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[Editor's Note: Two more posts on this query.] 1. Submitted by: Norbert Goetz (goetz@mail.uni-greifswald.de) In der Weimarer Republik gab es faktisch ein "Gesetz ueber Kleinrentnerfuersorge" (RGBl. I (1923): 104). Dieses trat allerdings mit der "Verordnung ueber die Fuersorgepflicht" (RGBl. I (1924): 100-107) ausser Kraft (dort beschaeftigt sich zumindest =A7 6 Abs. 3 mit den Kleinrentnern). Die Nazis waren es, die Verbesserungen fuer die Kleinrentner durchsetzten, da ihnen "unverschuldet" in Not geratene Volksgenossen einer besonderen Solidaritaet wuerdig erschienen. Nach dem "Gesetz ueber Kleinrentnerhilfe" (RGBl. I (1934): 580-581) waren hilfsbeduerftige Personen dann zur Kleinrentnerhilfe (eine privilegierten Art der Fuersorge) berechtigt, "wenn sie nachweisen, dass ihnen am 1. Januar 1918 ein Kapitalvermoegen von mindestens 12,0000 Mark gehoert hat, oder dass sie zu diesem Zeitpunkt einen Rechtsanspruch auf eine lebenslaengliche Rente von jaehrlich mindestens 500 Mark gehabt haben, und das Vermoegen oder der Anspruch der Geldentwertung zu Opfer gefallen ist". Der Gedanke liegt nahe, dass die begriffliche Unterscheidung in Klein- und Kapitalrentner analog zu dieser doppelten Definition gelegen haben koennte. Mit der "Verordnung zur Ergaenzung des Gesetzes ueber Kleinrentnerhilfe" (RGBl. I (1937): 1415) wurde der Personenkreis der Kleinrentner ausgeweitet: auch Grund- oder Betriebsvermoegen, fuer weibliche Haushaltsangehoerige und dort taetige ein potentielles Erbe und fuer Fluechtlinge aufgrund des Weltkriegs verlorenes Hab und Gut konnten nun beruecksichtigt werden. Nach der "Verordnung ueber die oeffentliche Fuersorge fuer Juden" (RGBl. I (1938). 1649) galt das Kleinrentnergesetz nicht fuer Juden. Interessenvertretung war der "Reichsbund der deutschen Kapital- und Kleinrentner". 2. Submitted by: Michael L. Hughes (hughes@wfu.edu) In the 1920s literature I've seen, Kapitalrentner does refer to someone living from privately-owned, usually substantial assets. Kleinrentner usually refers to someone who once lived from such assets, often with a relatively modest income, but who lost the assets because of hyperinflation. Such individuals faced the risk of becoming dependent on charity or welfare, a fate they rejected as a humiliation they did not deserve. They believed that their ability to accumulate or preserve property had reflected their superior virtue and that their loss of the assets was an unmerited blow from an amoral external force (inflation). It's not surprising that Kleinrentner were more likely to be women. The society tended to expect men in such a situation to return to active economic life if they were able-bodied, and the men of course had greater opportunities in the labor markets. Women did have a somewhat longer life expectancy and a longer period of dependence on assets saved for old age. There was also a special category of "Haustoechter": women who had not married nor worked but had looked after the households of their middle- and upper-class parents, in the expectation they would inherit assets to support them once their parents died. Middle- and upper-class Germans were often unwilling to consign these women to the labor markets they had never before had to enter. The revaluation legislation did assist these folks somewhat. The Revaluation Law promised the restoration of some of the value of their assets, usually as of 1932 (so it didn't always deliver before a Kleinrentner died). In addition, holders of government bonds could petition for a monthly Vorzugsrente against their devalued government bonds, from 1925 until their death. The issue does raise interesting issues about the property holdings of men and women. The irony is that even though men held more property than women, this legislation may have helped women more than men because women lived longer and could more easily claim a Vorzugsrente. That would, though, be a complex question to sort out. In addition to Fuehrer, a number of authors have written, to a greater or lesser degree, about the Kleinrentner, e.g., David Crew, _Germans on Welfare_ and "Wohlfahrtsbrot ist bitteres Brot," _Archiv f. Sozialgeschichte_ 30 (1990) Young-Sun Hong, _Welfare, Modernity, and the Weimar State_ Michael Hughes, _Paying for the German Inflation_ Robert Scholz, "'Heraus aus der unwuerdigen Fuersorge': Zur . . . Lage . . . der Kleinrentner . . . ," in C. Conrad/H-J v. Kondratowitz (eds.), _Gerontologie und Sozialgeschichte_
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