Royal Employment Agency
The Royal Employment Agency was a social institution of the Munich poor administration . It was supposed to help unemployed people or those who could only work to a limited extent to achieve a regular income in the form of voluntary job creation. Work thus served as a preventive, integrating and rehabilitative measure. In this way, the poor should be able to take care of their own livelihood in independent activity .
Historical background
At the beginning of the 19th century, 10 percent of the population in Bavaria was dependent on poor relief or begging . The creation of suitable institutions was intended to improve social conditions. Previously, state welfare policy was limited to combating external manifestations of poverty that society felt as disturbing. Police and criminal measures were the result.
With the spirit of the Enlightenment , the beginnings of a new attitude appeared. Under the government of King Max I Joseph and his minister Maximilian Graf von Montgelas , the idea of reforming the poor system with the help of job creation was implemented .
The aim was "to provide the poor with work according to the degree of their abilities and strength, and thereby provide their whole or partial subsistence through self-earnings, but to train children and adults to earn bread, and to wean them from idleness and begging, to prevent future impoverishment at once"
Foundation and first years
On July 1, 1804 , the employment facility was opened in the former St. Jakob Poor Clare Monastery (Munich) at Anger No. 194. Similar institutions in England, France and Hamburg served as models. The poor fund advanced money to provide start-up funding. Spinning and weaving work was carried out here under the suspicion of the guilds . Soon, however, guild companies were also using the employment establishment to have their yarns and fabrics manufactured on a cost-effective basis using the most modern machines. The former monastery garden served as a bleaching ground for the fabrics. In order to be able to process the finished goods themselves, suitable workers were instructed in sewing shirts and underwear.
Additional branches of business were the production of loden fabrics and from 1806 the "sale of wood for the poor". At this point in time, 400 people had already found permanent employment.
Personnel structure
Employed were beggars willing to work, "impoverished citizens and numerous women", but also skilled workers such as "impoverished master dyers and appreteurs". In addition to the management, the managerial functions included an accounting officer and a material administrator.
social benefits
An elementary school was set up for the children of the workforce. For this purpose, parts of the former monastery complex were converted into eight classrooms and four living rooms to accommodate four unmarried teachers.
The children and people who, despite exertion, could not earn more than eight to ten kreuzers a day, received a piece of bread at 8 a.m. and a plate of Rumford soup at noon . The bread was made available free of charge by the Munich millers and bakers, some of it was collected in the city and bought in in winter when there was an increased need.
Cash bonuses or free clothing were given "to encourage workers".
In the event of illness, wages were still paid, medication was administered free of charge, the court hospitals were available for severe cases and the funeral costs were covered in the event of death.
The affiliated lithographic institute
The lithographic institute affiliated with it in 1810 served as an additional source of income. As the owner of one of the few stone presses in Munich, it was the only division that developed positively. It can be traced back to the second half of the 19th century. The lithographic institute was in competition with the private lithographic institute.
The technical and artistic direction of the lithographic establishment was in the first years after the establishment of the cartographer Carl Heinrich Wenng (1757-1854). The products of the lithographic institute were diverse. As early as 1812, the establishment's products were advertised as follows in a sales prospectus: “Headers for all offices and offices, journal, Cassa, Stratza, protocol books, business manuals and tables, all kinds of handbooks, price currants, bills of exchange, receipts, freight -Letters with designations, for pastors all relevant parish registers, baptism and death registers, death certificates and passion tables, all royal Military and National Garden, basic lists, Montours settlements, farewells, holiday passes, reports and patents ... "In addition to forms, sheet music, landscape drawings for self-teaching, fantasies based on Schiller's poems, embroidery patterns," German fairs for school children "were already available in the first few years. ... published.
In contrast to the competition, the Lithographische Anstalt was able to come up with "cheapest prices", according to the sales catalog from 1812.
Napoleon's city map of Moscow
Napoléon Bonaparte wanted accurate and up-to-date maps; they were indispensable for his strategic considerations. In the holdings of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek there is an "Explication du Plan de Moscou". It was created shortly before the Russian campaign in 1812 , in which Bavaria took part with 36,000 soldiers , and was printed quickly and inexpensively in the lithographic institute in Munich. She explains the terms in Russian, French and German for forty pages. Divided according to the five districts of Moscow , it names the location of over 300 locations, in particular state buildings, barracks, provisions stores including their construction, as well as gates and bridges. This creates a concrete picture of the organization of the authorities, the municipal and military-strategic infrastructure of Moscow. It is an early stone print in the format 84 × 86 cm, lithographed by the Schleich brothers, printed in the Royal Employment Agency on the Anger. For the Bavarian officer corps and the French general staff, the "Explication du Plan de Moscou" and the associated city map were important strategic information.
Economic success
The Royal Employment Agency made profits that went to other social projects. The Lorenzon poor house , which was also located on Münchner Anger, received financial support.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Matthäus Anders, treatise on the employment establishment of the royal poor institute in Munich, Munich, 1806, (p. 3).
literature
- Angelika Baumann, "Poverty is truly at home here ..." Preindustrial pauperism and poor relief institutions in Bavaria around 1800, Miscelleanea Bavarica Monacensia, Vol. 132, 1984, pp. 261–311.
- Franz Schiermeier, 'the city of Munich cartographer. The Wenng family of cartographers in: Franz Schiermeier, Klaus Bäumler, A picture of the city. The cartographer Gustav Wenng and his Topographical Atlas of Munich, Munich 2002.
- Christoph Kühberger, Clemens Sedmak, Current Trends in Historical Poverty Research, Vienna 2005.
- Klaus Bäumler, “1812–2012: Napoleon's campaign in Russia and cartography. Munich city map of Moscow 1812 ”in: Library magazine. Messages from the state libraries in Berlin and Munich, No. 2/2012, pp. 48–52
- Matthäus Anders, treatise on the employment facility of the royal poor institute in Munich, Munich, 1806.
- Anselm Martin, Historical representation of the health and care facilities in Munich ..., Munich, 1834.