Conflict Resolution in Imperial Germany

Volume 336 of the Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte out now

In any system of dependent employment, labour disputes are and have always been part for the course. In this recently published book, Dennis Vogt takes a close look at the institutions that contributed to the resolution of such conflicts in the German Empire between 1890 and 1918. Based on cases tried before trade courts, merchant courts and public legal service offices, the author analyses the ‘work with the conflict’ as a process of negotiations between employees and employers as well as those in charge of resolving the conflict at the relevant institutions. 

The study uses trial records from local archives and from public administration bodies, but also contributions to relevant publications such as the journal ‘Gewerbe- und Kaufmannsgericht’. Based on a thorough evaluation of the sources with regard to both quantity and quality, the author offers a reconstruction of how institutional conflict resolution occurred in concrete cases. By interweaving micro and macro perspectives, he also achieves a comprehensive assessment of how labour conflicts were resolved in the Germany of Emperor Wilhelm II.

Institutional labour conflict resolution, the working world, and society in the empire – in particular at local level – were intertwined in multiple ways. Therefore Vogt’s legal history study also draws on research in labour history, social history, cultural history and other disciplines. This PhD thesis was developed as part of the LOEWE focus Außergerichtliche und gerichtliche Konfliktlösung at the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main.

This book is volume 7 in the series Moderne Regulierungsregime of the Studien zur europäischen Rechtsgeschichte.