Abstract
During the German Kaiserreich, urban expansion and social segregation fostered new mechanisms of indirect and delegated gift-exchange in which the mediations between donors and recipients became increasingly important. In urban societies, mediatorswere in greater demand than ever before to act as systembuilders in forging connections between civil society, the municipality, and the state, coordinating private philanthropic initiatives and institutionalizing the resources available for patronage. This paper draws on theories of gift exchange and of social recognition in order to overcome the false dichotomy of interest v. morality in philanthropic action. The cases of failed patrons, competing mediators of culture and disregarded outsiders may illustrate why the history of philanthropy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries cannot simply be regarded as a success story of middle-class civil society.
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