ABSTRACT
The history of health care provision and poor relief is no exception, as revealed by a glance at the pertinent and synoptic literature, which primarily contrasts the situation in Prussia with non-Prussian 'exceptions'. Consequently, a review of Prussian health care provision and poor relief will have little choice but to begin by focusing on government measures and central legislation. This chapter describes the legal foundations of local health care provision and poor relief, as well as discussing the rationale and context of the legislation. It shows that municipal and state poor relief had begun to change in character by the 1870s. Any attempt at an overview of health care provision and poor relief in Enlightenment and 19th century Prussia, however, will remain incomplete and unsatisfying. In the Prussian–German case, the new administrative and political teachings of Kameralismus were influential in promoting the new perception of people as a source of each state's wealth and political power.
