Lexington Books
Pages: 444
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-4985-2116-1 • Hardback • March 2016 • $162.00 • (£125.00)
978-1-4985-2117-8 • eBook • March 2016 • $153.50 • (£119.00)
Alfred C. Mierzejewski is professor of modern German history at the University of North Texas.
Chapter 1: The Origins of the German Public Pension System
Chapter 2: The Initial Period of Expansion, 1891–1918
Chapter 3: World War and Inflation, 1914–1923
Chapter 4: Temporary Stabilization and Renewed Crisis, 1924–1933
Chapter 5: Pensions under the Swastika, 1933–1945
Chapter 6: Interregnum, 1945–1949
Chapter 7: The Golden Era of Benefit Expansion in the West, 1949–1972
Chapter 8: The Long Crisis: Economic Stagnation and Demographic Decline, 1973–1990
Chapter 9: The Government Retirement Pension System of the German Democratic Republic, 1949–1989
Chapter 10: Political and Social Reunification, 1990–1994
Chapter 11: The Reform Era of 1994–2007
Chapter 12: Looking Back
Mierzejewski is well equipped to tell this story, drawing on extensive research in German archival and printed primary sources and demonstrating a complete mastery of this complex topic and its rich historiography throughout his narrative.... [T]his is a readable, well-organized, authoritative, and original book on the German public pension system. With its chapters on pensions during National Socialism, military occupation, and in East Germany, it makes a novel and much welcomed contribution and earns this book the distinction of being the first truly complete history of the German pension system in any language, one that should find wide readership in history, economics, political science, and sociology.
— American Historical Review
This comprehensive, readable history is likely the single most thorough analysis of any national pension system yet written. Its sophisticated analysis of the German experience makes for an important addition to the literature on the political economy of the welfare state as well as being of interest to anyone attempting to understand the challenges and trade–offs that confront today's social security systems.
— Steven Livingston, Middle Tennessee State University
This thorough account is the first integrated history of the German public pension system since its founding in the nineteenth century. It combines knowledge of all important scholarly literature on the history of the German public pension system with a lucid analysis of its main characteristics, providing an interpretation that takes into account various political battles and economic changes over the past 125 years.
— Ulrike Haerendel, Protestant Academy of Tutzing
Alfred C. Mierzejewski has created a seamless narrative of an overlooked but major institution across an entire century—not a small achievement, given that this period deals with six distinct regimes. This work will be of enduring significance.
— Roland Spickermann, University of Texas of the Permian Basin