The German social democratic party initiated in 2003 the greatest overhaul of labour market legislation in decades, severely cutting unemployment benefits and slashing employment protection legislation. How can we explain this radical policy shift? This paper will present a counter-intuitive...

"Organizing" the labor market in the dynamic Kaiserreich -- Promoting a skilled workforce -- Toward Totalerfassung : creating the national labor administration -- Toward the German skills machine : establishing vocational counseling and training -- The Nazi consolidation of the human economies...