Elberfeld system
The Elberfeld system (also known as the Elberfeld model ) of poor relief emerged in the 1850s and was an attempt to adapt the municipal poor administration to the conditions of the emerging industrial society. It originated in the city of Elberfeld (now part of Wuppertal ) and was taken over by numerous cities in the second half of the 19th century.
Origin and principles of operation
The textile cities of Barmen and Elberfeld were among the pioneering cities of industrialization in Germany in the first half of the 19th century. The population also increased sharply through immigration and the cities were among the most densely populated municipalities in Germany. The two cities grew from 19,000 and 16,000 to 40,000 and 31,000 inhabitants, mainly due to immigration between 1810 and 1840. The proportion of the poor was disproportionately high.
The traditional, centrally run urban poor management system proved too expensive and inefficient to deal with these problems. The Elberfeld system introduced in 1853 tried to adapt the structure of welfare to the new conditions. Initially, the poor administration was decentralized. Below the city-wide deputation for the poor, further deputations were set up in the city districts, on whose behalf poor carers were active. Another central principle was the voluntary work of the poor carers. Most of them came from the middle classes (minor officials, craftsmen or merchants). The participation of women opened up an opportunity for them to participate in public life, which was rare in society at the time. The larger number of voluntary helpers reduced the number of clients to be looked after for the individual poor carers and the costs for the system. The third principle of the system was “helping people to help themselves.” Apparently it was assumed that a considerable part of the poor was unwilling to change anything in their situation. Therefore, the support services were limited to two weeks. Further services had to be approved again.
The Elberfeld system was adopted by Münster , Cologne , Breslau and numerous other cities and was a concept rooted in liberalism, which, however, already had a precursor in the 18th century. This is how the "Hamburg Poor System" came into being in Hamburg as early as 1788 : the city was divided into 60 districts, each with three voluntary poor carers.
In the last third of the 19th century, during the phase of high industrialization, particularly due to immigration, the number of people in need increased again in many places, and voluntary poor relief reached the limits of its capabilities. In the big cities in particular, the Strasbourg system returned to greater centralization and the professionalization of poor relief.
The Elberfeld Poor Care Memorial reminds of the Elberfeld system .
literature
- Gerhard Deimling : 150 years of the Elberfeld system. An obituary. In: History in Wuppertal. 12, 2003, ISSN 1436-008X , pp. 46-57.
- Wolfgang R. Krabbe : The German city in the 19th and 20th centuries. An introduction (= Kleine Vandenhoeck series. 1543). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen, 1989, ISBN 3-525-33555-5 , p. 100 f.
- Barbara Lube: Myth and Reality of the Elberfeld System. In: Karl-Hermann Beeck (Hrsg.): Gründerzeit. Attempt to determine the limits in Wuppertal (= series of publications by the Association for Rhenish Church History. 80). Rheinland-Verlag et al., Cologne et al. 1984, ISBN 3-7927-0811-6 , pp. 158-184.