Friedrich Karl Biedermann - The Social Question

The Social Question

During the 1830s and 1840s, Biedermann and many other liberals saw the divide between the working and the upper classes rapidly expand because of industrialization and rapid urbanization. His native Saxony was one of the most severely affected by this and was the most overpopulated German kingdom. Standards of living in urban areas and quality of life were overwhelmingly on the decline. The traditional guilds that protected pre-industrial workers were being dismantled as factories needed less skilled labor to produce a cheaper product. Karl Biedermann and other urban intellectuals saw the need to modernize quickly to improve living conditions and ensure that the emerging working class had decent standards of living. As social unrest developed and cities began to riot, Biedermann became more and more convinced “the social peace depended on social justice for the working class.” His treatise on the Social Question stated that much of the burden placed on the working class could be lessened if the government used proper management and policies of social welfare. He published many articles about the Social Question in his quarterly journal and gave several lectures in Leipzig and Dresden between 1846 and 1847 on the subject. He studied many socialist thinkers and while he respected their commitment to social equality, he sided with liberalism and a reduced role of the state in social welfare.