Health and Illness in German Workers’ Autobiographies from the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries

SUMMARY

Workers’ autobiographies show a wide variety of medical culture in the nineteenth century. Participating in the formal health system, however, did not exclude contacting rural healers or engaging in magical practices. Hygiene became accepted as a necessary measure. But traditional and socialist ways of healing can be contrasted. The socialists accepted the medicalization of society, while many workers preserved traditional attitudes towards the professional sector of the health system. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the acceptance of panel doctors increased. Hospitals were an attractive option for workers living alone, but were much less so for those living with their families. Health became a social value of high esteem. especially among the socialisrs

health insurance, hospitals, hygiene, medicalization, panel doctors, social values, socialism, traditionalism