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At Christmas, the children’s kitchen was replenished (it had been around since my childhood and is now used by the grandchildren), and some cooking supplies were purchased for it, which was a great source of pleasure time and again. We owned only a few toys; rather, we had higher-quality items, such as a picture lotto, dominoes, a checker board, a construction kit, a stove, and tin soldiers – all things that were shared and still exist today. A paper doll with different little dresses, cut out by their dad, also delighted the children; the girls cut out some of their own and painted them as colorfully as possible. Each girl also had a little doll of her own. When they turned ten, they got bigger ones (stuffed bodies made of canvas because it doesn’t break). These were the last of the dolls; from that point on the girls received only little pieces of fabric as gifts, and the sewing started right away. It was great fun when aprons, shirts, and dresses were finished. And what great effort they made to create new fashions and excel at sewing. For this was my primary motive: to have them learn something in a playful way. I simply believed that big girls did not learn anything by dressing and undressing dolls; besides, it would eventually get boring. As a girl, I also sewed a doll’s wardrobe on my own. Now, however, I did not sit back and do nothing. From time to time, I did some tailoring for others, and the resulting income was not spent but saved separately. Each child also had a savings bankbook from grandmother. In addition to the 50 pennies she brought on each birthday, I added another 50 from the household till, so that one mark went into savings on every such occasion. Our children never suffered deprivation, and, thank God, they were never seriously ill; but they were also not spoiled. When they were little, they had pieces of white bread rolls put in their milk quite early; later they got double rolls, which were buttered on Sundays. Taking sugar with coffee was reserved for their dad; of course, he often let them have a piece. In the evening, we had soup (mostly bread soup or gruel) or a cup of coffee, tea, mulled beer, and the like. Each child was allowed to have one sip from dad’s glass of straight beer. Only on Sundays was there a real supper with cold cuts and cheese; my children still recall with delight how good the food tasted back then. We baptized five children but did not organize any christenings (there was no extra fund for that). Relatives acted as godparents, and all we needed was coffee and a Gugelhupf.* For the same reason, we had no Christmas cookies; instead, on each of the Christmas holidays we got a Stollen** for 50 pennies, which was enjoyed in moderation and did not upset our stomachs. This may sound a bit put on to someone who has never had to make do with 1,000 marks and to think about the future at the same time, but that was the reality. – On Sundays we went for walks together, taking along sandwiches. Only when the fourth child, the boy, was born did I buy a cheap baby carriage, so I was able to come along each Sunday when the weather was nice. With all the previous children I stayed home on Sundays as long as they had to be carried around in their little beds. – Thank God we always felt quite good about living this kind life.
*Gugelhupf: a light, circular yeast bread with raisins and frequently topped with almonds – trans.
**Stollen: a dense, elongated yeast bread with raisins, citron, and chopped nuts. Stollen is traditionally eaten during Advent and the Christmas season – trans.
Source: Augusta Petri-Dresden, “Aus dreißigjähriger Erfahrung” [“From Thirty Years of Experience”], in Wie wirtschaftet man gut und billig bei einem jährlichen Einkommen von 800-1000 Mark? [How Does One Manage Well and Economically on an Annual Income of 800-1000 Marks?] (Volkswohl-Schriften 28), Dresden, 1900, pp. 7-10. Original German text reprinted in Klaus Saul, Jens Flemming, Dirk Stegmann, and Peter-Christian Witt, eds., Arbeiterfamilien im Kaiserreich. Materialien zur Sozialgeschichte in Deutschland 1871-1914 [Workers' Families in the Kaiserreich. Materials on Social History in Germany 1871-1914]. Düsseldorf: Droste, 1982, pp. 116-18. Translation: Erwin Fink
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