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Abstract

This chart presents data that helps us assess the consequences of changing economic policy and climate on a working-class family of five. We see first that real wages struggled to rebound in the years following the First World War. Only in 1928 did a German worker take home more to his family in terms of real wages compared to 1913/14. The Depression brought an end to this return of stability, and it would be almost another decade before real wages would surpass the 1928 levels. In the years following, full employment due to rearmament and war meant that wages remained relatively high compared to the cost of living, but consumer goods supplies remained low.

Indices of Cost of Living and of Workers’ Wages (1913/14-1943)

Source

Indices of cost of living (prices)[1] and of workers’ wages, 1913/14-1943 (1928=100)

Wages[2]

Year

Hourly

Weekly

Cost of living

Real wages[3]

1913/14

53

61

66

93

1924

86

1925

77

75

93

81

1926

82

78

93

84

1927

90

88

97

89

1928

100

100

100

100

1929

106

103

101

102

1930

103

95

97

97

1931

95

84

89

94

1932

80

69

80

86

1933

77

71

78

91

1934

79

76

80

94

1935

80

77

81

95

1936

81

80

82

97

1937

83

83

82

101

1938

86

87

83

105

1939

89

90

83

108

1940

91

93

86

108

1941

95

99

88

113

1942

96

100

90

111

1943

97

101

91

109

Notes

[1] Calculated for working-class family of 5 (1934) with averages for food, drink, rent, heating, electricity, clothing.
[2] ‘effective wages‘ per hour and per week.
[3] Calculated on basis of cost-of-living index per week.

Source: Volker Berghahn, Modern Germany: Society, Economy and Politics in the Twentieth Century. New York: Cambridge, 1987, p. 290.