The Traditional context Social Policy in Germany : Focused on Transition of Social Policy during the 15th 16th Centuries

독일의 전통적 사회정책 : 중세 후기${\sim}$근세 초 사회정책 변동을 중심으로

The study aims to understand the traditional context of the social policies in Germany by reviewing the course of transition of the traditional, ancient and/or medieval social policies or ideas of social policy in the country as a typical example of such transitions, which started being passed over to the modern civic society at the end of the medieval age, that is, during the 15th and 16th centuries. One of the reasons why the domestic interest in the German social policy is higher than the actual research achievements and frequently discussed seems explainable because a social security or welfare policy through a social insurance was initiated in Germany for the first time over the world in the 19th century. Notwithstanding, however, that all of us know that such a policy was not made in a day, cases are sometimes visible where focuses are easily drawn only to the periodic and economical phenomena in the 19th century and the strategic option of Preussen. Moreover, no literature which integrates thoroughly or publicly the social policies in Germany has been introduced at home, and some research books or study papers, if any, are inclined to concentrate merely on the social policies after the 19th century. Indeed, there are views, not rare, that a social policy of a national dimension was initiated along with the establishment of capitalism or an industrial society. According to such views, an industrial society or capitalism was begun to shape in the 19th century, and it is accordingly so national to lay our focuses on the social policies after the century. But from the fact that a national social policy existed much farther before the capitalism was established, it can be inferred that such policies were inevitable in all societies where a social issue existed. In the case of our country which experienced a more serious separation from the tradition than other countries by her rapid industrialization and Westernization, it is true that some traditional traces remain still regardless of their actual realization.