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Industrial Unrest (1890-1913)

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II. Strikes, Lockouts, and "Non-Confrontational Movements," 1890-1913

Lockouts (4)

Non-confrontational movements (5)

Strike participants (7)

Year

Number

Participants

Duration (3)

Calculated number of participants (3a)

Number

Participants

(official statistics)

1890/91 (6)

1892

1893

1894

1895

1896

1897

1898

1899

104 636

1900

46

14,630

182,866

8,927

131,888

1901

35

8,460

124,275

6,088

60,676

1902

56

6,791

117,196

4,910

64,217

1903

82

45,763

1,512,771

32,036

120,876

1904

112

31,402

607,286

35,579

137,240

1905

253

144,047

1,797,256

135,821

2,968

382,510

526,810

1906

421

93,356

2,320,069

89,028

4,647

601,706

349,327

1907

323

104,738

2,374,772

103,596

5,067

525,235

273,597

1908

257

60,576

905,949

45,838

3,607

449,434

112,110

1909

206

34,494

660,255

32,061

4,507

348,961

119,849

1910

970

226,898

6,244,123

208,539

6,496

656,531

369,809

1911

207

113,357

2,505,178

95,244

6,756

686,416

356,163

1912

356

82,099

1,329,089

64,216

7,136

774,769

481,094

1913

427

71,392

1,532,314

45,339

7,372

965,573

311,048



3) Duration of the strikes until 1899 in weeks (= sum total of the duration of all strikes, regardless of the number of participants); beginning in 1900 (in all categories): loss of work time in days (calculation based on the number of participants).

3a) The statistics of the "Generalkommission" determine the loss of work time in days only for a certain number of participants, which fluctuates between 56.8% and 97.5% of the total number of striking workers.

4) Separate counting possible only after 1900.

5) That is to say, "movements without work stoppage;" recorded beginning in 1905 and not included in the preceding figures for the total number of strikes.

6) For these years the data has been recorded together.

7) The official strike statistics are included because of the at times astonishing difference between its numbers and those of the statistics compiled by the unions. They begin in 1899 (see Statistik des Deutschen Reichs N.F., vol. 134, Berlin 1900, pp. I-XI). While the statistics of the "Generalkommission" recorded only the strikes in which members of its trade associations participated, the official strike statistics generally counted all strikes. Still, in some years the number of participants falls below that of the "Generalkommission," which criticized that not all workers’ struggles were recorded.

For a comparison between the official and the union strike statistics see: C. Heiss, "Die deutsche Streikstatistik," Archiv für soziale Gesetzgebung und Statistik 17 (1902): 150-168; M. Meyer, "Zur Reform der Streikstatistik," Jahrbücher für Nationalökonomie und Statistik, 3. Folge 37 (1909): 204-218; Karl Oldenberg, article "Arbeitseinstellungen in Deutschland," in Handwörterbuch der Staatswissenschaften, vol. 1., 3rd ed. (Jena, 1909), pp. 927-964, esp. 948-957; also: "Die Streiks nach der amtlichen und der gewerkschaftlichen Statistik," regularly in Correspondenzblatt der Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften Deutschlands; e.g., vol. 23 (1913): 793-799. Finally, on the state of research: Hartmut Kaelble and Heinrich Volkmann, "Konjunktur und Streik während des Übergangs zum Organisierten Kapitalismus in Deutschland," Zeitschrift für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften 92 (1972): 513-544, esp. 513 note 1, p. 515 note 5.


Source: (for all columns except the last): Correspondenzblatt der Generalkommission der Gewerkschaften Deutschlands [Newsletter of the General Commission of the German Trade Unions] 11 (1901), p. 454; 24 (1914), Appendix, pp. 282-284; (for the last column): Statistik des Deutschen Reichs [Statistics of the German Reich], vol. 279, p. 1.

Original German table printed in Gerd Hohorst, Jürgen Kocka, and Gerhard Ritter, eds. Sozialgeschichtliches Arbeitsbuch: Materialien zur Statistik des Kaiserreichs, 1870-1914 [Social History Workbook: Materials on Kaiserreich Statistics 1870-1914]. Munich: C.H. Beck, 1975, vol. 2, pp. 132-34.

Translation: Thomas Dunlap

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