 1914 that the 54 job-specific local health insurance funds still in existence at that time were merged into the “Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse der Stadt Berlin” (AOK).
Descendants of the old journeyman's health insurance funds - the guild health insurance funds - still exist today, but they operate on a supraregional level and offer a range of services that corresponds to today's regulations. However, their number is constantly decreasing in the course of the many mergers within the replacement health insurance funds.
Individual evidence
- ^ Annette Godefroid: The Berlin health insurance system in the 19th century . In: New Forays into Berlin's Cultural History . Berlin 1995, pp. 87-108. Thomas Tauchnitz: “Organized” health . Wiesbaden 2004, p. 70 "" 139. Detlev Zöllner: A Century of Social Insurance in Germany . Berlin 1981, p. 47.
- ^ Sigrid Fröhlich: Social security in guilds and journeyman associations . Berlin 1976, pp. 160-165.
- ↑ A. Godefroid: Baker's Guild . Pp. 251-282. This representation is largely based on the evaluation of files of the Berlin magistrate in the Berlin city archive (Rep. 16: Trade Deputation and Rep. 60-09 Trade Sickness Association) and files of the Berlin Trade Police (Rep. 30) in the Brandenburg State Main Archive in Potsdam. All figures, unless otherwise noted, come from these files.
- ↑ On hostel and job placement see A. Godefroid: Bäcker-Gunung . Pp. 227-249.
- ↑ Ilja Mieck: From the reform time to the revolution (1806-1848) . In: History of Berlin . Volume I, Munich 1987, pp. 407-602, p. 543 and p. 487.
- ↑ General trade regulations of 1845 , §§ 144, 168. In: Law collection for the Kgl. Prussian states. Year 1845, p. 8 ff and Th. Risch: The General Trade Regulations of January 17, 1845 and their practical implementation, specifically with regard to the guild relationships in Berlin . Berlin 1846.
- ↑ Local statute of April 5th, 7th April 1853. In: Report on the administration of the Berlin community in the years 1851 to 1861 . Berlin 1863, p. 270.
- ^ Report on the municipal administration of the city of Berlin in the years 1861 to 1876 . Volume III, Berlin 1881 and the celebratory brochure on the occasion of the inauguration of the main administration building of the AOK Berlin on September 18, 1970 . o. o. u. J. (Berlin 1970).
- ^ Law on Health Insurance for Workers (1883). Reichsgesetzblatt , No. 9, 1883, pp. 73-104 ( Wikisource ).
- ^ Ferry Kemper: The development of the health insurance in Ulm from 1801 to 1883 . Ulm 1983, p. 102.
- ^ Report on the municipal administration of the city of Berlin in the years 1882–1888 . Volume III, Berlin 1890, pp. 95-108.