ABSTRACT
In addition to seasonal and technological changes which periodically affected the level of unemployment, there were predictable attempts at planning and government-initiated controls formulated to impact the labor market. Policy decisions may be broken down for analytical purposes into two categories—federal and local—which remained both separate and different in nature throughout our period. It was during our period that the government first acknowledged that the source of unemployment lay in the industrial economy. At the same time, the state began to assume tentative responsibility for victims of unemployment. The second category of measures to combat unemployment on the policy level was confined during our period almost exclusively to the introduction of labor exchanges. The third and most prevalent variety of unemployment policy aimed at alleviating the consequences of work loss. German interest in the idea of a right to work originated with a speech of Bismarck's to the Reichstag.
