ABSTRACT
In order to lay the groundwork for an assessment of the quantitative parameters of the problem at hand, it is necessary to establish the criteria and methods which were used to measure unemployment. This chapter presents that the best available statistics indicate unemployment rates during our period which averaged around three percent and rarely exceeded six percent of Germany's industrial labor force. These relatively low levels of unemployment elicited a disproportionately large response from policy makers and polemicists alike. The bulk of unpublished data used in this paper is extrapolated from the state archives of East and West Germany. Among all victims of unemployment, those unwilling to work because of laziness evoked the most scorn and severest punishments. There are irreparable gaps in the primary sources relating to unemployment during our period which bear careful scrutiny. Within the ranks underrepresented in most unemployment counts were dependent family members including women and children, non-union workers, and part-time employees.
