Social Relations in the Estate Villages of Mecklenburg c.1880–1924

In the decades before World War One cross-border economic migration, commuting, and job-switching were all common-place. Nowhere was this more true than in the German states of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and Mecklenburg Strelitz, where estate owners preferred to hire their workforce on a seasonal basis. This book follows this dynamic society through the upheaval of rural-urban migration and seasonalization, the catastrophe of World War One, and the post-war political and economic crises. It examines how employers managed such a heterogeneous and unstable workforce. Using source material left by the workers themselves, it also focuses on the relationship between the different groups of labour, and on the strategies that they adopted in their relations with management.