Emil Lederer: Review of Georg Neuhaus, Die berufliche und soziale Gliederung des deutschen Volkes (1911)

Lederer’s short review presents the first volume of Neuhaus’s Die deutsche Volkswirtschaft und ihre Wandlungen im letzten Vierteljahrhundert as an accessible, systematically arranged account of Germany’s three occupational censuses. Its emphasis is the book’s practical contribution: making official statistics available to a broader readership while facilitating specialist comparison.

Außerdem soll diese Zusammenstellung auch dem Fachmann die Benutzung durch entsprechende Gruppierung der Tabellen und durch Gegenüberstellung der Ergebnisse der drei Zählungen erleichtern.

English translation: Moreover, this compilation is also intended to facilitate use for the specialist by means of an appropriate grouping of the tables and by a juxtaposition of the results of the three censuses.

The review proceeds through the volume’s six parts. The first distinguishes people gainfully employed in their principal occupation, servants, dependants, and economically independent people without an occupation, examining demographic composition, urban–rural distribution, and international comparisons. The second organizes the population and the employed by occupational sectors, with particular attention to women employed in public services and to demographic and geographical differences.

Lederer locates the volume’s principal substantive contribution in its third and longest part:

Der dritte, umfangreichste Teil enthält die wichtigsten Ergebnisse der Berufszählungen, die soziale Gliederung des deutschen Volkes.

English translation: The third and most extensive part contains the most important results of the occupational censuses, the social structure of the German people.

Here the organizing distinction shifts from occupational sector to position within employment: the self-employed, salaried employees, and workers. Age, marital status, religious affiliation, and settlement patterns differentiate these groups further; supplementary sections address particular categories and the widows and orphans of the gainfully employed. The review thus highlights the distinction between occupational classification and social stratification without developing an independent explanation of social change.

The remaining parts cover principal occupation in relation to birthplace, secondary occupations, and occupational types and employment positions in 1907. Lederer closes by identifying the book’s method of presentation:

Das ganze Buch enthält 90 Tabellen und dazu einen verbindenden Text, der die Ergebnisse der Tabellen zusammenfaßt.

English translation: The whole book contains 90 tables and, in addition, a connecting text which summarises the results of the tables.

The review’s significance lies in this account of statistical mediation: organized tables and explanatory prose make census evidence usable for both public understanding and specialist research. Its final notice places the volume within a continuing project, announcing a second volume, Landwirtschaft und Gewerbe, devoted to establishment censuses.