From Guild Welfare to Bismarck Care

A. Introduction
Professional guilds and the origins of modern insurance and social security? – The state of research – Defining the research object – Overview – Eight final preliminary remarks
B. Guild support from the Middle Ages to the 17th century: loans and capacity building
Supporting master craftsmen and their families – Supporting journeymen and apprentices – Supporting miners and their families – Supporting seafarers and their families – Conclusion
C. Guild support and insurance in the 17th and 18th centuries: a first phase of transformation
Supporting craftsmen and their families – Supporting miners and their families – Supporting seafarers and their families – Contextualizing the process of transformation – Conclusion
D. The evolution of Germany’s modern social security schemes in the 19th century
19th-century developments until Bismarck’s legislation – Bismarck’s social security legislation – Guild welfare and modern life insurance?
E. Conclusion

»Den Leserinnen und Lesern wird eine sehr gut lesbare Darstellung angeboten, die reich an historischen Details ist und überzeugend argumentiert,dass genossenschaftliche Zusammenschlüsse in Deutschland einen größeren Einfluss auf die Entwicklung von Versicherung (im Sinne der Sozialversicherung) und auf zumindest das Sozialversicherungsrecht hatten, als man dies für ganz Europa sagen kann.« Tobias A. Jopp, in: Vierteljahrschrift für Sozial- u. Wirtschaftsgeschichte, Heft 2/2023