A Social Offensive on the Home Front

Abstract

Abstract This chapter focuses on the social offensive on the home front that began in 1917, and specifically the political dynamics and the institutional building in the new Social Ministry’s ambitious reform of disabled soldier welfare. Welfare state building in this regard was at once a reassertion of the central civil administration’s authority vis-à-vis the military, an attempt to build the new ministry’s capacities, and a mission to salvage the state’s credibility. A discussion of ministerial officials’ manoeuvers and their interaction with provincial welfare actors surrounding the 5 March 1918 reform plan, which promised a state welfare system capable of providing comprehensive services for individual war victims, is followed by an analysis of parliamentary parties’ competing proposals for a projected new war victim legislation. The much needed comprehensive legislation was the site where competing visions for postwar society were formulated once parliamentary politics was revived in 1917.