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Hellwege, P. (2020). From Guild Welfare to Bismarck Care. Professional guilds and the origins of modern social security law and insurance law in Germany. Duncker & Humblot. https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-58155-9
Hellwege, Phillip. From Guild Welfare to Bismarck Care: Professional guilds and the origins of modern social security law and insurance law in Germany. Duncker & Humblot, 2020. Book. https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-58155-9
Hellwege, P (2020): From Guild Welfare to Bismarck Care: Professional guilds and the origins of modern social security law and insurance law in Germany, Duncker & Humblot, [online] https://doi.org/10.3790/978-3-428-58155-9
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From Guild Welfare to Bismarck Care
Professional guilds and the origins of modern social security law and insurance law in Germany
(2020)
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About The Author
Prof. Dr. Phillip Hellwege M.Jur. (Oxford) ist seit 2010 Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Bürgerliches Recht, Wirtschaftsrecht und Rechtsgeschichte an der Universität Augsburg. Zuvor war er von 2003 bis 2010 wissenschaftlicher Referent am Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches und internationales Privatrecht in Hamburg. 2015 erhielt er einen Consolidator Grant des European Research Council (ERC) für ein auf fünf Jahre angelegtes Projekt zur vergleichenden Geschichte des Versicherungsrechts in Europa. Seine Forschungsschwerpunkte liegen im Bürgerlichen Recht, im Europäischen Privatrecht, in der Historischen Rechtsvergleichung sowie in der Geschichte des Wirtschaftsrechts und des Versicherungsrechts.Abstract
German literature on the history of insurance stresses the importance of professional guilds for the shaping of insurance and insurance law. Similarly, scholars researching the genesis of Germany’s social security claim the importance of guilds as predecessor of social security. However, there is a problem with both narratives: the impact of guilds is commonly asserted but has never been analytically established. Against this background, the present contribution offers an analysis of the support offered by professional guilds from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century. Its overall conclusion is that modern literature is correct in holding that Germany’s social security is rooted in guild welfare. However, medieval guild support had to go through two phases of transformation in the early modern period and in the nineteenth century before it was apt as a model for Bismarck’s social security legislation. By contrast, professional guilds had no direct impact on modern insurance and insurance law.
Table of Contents
| Section Title | Page | Action | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preface | 5 | ||
| Summary of contents | 7 | ||
| Contents | 9 | ||
| A. Introduction | 15 | ||
| I. Professional guilds and the origins of modern insurance and social security? | 15 | ||
| II. The state of research | 16 | ||
| 1. Modern research on the history of professional guilds | 16 | ||
| 2. Modern research on the history of insurance and insurance law | 20 | ||
| 3. Modern research on the history of social security | 23 | ||
| 4. Sigrid Fröhlich’s monograph on the social protection offered by master craftsmen’s guilds and journeymen’s associations | 26 | ||
| III. Defining the research object | 29 | ||
| IV. Overview | 34 | ||
| V. Eight final preliminary remarks | 38 | ||
| 1. Different legal contexts | 38 | ||
| 2. Craftsmen, miners, seafarers, and other professions | 38 | ||
| 3. No clear-cut periodization | 39 | ||
| 4. Incomplete primary sources | 40 | ||
| 5. Problems of translation | 40 | ||
| 6. Germany and beyond | 41 | ||
| 7. The concept of insurance | 42 | ||
| 8. A comparative history of insurance law in Europe | 42 | ||
| B. Guild support from the Middle Ages to the 17th century: loans and capacity building | 43 | ||
| I. Supporting master craftsmen and their families | 45 | ||
| 1. Forms of support | 45 | ||
| a) Financial support | 47 | ||
| aa) Granting repayable loans | 47 | ||
| bb) Non-repayable financial forms of support | 50 | ||
| cc) Conclusion | 56 | ||
| b) Non-financial support | 56 | ||
| aa) Caring for sick and old guild members | 56 | ||
| bb) Supporting sick guild members in continuing their businesses | 58 | ||
| cc) Supporting widows and orphans | 61 | ||
| dd) Non-financial support in funerals | 71 | ||
| c) Precautionary measures against risks | 72 | ||
| d) Creating an economic balance | 73 | ||
| 2. Beneficiaries of support | 74 | ||
| 3. Covered risks | 76 | ||
| 4. Joining a guild | 77 | ||
| a) Admission requirements | 77 | ||
| b) Preferential treatment of master craftsmen’s sons and of journeymen marrying master craftsmen’s widows and daughters | 81 | ||
| 5. Guild finances | 83 | ||
| a) The expenses side | 84 | ||
| b) The income side | 85 | ||
| c) The local authority’s right to a portion of the generated income | 90 | ||
| d) No separate funds for financing each function | 92 | ||
| 6. Legal enforceability | 94 | ||
| 7. Conclusion | 96 | ||
| a) Guild support, as it had developed from the Middle Ages to the 17th century, cannot be categorized as insurance, pre-insurance, or social security! | 96 | ||
| b) The legal rules on guild support, as they had developed from the Middle Ages to the 17th century, are of no importance for modern insurance law and modern social security law! | 99 | ||
| c) A need for further research? | 101 | ||
| aa) Guild statutes being silent on self-evident customs? | 101 | ||
| bb) Guild office holders did not need authorization in guild statutes to grant loans | 104 | ||
| cc) Guild statutes restricting the freedom of members and burdening them with obligations | 105 | ||
| dd) Guild statutes reflecting anecdotal experience | 106 | ||
| ee) A principle of solidarity? | 106 | ||
| ff) Were guild statutes misleading? | 107 | ||
| gg) A need for further research? | 108 | ||
| II. Supporting journeymen and apprentices | 109 | ||
| 1. Support by master craftsmen | 110 | ||
| 2. Support by master craftsmen’s guilds | 113 | ||
| a) Financial support pimarily in the form of a loan | 115 | ||
| b) Non-financial support | 121 | ||
| c) Joining a guild | 121 | ||
| d) Financing support | 122 | ||
| e) Legal enforceability | 124 | ||
| f) Conclusion | 124 | ||
| 3. Support by journeymen’s associations | 125 | ||
| a) Financial support primarily in the form of a loan | 128 | ||
| b) Non-financial support | 133 | ||
| c) Beneficiaries of support | 135 | ||
| d) The finances of journeymen’s associations | 136 | ||
| e) Legal enforceability | 140 | ||
| 4. Conclusion | 141 | ||
| III. Supporting miners and their families | 142 | ||
| 1. Forms of support offered by operators of mines | 149 | ||
| 2. Forms of support offered by miners’ guilds | 155 | ||
| a) Granting repayable loans | 158 | ||
| b) Non-repayable financial forms of support | 160 | ||
| c) Non-financial support | 162 | ||
| 3. Guild finances | 164 | ||
| 4. Legal enforceability | 167 | ||
| 5. Conclusion | 168 | ||
| IV. Supporting seafarers and their families | 170 | ||
| 1. Support offered by skippers to sailors | 170 | ||
| 2. Support offered by confraternities and guilds | 172 | ||
| 3. Supporting seafarers’ widows and orphans | 177 | ||
| V. Conclusion | 178 | ||
| C. Guild support and insurance in the 17th and 18th centuries: a first phase of transformation | 181 | ||
| I. Supporting craftsmen and their families | 181 | ||
| 1. Confining guild autonomy | 183 | ||
| 2. Institutional changes | 186 | ||
| 3. Forms of support and insurance | 190 | ||
| a) Traditional forms of support | 190 | ||
| b) Forms of insurance | 197 | ||
| c) Shortcomings of traditional support schemes | 211 | ||
| 4. Admission requirements | 211 | ||
| a) Joining master craftsmen’s guilds | 211 | ||
| b) Joining voluntary death and sick boxes | 214 | ||
| 5. Guild finances | 214 | ||
| 6. Legal enforceability | 216 | ||
| II. Supporting miners and their families | 216 | ||
| 1. Forms of support and legal enforceability | 217 | ||
| 2. Guild autonomy and admission requirements | 223 | ||
| 3. Guild finances | 224 | ||
| 4. Improvements in the support offered by miners’ guilds | 225 | ||
| III. Supporting seafarers and their families | 228 | ||
| IV. Contextualizing the process of transformation | 230 | ||
| 1. The developments in the crafts and in the mining sector | 231 | ||
| 2. The emergence of ‘insurance thinking’ | 232 | ||
| 3. Marine insurance | 232 | ||
| 4. Fire insurance | 233 | ||
| 5. Factory health insurance schemes | 236 | ||
| 6. Widows’ and orphans’ assurances | 238 | ||
| a) Pastors’ widows’ and orphans’ assurances based on public and semi-public initiatives | 244 | ||
| aa) The 1559 pastors’ widows’ and orphans’ box in Meißen | 245 | ||
| bb) The 1636 pastors’ widows’ box in Brunswick-Lüneburg | 248 | ||
| cc) The 1716 preachers’ widows’ and orphans’ fund in Brandenburg | 249 | ||
| dd) The 1719 pastors’ widows’ assurance in Baden-Durlach | 250 | ||
| b) Pastors’ widows’ and orphans’ assurances based on private initiatives | 250 | ||
| c) Widows’ and orphans’ assurances for other professions | 253 | ||
| aa) The 1707 widows’ and orphans’ assurance at the university of Rostock | 254 | ||
| bb) The 1742 civil servants’ widows’ and orphans’ assurance in Brandenburg-Ansbach | 256 | ||
| cc) The 1749 assurance for the benefit of widows and orphans of servants in the royal stables in Saxony | 258 | ||
| dd) The 1768 civil servants’ widows’ and orphans’ assurance in Brandenburg-Ansbach | 261 | ||
| d) Private widows’ and orphans’ assurances outside professional contexts | 263 | ||
| e) State-run widows’ and orphans’ assurances outside any professional context | 265 | ||
| f) Conclusion | 266 | ||
| 7. Pension and invalidity funds | 266 | ||
| 8. Ransom insurance | 268 | ||
| 9. The emergence of public savings banks | 271 | ||
| V. Conclusion | 273 | ||
| D. The evolution of Germany’s modern social security schemes in the 19th century | 277 | ||
| I. 19th-century developments until Bismarck’s legislation | 277 | ||
| 1. The crafts | 279 | ||
| a) The legislative framework | 280 | ||
| b) Guild statutes | 286 | ||
| 2. The mining sector | 289 | ||
| a) The legislative framework | 291 | ||
| b) Guild statutes | 296 | ||
| 3. Seafarers | 297 | ||
| 4. Factory workers | 299 | ||
| a) Statutes of factory health insurance schemes | 300 | ||
| b) The legislative framework | 302 | ||
| 5. Poor relief and municipal health insurance funds | 304 | ||
| 6. Conclusion | 305 | ||
| II. Bismarck’s social security legislation | 306 | ||
| 1. The 1883 Act Concerning the Health Insurance of Workers | 306 | ||
| a) Gemeindekrankenversicherungen | 307 | ||
| b) Ortskrankenkassen | 308 | ||
| c) Common Provisions for Gemeindekrankenversicherungen and Ortskrankenkrassen | 310 | ||
| d) Betriebs- and Fabrikkrankenkassen | 310 | ||
| e) Innungsgkrankenkassen and Knappschaftskassen | 311 | ||
| f) Conclusion | 311 | ||
| 2. The 1884 Work Accident Insurance Act and the 1889 Workers’ Invalidity and Pension Insurance Act | 314 | ||
| III. Guild welfare and modern life insurance? | 314 | ||
| E. Conclusion | 317 | ||
| Archival and printed sources | 319 | ||
| Bibliography | 322 |