Poverty in Germany 1950-1990

近年来，社会政策和福利国家的历史一直是人们非常关注的话题。然而，自1950年以来的贫困问题基本上被德国研究人员忽视了。因此，目前的项目(“1950-1990年德国的贫困”，自2010年起由德国政府资助)的目的是从三个不同的角度解决这一问题：调查衡量贫困的统计工具、分析国家辩论和当地的贫困历史。他们专注于辩论的部分，超越了国家层面上众所周知的政治和法律争议：前两个子项目分析了学术专家和慈善组织的讨论。第三个分项目致力于德国三个城市消除贫困的具体措施。此外，还特别强调德国内部的比较。该项目试图追踪共同的传统是如何被不同的政治制度改变或继续下去的。例如，第一阶段的研究表明，在20世纪50年代和60年代，德国两个州的贫困景象一直非常持久。对于根据穷人的工作能力和意愿对其进行传统分类的情况尤其如此：它在很长一段时间内仍然是核心，并对行政战略产生重大影响。然而，该项目的初步结果表明，这一共识在1960年代末开始瓦解。新一代专家和管理人员从根本上拒绝了以前的社会政策方法。同样，东德和西德的事态发展也开始出现分歧：虽然东德和西德以前都回避“贫困”这个词，但自20世纪70年代初以来，这个词慢慢回到了西德的辩论中。民主德国没有出现类似的事态发展。可以肯定的是，执政的社民党、政府和学者都不能完全忽视自己国家的社会不满。然而，他们的措施和辩论往往集中在劳动人口身上。这不仅符合社会主义意识形态，而且旨在增加政权的合法性。然而，这也意味着生产过程以外的边缘群体被忽视，甚至被定为刑事犯罪。从所有三个次级项目可以明显看出，在整个调查期间，贫穷问题仍然严重。即使在以缺乏公开辩论而臭名昭著的东德来说，也可以表明，至少就国家而言，关于对社会问题做出适当反应的讨价还价过程是司空见惯的。这一假设已经在分项目1和3的情况下得到验证。

The history of social policy and the welfare state has been the subject of much attention in recent years. The issue of poverty in the period since 1950, however, has by and large been ignored by German researchers. Consequently, it is the aim of the current project ("Poverty in Germany 1950-1990", funded by the DFG since 2010) to tackle this issue from three different perspectives: an investigation of statistical instruments for measuring poverty, an analysis of national debates and a local history of poverty.All three sub-projects share a focus on approaches that have been neglected by prior research. They concentrate on sections of the debate which go beyond the well-known political and legal controversies on the national level: The first two sub-projects analyse discussions by academic experts and charity organisations. The third sub-project is devoted to concrete measures against poverty in three German cities.Additionally, special emphasis is placed on the inner German comparison. The project is trying to trace how common traditions were transformed by or continued in diverging political systems. For example, the first phase of research has shown that images of poverty in both German states have been remarkably persistent during the 1950s and 1960s. This is particularly true for the traditional classification of the poor based on their ability and willingness to work: It remained central for a long period of time and had a major effect on administrative strategies.For West Germany, however, the preliminary results of the project show that this consensus began to fall apart at the end of the 1960s. A new generation of experts and administrators radically rejected previous approaches to social policy. Similarly, developments in the East and in the West began to diverge: While the very term "poverty" had previously been shunned in both states, it slowly crept back into West German debates since the beginning of the 1970s. Similar developments did not appear in the GDR. To be sure, neither the ruling SED nor the administration or the academics could completely ignore social grievances in their own country. However, their measures and debates tended to concentrate on the working population. This not only corresponded well with socialist ideology but also aimed at increasing the legitimacy of the regime. Yet it also meant that marginal groups beyond the production process were neglected or even criminalized.It is obvious from all three sub-projects that the issue of poverty remained virulent throughout the entire period under investigation. Even in the case of East Germany which is notorious for its absence of public debates, it can be shown that bargaining processes concerning adequate reactions to social problems were commonplace, at least as far as the state is concerned. This hypothesis has already been verified in the case of the sub-projects 1 and 3.