ABSTRACT
Decidedly different interpretations of German development between 1873 and 1913 have emerged and the differences can be discussed in terms of five basic issues: Continuity vs. discontinuity, pressures from below vs. influence from above, domestic vs. foreign policy, theory vs. narration as an explanatory tool and the role of economic determinism in historical change. The study of industrial unemployment between 1873 and 1913 demands something beyond the use of events during those years as a battleground for rival theories of continuity. Ideologues espousing nationalism, imperialism, and hatred for religious minorities, left-wing politics and industrialization also adopted a distinctly modern flavor during the decades prior to World War I. In analyzing unemployment, a scheme of periodization which adheres to the view that developments between 1871 and 1945 constituted a single unit would be misleading. In addition to the unemployed themselves, public policy-makers, analysts and shifting alliances of interest groups that came together to affect trade and labor policies is considered.
