For Workers and for the Disadvantaged: Legal Advice Centres in Germany from the Late Nineteenth Century to the Early Twentieth Century

Abstract

The development of legal advice centres in Germany in the late nineteenth to early twentieth century is explored in this chapter. It portrays how in the last decades of the nineteenth century, during the period of industrialisation and urbanisation, many entities across society responded to the growing need for legal assistance. Workers and economically and socially disadvantaged people faced new legal problems, and at the same time, they required help understanding new legislation on workers’ insurance and labour protection. Political parties, religious organisations, philanthropic associations, municipalities, as well as trade unions all began to provide legal advice to workers and economically and socially disadvantaged people. Moreover, legal advice centres for women were established. Such centres employed lay women who helped their female clients with their legal problems. This chapter further demonstrates how offering legal advice was primarily the domain of lay lawyers, who had knowledge and understanding of the problems faced by those who sought their advice. Practising lawyers, however, were generally not involved in providing such legal aid. However, the diversity and plurality of providers that marked German legal advice centres from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century came to an end in the 1930s with the onset of the National Socialist regime.