Source
Expenditure on Foodstuffs by Two Working-Class Families 1887–88
Food item | Working-class family of 7–8 according to Opificius (1888) in marks | Working-class family of 7–8 according to Opificius (1888) in percentage of income | Working-class family of 5 according to Mehner (1887) in marks | Working-class family of 5 according to Mehner (1887) in percentage of income |
Bread | 140.77 | 21.5 | 183.04 | 28.1 |
Bread rolls | 21.25 | 3.3 | – | – |
Kaiser buns | – | – | 13.00 | 2.0 |
Potatoes | 24.14 | 3.7 | 60.84 | 9.4 |
Flour | 7.85 | 1.2 | 10.40 | 1.6 |
Rice (barley) | – | – | 10.40 | 1.6 |
Butter | 8.41 | 1.3 | 109.20 | 16.7 |
Fats and drippings | 28.83 | 4.4 | 11.44a | 1.8 |
Salad and rapeseed oil | 10.66 | 1.6 | – | – |
Beef | 40.08 | 6.3 | 22.36 | 3.4 |
Various meats | 9.94 | 1.5 | 15.60 | 2.4 |
Sausageb | 19.90 | 3.1 | 15.60 | 2.4 |
Herringc | – | – | 10.40 | 1.6 |
Milk | 50.45 | 7.9 | – | – |
Cheesec | 5.55 | 0.9 | – | – |
Farmer’s cheese | – | – | 6.24 | 1.0 |
Eggs | 11.28 | 1.7 | 20.80d | 3.2 |
Vegetables | 11.96 | 1.9 | 13.00 | 2.0 |
Pulses | 4.15 | 0.7 | – | – |
Other soup ingredients | 14.12 | 2.2 | – | – |
Onions | – | – | 1.04 | 0.2 |
Fruit | 8.08 | 1.3 | – | – |
Sugar | 19.09 | 2.9 | – | – |
Salt, vinegar, spices | 11.46 | 1.8 | 5.20d | 0.8 |
Honey or fruit puree | 1.71 | 0.3 | – | – |
Coffee | 33.88 | 5.2 | 15.60 | 2.4 |
Coffee substitutes | 1.85 | 0.3 | 10.40e | 1.6 |
Beer | – | – | 27.04f | 4.2 |
Spirits | 15.00 | 2.3 | 31.20 | 4.8 |
Provisions at work | 95.02 | 14.6 | 57.72g | 8.8 |
Provisions at innsh | 45.26 | 7.1 | – | – |
Misc. | 6.11 | 0.9 | – | – |
Total | 646.53 | 100.0 | 650.52 | 100.0 |
a) Mehner only lists beef drippings.
b) Here, it should be
noted that the consumption of sausages, herring, and cheese by
members of the family charted by Mehner was substantially higher,
but this is recorded under the category “provisions at work,”
since both spouses worked in a factory.
c) In Mehner’s
statistics, the consumption of eggs is divided in two categories:
“eggs” and “salad and eggs.” Since the latter cannot be divided,
it was added to the total consumption of eggs.
d) Mehner only
lists salt.
e) Mehner only lists “barley.”
f) Beer
consumption was higher as well, but the beer consumed during work
breaks is included under the category “provisions at
work.”
g) Complied by the author from the categories: sausage
or cheese (34.32 marks), cucumber or cheese (3.64 marks), cucumber
or herring (4.16 marks), as well as brown beer (15.60
marks).
h) Opificius’ table reads: Provisions at inns
and tobacco. Since this
category cannot be divided, it was listed as a whole. In Mehner’s
listing, a worker’s consumption of tobacco amounts to 34.32 marks.
Cf. Mehner loc. cit., p. 309. It was omitted here. The worker’s
consumption at inns is included in beer consumption.
Source: L. Opificius, “Haushaltsbudget eines Arbeiters in einer chemischen Fabrik,” Frankfurter Arbeiterbudgets (Schriften des freien deutschen Hochstiftes). Frankfurt a. Main, 1890, pp. 69–70, and H. Mehner, “Der Haushalt und die Lebenshaltung einer Leipziger Arbeiterfamilie,” in Jahrbuch für Gesetzgebung, Verwaltung und Volkswirtschaft im Deutschen Reiche 11 (1887), p. 310, both in Lothar Schneider, Der Arbeiterhaushalt im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert. Berlin, 1967, pp. 158–59; original German text reprinted in Gerd Hohorst, Jürgen Kocka, and Gerhard A. Ritter, Sozialgeschichtliches Arbeitsbuch II, 2nd ed. Munich: C. H. Beck, 1978, pp. 118–19.