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From Guild Welfare to Bismarck Care

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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

Hellwege, Phillip

Comparative Studies in the History of Insurance Law / Studien zur vergleichenden Geschichte des Versicherungsrechts, Vol. 8

(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