For the current year, the number suddenly rose to approximately 37% during the strikes (in May and June), but has now sunk back to about 30%.
Their jobs consist of lining up bowling pins, washing glasses, and delivering newspapers, milk, bread, and other goods.
Their ages range from 12 to 13½ years.
According to my table, for some a day’s work begins as early as 4 a.m. Most of the boys have to get up between about 5 or 6 a.m. Those working only at night are the ones who get off work the latest. Among them, for example, are the pin boys, almost all of whom have to work every day from 6 p.m. to midnight. The most overexerted boys are the messengers and newspaper boys, whose daily work begins at 4 a.m. and ends at 10 p.m.
Afternoons without classes and Sundays mean increased working hours for most employed students. Throughout the year, some of the pin boys have to show up for work on Sundays at 12 p.m. and usually perform hard work until midnight. Most messenger boys have a particularly tough time around Christmas; often it is almost midnight before they are allowed to go home.
The number of monthly working hours varies between 60 and 200. More than half of the boys work 100 hours and more. Unfortunately, with respect to this category and the following ones, my statistics are not complete for 1888 and 1889.
The pay that pupils receive for their labor varies widely; the lowest is three pfennigs (milk boy), the highest is about twenty pfennigs (pin boy). In no single instance was the earned money deposited as savings for the boy; it was always used to support the family.
Source: Speech by C.H. Dannmeyer, delivered to the Hamburg Teachers' Association on September 27, 1890, published in Pädagogische Reform [Pedagogical Reform], Hamburg, Jg. 14, no. 42, (October 22, 1890).
Original German text also reprinted in Klaus Saul, Jens Flemming, Dirk Stegmann and Peter-Christian Witt, eds., Arbeiterfamilien im Kaiserreich. Materialien zur Sozialgeschichte in Deutschland 1871-1914 [Worker Families in the Kaiserreich. Materials on Social History in Germany 1871-1914]. Düsseldorf, 1982, pp. 223-24.
Translation: Erwin Fink
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