Introduction -- Social Protection in the Middle Ages and in the Early Modern State: Alms, Poor Relief, Care, Social Help -- Social Policy in the Empire: The Insurance Solution -- The First World War -- The Weimar Republic -- The Nazi State -- The Post-War Period, the Federal Republic, and the German Democratic Republic -- Social Law as a Scientific Discipline -- Europeanization of Social Law -- Long Term Perspectives for Social Protection -- References.- Index.

The sole available comprehensive history of social law and the model of social welfare in Germany. The book explains the origins since the medieval times, but concentrates on the 19th and 20th centuries, especially on the introduction of the social insurance 1881-1889, of the expansion of the system in the Weimar Republic, under the Nazi-System and after World War II in the FRG and the GDR. The system of social welfare in Germany is one of the pillars of economic stability.