more descriptive category ofArbeiterkultur(workers’culture) in orderto include
groups and milieus outside the highlypoliticized world of socialist partiesand
labor unions. Other scholars noted the limitations of class as an analytical cat-
egory with an inbuilt affinity for antagonistic interpretations and pointed to
the greater importance of cultures of social integration over cultures of social
conflict in liberal (i.e.,Western) democracies. The various attempts at developing
ashared criticalvocabulary by combiningelements from theories of classforma-
tion and social stratification can be seen, among other things, in Gerhard Albert
Ritter’sall-inclusive characterization ofArbeiterkulturas“the whole set ofrela-
tions ofaway of life specificto asocial stratum, which findsits expression
not onlyinartistic manifestations of the workers and in their educational activ-
ities, but in their social and political behavior, in their value systems,and in
their own institutions.”¹³
Working-class history and the history of the socialist movement benefitted
greatlyfrom the critical interventions that profoundlychanged the discipline
of history duringthe 1970sand 1980s and contributed to the introduction of so-
cial history and culturalhistory as the dominant paradigms.The close connec-
tion between political cultureand historical research in theFederal Republic
can be tracked from the earliest studies on the workers’movement (e.g., by po-
litical scientistWolfgangAbendroth) to thevoluminoustomesdevoted to Social
Democracy and its cultural institutions.¹⁴While some studies reproduced the
ideological divisions between Old and New Left,others used the historicalfind-
StudienzurArbeiterkultur,ed. Albrecht Lehmann (Münster: Coppenrath, 1984), 244–282. Fora
literary perspective on these questions,see Wilfried van derWill and Rob Burns,Arbeiterkultur-
bewegung in derWeimarerRepublik.Texte, Dokumente,Bilder,2vols., (Frankfurt am Main: Ull-
stein,1982).
GerhardAlbert Ritter,“Arbeiterkultur im DeutschenKaiserreich. Probleme undForschung-
sansätze,”inArbeiterkultur,ed. GerhardAlbrecht Ritter (Königstein/Taunus:Athenäum, 1979),
15 – 39.Also see GerhardAlbrecht Ritter and KlausTenfelde,Arbeiter im DeutschenKaiserreich
1871 bis 1914(Bonn: Dietz, 1992).For aWeberianapproach, seeJosef Mooser,Arbeiterleben in
Deutschland 1900–1970.Klassenlagen, Kulturund Politik(Frankfurt am Main:Suhrkamp,
1984).ForaMarxistapproach, see Manfred Scharrer,Arbeiterbewegung im Obrigkeitsstaat.
SPD und Gewerkschaft nach dem Sozialistengesetz(Berlin: Rotbuch, 1976);KampfloseKapitula-
tion: Arbeiterbewegung 1933(Reinbek: Rowohlt, 1984); andArbeiter und die Idee von den Arbei-
tern 1848 bis 1869(Cologne: Bund, 1990).
SeeWolfgangAbendroth,Einführung in die Geschichte der Arbeiterbewegung,2vols. (Heil-
bronn: Distel, 1985). Representative works by GDR historians include JürgenKuczynski,Die Ge-
schichte der Lage der Arbeiter unter demKapitalismus,40vols. (Berlin: Akademie, 1960–72);
Hartmut Zwahr,Proletariat und Bourgeoisie in Deutschland. StudienzurKlassendialektik(Co-
logne: Pahl-Rugenstein, 1980) and, as editor,DieKonstituierungder deutschen Arbeiterklasse
von den dreißiger bis zu den siebzigerJahrendes 19.Jahrhunderts(Berlin: Akademie, 1981).
AHisto riography of the Proletarian Dream 345