INTRODUCTION

The impact of the Great Depression from 1873 to 1896 on German politics and society is a familiar theme. Historians have drawn attention to the catalytic effects of the Great Depression on the emergence of “organized capitalism” and on changes in mentality, political culture, economic and social policies, and foreign policy. As the preceding chapter has shown, it cannot be ignored in a discussion of the reorganization of Prussian technical education in the late 1870s. In contrast to its subtle workings in this arena, however, the Great Depression's impact on the private sector and the economy was overwhelming. This had major consequences for the occupational structure, specifically the course of professionalization for engineers. The deep initial recession of 1874–9 focused all the attention of the private sector's engineering community on financial and commercial considerations. Questions of business rationality in design and production and competitive pricing without sacrificing quality and profitability came to overshadow everything else. The economic crisis of the 1870s thus displaced social issues in favor of economic issues as the first order of business in the further development of the profession.

This is not to say that aspirations toward professional status were suddenly dropped or that economic rationality had been absent before. On the one hand, social concerns continued to play a large role after 1873.