ABSTRACT
The prevailing image of the early period of industrialization in Germany as elsewhere has been formed by our knowledge of the textile industry, initially the largest employer and the one where skills were least and conditions worst. Different functions carried different incomes and social status, the latter still determined by pre-industrial traditions which continued operative well into the nineteenth century. Craft apprentices still formed the backbone of the membership, especially those employed in the small industrial concerns of rural Saxony and southern Germany. The tobacco industry also paid very low wages and depended mainly on female and child labour in the early nineteenth century, as did, somewhat later, the food industry. The German trade unions were both labour associations and friendly societies. The experience of military service could be a traumatic one for working men, particularly for those who had connections with or showed interest in labour organizations.
