Engineers in Germany: Social Situation, Mentalities and Politics 1890-1933

Engineers represent the (industrial) modern age like no other profession. In the German Empire and the Weimar Republic, however, the enormous numerical expansion of the profession was contrasted by comparatively unfavorable working conditions and incomes. This was particularly true of the graduate engineers, whose academization failed to meet industrial requirements. Can the völkisch, right-wing political radicalization of many technical experts on the eve of the 'Third Reich' actually be fully explained by these professional-social frictions? Data on the professional-social situation, consumption, leisure time and political behaviour of engineers in the higher and academic professions, which have been made available for the first time, already reveal the contours of late-modern, contemporary society in the period under consideration. This makes more complex explanatory approaches necessary and enables general insights into the dynamics of social crises. This study of (historical) professional, inequality, and political sociology is published in its third, fully revised edition. This book is a translation of an original German edition. The translation was done with the help of artificial intelligence (machine translation by the service DeepL.com). A subsequent human revision was done primarily in terms of content, so that the book will read stylistically differently from a conventional translation. Contents 1: Introduction: Social and Political Consequences of the Academization of German Engineers in the Nineteenth Century to 1933 2: The German Engineering Boom - Nineteenth to Mid-Twentieth-Century 2.1 The Numerical Development of the Engineering Profession in Germany 2.2 Causes of the German Engineering Boom: Dynamics of Economic Structural Change 3: Broken Professionalization: Qualifications and Professional Positions of German Engineers (Nineteenth Century to 1933) 3.1 The Loss of the Academic Ideal: The Competition Between Two Educational Paths The Competition Between Two Educational Paths of German Engineers Critical Competition: The Equal Treatment of Middle School and University Graduates in Companies Dominance of Business Rationalities Technical Universities: Questionable Practical Relevance Engineers and Technicians 3.2 The Change in the Educational Profile of German Engineers Special Case: Chemical Industry and Chemists Doctorate as a Career Factor? Two Qualification Paths: One Competence Profile 3.3 The Employment Profile: On the Way to the Late Industrial White-Collar Occupation of German Engineers The Public Service: The Entitlement System in Retreat State Control and Its Paradoxes 4: The Working Life of German Engineers in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century: From Universal Experts to Managed Speci... 4.1 The Technical Experts as an Object of Industrial Dynamics: Bureaucratization and Aspirant System Working Conditions: Double Deprofessionalisation 4.2 Non-competition Clause and Inventor Protection The Long Struggle for Inventor ́s Rights Interim Balance: Tendencies Towards Operational-Functional Downgrading 4.3 Standardization Tendencies of Engineering Work Development Versus Production Technical Fields The Industrial Engineer as a Real Type Changing Working Conditions and Cultures 5: The Labour Market of German Engineers: Between Economic and Social Dynamics (Nineteenth Century to 1933) 5.1 Allocation Patterns in Comparison Three Crises: 1870s, 1900s and Early 1930s Training Boom Engineering Labour Market: Externally Induced Waves or Systemic Cycles? Shifts in the Age Structure The Engineering Labour Market: Not a Closed System of Supply and Demand The Influence of the Bourgeois Education Markets 5.2 The Permanent Overcrowding Since 1902 Overcrowding Crisis and Social Situation of Engineers Causes of the Permanent Overcrowding of the Labour Market Engineering: The Alternative Career of the Bourgeoisie German Engineers in the Nineteenth Century to 1933: Salaries and Social Situation in Professional Comparison 6.1 Salaries in Professional Comparison 6.2 The Social Situation of German Engineers: Summary Critique of Technology and German Engineers in Modern Society (Nineteenth Century to 1933) 7.1 Bourgeois Critique of Technology 7.2 German Engineers Between Cultural Milieus and Social Classes Prevented Bourgeoisification: Lifestyles and Mentalities of German Engineers and Other Middle-Class Groups in the Nineteenth a... 8.1 The Everyday Life: Family as a Planning Task Family Planning in Engineering Households 8.2 Household Expenditure: New Middle-Class Hedonism The 1927 Consumption Sample Contours of a Leisure Society Bourgeois Comparative Foil: The Lifestyles of Senior Civil Servants The Lifestyles of the Middle Classes: Engineers, White-Collar Workers, Middle Civil Servants The Middle Officials: `Half ́ Educated Citizens The Model of the Modern Middle Classes White-Collar or Bourgoisie? Engineers in the Higher Civil Service and Senior Merchants Rising Incomes: Unchanged Consumption Patterns The Engineers as Harbingers of Modern Society Between Interest Policies and Right-Wing Utopia: German Engineers in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century 9.1 Professional Politics 1870-1918: From ``Gemeinschaftsarbeit ́ ́ to Interests 9.2 The Reorganization of the Technical Associations in Germany 1918/19 Between Interests and Ideologies: The Middle School Engineers and the Butib/Butab Grassroots and Associations: The Organizational Behavior of Technical Academics in the Weimar Republic Variants of Academic Organization: Professional Core Strategies of German Engineers (1918-1930) 10.1 The Bargaining Machine: The Association of Employed Chemists and Engineers (Budaci) 10.2 Between Conflict and Loyalty: The Association of Executive Employees (Vela) 10.3 The Association of German Diploma Engineers (VDDI): Professional Status Instead of Collective Agreements 10.4 Comparison of Association Strategies: Social Foundations and Ideological Traditions Ideology of Intellectual Work and Völkisch-Conservative Radicalization of German Engineers 1927-1933 11.1 Corporative Elites as a Compensation Strategy: The Three Associations in Comparison 11.2 The VDDI: At the Head of the ``Volksgemeinschaft ́ ́ 11.3 Crisis of the Elites and Right-Wing Conservative Conjuncture: Vela and Budaci Social Situation, Mentalities and Politics of German Engineers 1890-1933: Summary Appendix List of Sources and Literature Archives Periodicals and Series References