1991 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The reality of employing foreign farmworkers in Imperial Germany up to the First World War.
| Project/Area Number |
01510235
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Research Field |
History of Europe and America
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Osaka City University |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
IIDA Shuji Osaka City University, Faculty of Letters, Professor, 文学部, 教授 (70047116)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
1989 – 1991
|
| Keywords | foreign seasonal worker / "PreuBenganger" / international labor market / Statistics for foreign workers / transnational migration of labor force / 出稼労働者集隊 |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
Since the 1890s Germany turned into a 'labour-importing country", which received annually one million foreign migrant labor forces. Half of them was farmworkers, responsive to the seasonal demands of agriculture. In the early 20th-century the agricultural capacity of middle and eastern Germany had become largely dependent on Poles and Ruthenians the so-called "PreuBengkanger", from across the eastern borders. The purpose of this research is to examine the realities of employing these foreign farm laborers.
K. J. Bade collects and analyzes statistical materials for the foreign workers in Imperial Germany. His research results are noteworthy, but contain serious errors. When the identification-data of the 'Deutsche Arbeiterzefltrale' are more thoroughly used, a more properly treatment of the Prussian district administrators documentations is expected.
This research examines the immigrating process of "PreuBenganger", so far neglected by Bade and other historians. The contemporary image of them as"cheep, undemanding and willing labor force", that is shared by many historians, reflected not always the reality. In their own interests and needs Slavic seasonal workers selected the end of transnational migration, i. e. Prussian beet-farms, known some means to protect themselves from the exploitation by German farmers.
It was popularly believed in Kaiser's Empire that the growing employment of migratory workers forced German farmworkers to "flight from the land (Landflucht)". In fact a mass of "PreuBenganger" barely took jobs in agriculture presently held by local workers. The Weber's "driving away theory" have to be reconsidered.
|
