Work 5

If you don’t work, you shouldn’t eat (…). Only those who work should eat.

Quote: Katharina Schuler (11.01.2010): Hartz IV: Arbeiten fürs Essen. In: Die ZEIT. Picture: Wikimedia

Franz Müntefering (born 1940) is a German Social Democrat. From 2005 to 2007 he was Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister of Labour and Social Affairs.

With the introduction of a new unemployment benefit (Arbeitslosengeld II, also called Hartz IV) in Germany, many unemployed people were exposed to severe control and repression. According to the unemployed workers’ initiative Basta!, the widespread ‘lie of the lazy unemployed’ plays into the hands of those who benefit from underpaid work on the one hand, and the intensification of everyday work on the other.

*Wilhelm Heitmeyer; Kirsten Edrikat (2008): Die Ökonomisierung des Sozialen. Folgen für „Überflüssige“ und „Nutzlose“. In: Wilhelm Heitmeyer (Hrsg.): Deutsche Zustände, Band 6, S. 55-72. *Guardian (01.01.2013): „'Hartz reforms': how a benefits shakeup changed Germany“

2006