ABSTRACT
The history of the domestic servant in nineteenth and early twentieth century Germany, as in many other countries, is that of an inferior social class, something that was not necessarily true of their position in preceding centuries. The German household - speaking generally - remained both a producer and consumer organization well into the industrial age. Slaughtering and sausage making, making butter and preserves, as well as spinning, weaving, and a variety of forms of needlework, except at the very top and bottom of the social scale. In better-off houses a large number of domestics would be employed, and outside help brought in to do specific tasks, such as washing and ironing, but also tailoring and hairdressing, as is still the case in many Spanish households. The status of household servants and their social origins changed in the decades before the advent of the industrial revolution, because the whole concept of what constituted the family unit had changed.
