More continuity than change—German elites from the German Empire to the present day

Abstract

For authors like Ralf Dahrendorf and Wolfgang Schluchter, the analysis of elites was central to any social analysis: It showed whether society actually lived up to its claim of being a meritocracy. This essay examines this question on the basis of the social recruitment of the German elites over the last century and a half, from the German Empire to the present day. The research, which covers almost 2400 elite members, shows that social mobility is far lower overall than one would expect over such a long period of time. Although the aristocracy lost its importance as the main field of recruitment for the political elite after the First World War, this was only associated with a limited social opening in the following century. The upper class and the upper middle class, which were already much more important than the aristocracy for elite recruitment in the judiciary, administration and business during the German Empire, have been undisputedly dominant ever since. Social climbers from the middle and working classes have only gained very slowly and not even continuously. In the economy, their share has risen from 14.1 to 19.1% since 1907. There has been no progress in the administration since the 1930s, and three quarters of the judiciary still come from the upper middle and the upper class. Only in politics has there been a greater social opening, albeit hardly more so today than during the Weimar Republic.