Original German Reich labour book in the name of Ubert Koch
Product Code: xAb44m5
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Product Condition: Used
Original German Reich labour book in the name of Ubert Koch. Ref. number 234/1131. Filled in by hand and with seals. In good condition with minor signs of wear.
The labour book was a document issued by state authorities that had to be submitted to an employer upon recruitment. The aim was to control the professional mobility of employees and make it dependent on the commitment of the previous employer. This was intended to make it impossible for employees to take advantage of wage differences between companies or sectors by changing companies. The labour book was thus a means of fundamentally restricting freedom of occupation and, after 1935, also a socio-political instrument of labour force control for the implementation of the Four-Year Plan.
The labour book was a socio-political instrument of labour force management and was first introduced in 1935 for industrial shortage occupations such as miners and skilled metal workers, but was then quickly extended to other occupational groups. In 1938, around 22,500,000 labour books had been issued by the employment offices. The labour book was a numbered thin booklet in DIN A 6 format with 32 pages. The first three digits of the labour book number (e.g. 335 for Heidelberg employment office, Sinsheim branch) indicated one of the 345 employment offices authorized to issue them. Parallel to the labour book, an index card was kept under the same number at the issuing employment office.
The labour book and the card index enabled the state to control the “planned distribution of workers over a wide area”. “Distortions of the labour market” were to be intercepted without having to make wage policy concessions. Hermann Göring declared in the Reich Defence Council in November 1938:
“The distribution of men is the most important and most difficult [...] problem. Because of the great shortage of manpower, a method must be applied which no longer draws from the full, but simplifies, saves on people. Man is an irreplaceable resource."
Göring therefore planned to register all German men and women between the ages of 14 and 70 in a national register in preparation for the war. The labour register was to serve as the basis.
The labour book was a document issued by state authorities that had to be submitted to an employer upon recruitment. The aim was to control the professional mobility of employees and make it dependent on the commitment of the previous employer. This was intended to make it impossible for employees to take advantage of wage differences between companies or sectors by changing companies. The labour book was thus a means of fundamentally restricting freedom of occupation and, after 1935, also a socio-political instrument of labour force control for the implementation of the Four-Year Plan.
The labour book was a socio-political instrument of labour force management and was first introduced in 1935 for industrial shortage occupations such as miners and skilled metal workers, but was then quickly extended to other occupational groups. In 1938, around 22,500,000 labour books had been issued by the employment offices. The labour book was a numbered thin booklet in DIN A 6 format with 32 pages. The first three digits of the labour book number (e.g. 335 for Heidelberg employment office, Sinsheim branch) indicated one of the 345 employment offices authorized to issue them. Parallel to the labour book, an index card was kept under the same number at the issuing employment office.
The labour book and the card index enabled the state to control the “planned distribution of workers over a wide area”. “Distortions of the labour market” were to be intercepted without having to make wage policy concessions. Hermann Göring declared in the Reich Defence Council in November 1938:
“The distribution of men is the most important and most difficult [...] problem. Because of the great shortage of manpower, a method must be applied which no longer draws from the full, but simplifies, saves on people. Man is an irreplaceable resource."
Göring therefore planned to register all German men and women between the ages of 14 and 70 in a national register in preparation for the war. The labour register was to serve as the basis.
$40.00 inc. tax
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