• DOI:10.1177/002200947801300201
• Corpus ID: 144905527

Workers' Culture in Imperial Germany

@article{Ritter1978WorkersCI,
  title={Workers' Culture in Imperial Germany},
  author={Gerhard Albert Ritter},
  journal={Journal of Contemporary History},
  year={1978},
  volume={13},
  pages={165 - 189}
}

• G. Ritter
• Published 1 April 1978
• Economics
• Journal of Contemporary History

Although the term ’workers’ culture’ has recently become widely used and admitted into historical research, it is still ambiguous what lies behind it, what is its true meaning? Is it even appropriate to talk of an autonomous, clearly defined workers’ culture, or does everything that has been so labelled come within the realm of bourgeois culture? Is it no more than an imitation at a lower level of something already existing? And further, how suitable is the current definition of culture? Is not its lack of precision partly responsible for the blurred picture of workers’ culture which must include the working and living conditions of the lower classes, rural and industrial workers and craftsmen? Are the frequent complaints about the loss of culture, about cultural egalitarianism, about standardized, popularized cultures, merely the reflections of bourgeois prejudice, irrelevant to the day-to-day existence of working people? In recent decades, German and international research has paid increasing attention to the history of workers’ culture. This is partly connected with the way the New Left and sections of the student protest movement interpret socialism, not as a mere political, economic and social framework, but as a ’way of life and Weltanschauung with a universal human claim to validity’,’ quite separate from bourgeois culture and society. Frequently these views