Measures have been taken also to protect labour. The first step toward the creation of uniform labour legislation was made by the provisional ordinance of January 24, 1919, which, supplementing the divisions of the Civil Code, regulates labour in agricultural and forestry exploitations.[53] Social insurance legislation, such as is found codified in the law of the Empire of July, 1911, i. e., as sickness, accident, disability and death insurance, has been supplemented by different provisions, particularly by a law of December 29, 1919, relative to the protection of pregnant women.
Finally, regarding the obligation to provide livelihood for unemployed, different ordinances have been issued which were codified by an ordinance of January 26, 1920.[54] According to these ordinances, the duty of organizing a service for the supplying of the needs of unemployed—a service which must not take on the character of charity—falls upon the municipalities, which are assisted financially by the Reich to the extent of six-twelfths of the total expense and by the State with four-twelfths of this expense. The municipalities must refuse this help to those who do not accept the work offered them, even if this work does not fit the vocation of the one refusing and even if it must be done away from home, provided always that this work be adapted to the physical capacity of the unemployed. The only ground on which one may refuse such work is that the pay is not sufficient, given local conditions, to support the individual and, if married, his family.[55]
In the same way that restrictions on the liberty of labour have created for the State a number of duties relating to the employment of individuals, so the restrictions on the rights of private property have, as a consequence, engendered a number of obligations on the part of the State to assure to every one, if not a minimum of property, at least a minimum of well-being.
The Constitution guarantees individual property, but on the condition that the distribution and the utilization of land do not present abuses. The aim of this is to, “to insure to every German a healthful dwelling and … homestead corresponding to his needs” ([Article 155]). To this end colonization must be favoured, the development of agriculture and the utilization of the soil must be promoted; a survey must be made of all the mineral resources and all economically useful forces of nature.
In accordance with their conception of the duties of the State, the Constituent Assembly outlined a vast programme of agrarian and social policy. In addition they themselves passed several laws which form the commencement of the execution of this programme and which are intended to guide future legislation.
In order to insure every German a habitation and a homestead, the Reich first promulgated a decree, July 31, 1919, “On small gardens and little farms,” according to which tracts of land, which cannot be used profitably, must be rented out at rates fixed by administrative authorities after expert appraisal, or may be leased, and later sub-leased, for gardens, by the authorities.
Later the law of April 11, 1919, was passed “on colonization.” This law obliges the State to create interior colonies and small undertakings. To this end territory belonging to the State must be put on sale to “collective colonization enterprises”; these enterprises may be subsidized by means of expropriations of swamps and uncultivated tracts. They have the right of pre-emption in the sale of tracts of land of less than twenty-five hectares. On the other hand, to develop colonization tracts, there must be organized “associations for the furnishing of tracts” in all districts where more than ten per cent of the cultivatable soil is in the hands of big holders, that is, of more than one hundred hectares per holder. These associations, formed by a union of big landholders, must, on the demand of collective colonization enterprises, put at the disposal of the latter at reasonable prices tracts of land taken from the big properties. Their obligations in this respect cease when they have thus given over to colonization a third of the utilizable surface of the large properties, or when the total area of these properties is not more than ten per cent of the area of the district. The right of pre-emption by the colonization enterprises in respect to large properties is exercised through the associations for the furnishing of tracts. In urgent cases these associations may proceed by means of expropriation.
The Reich, finally, in order to assure a habitation to individuals, must take a whole series of measures in the case of housing crises. Already before the Revolution a decree of September 23, 1918, gave to municipalities the right to make regulations for the prevention of the demolition of buildings or their use for other purposes than dwelling. The municipalities had the right to draw up leases, even against the wish of the owners, through the intermediacy of “offices for the distribution of lodgings,” and to appropriate all unused buildings for the purpose of converting them to dwellings. A later decree of November 7, 1918, provided that associations of municipalities and groups of municipalities could be created to fight against housing crises. After the Revolution, a new decree of January 15, 1919, contained more important provisions for meeting the most urgent needs created by such crises. The State Cabinets were obliged to appoint “housing commissioners,” charged with the care of homeless families and the creation of small and average appropriate lodgings. To this end, they received considerable powers. They could expropriate by a summary procedure unoccupied buildings they deemed necessary, or have such buildings erected on grounds which they had authority to lease for terms as long as thirty years. They could dispense with the requirements of legislative provisions, expropriate tile and other building materials necessary for the rapid construction of buildings; they could seize building lumber and forbid unnecessary construction. The service of these Housing Commissioners was under the Minister of Labour for the Reich.
Finally, in order to protect tenants, the ordinances of September 23, 1918, and of June 22, 1919, sanctioned and supplemented by the law of May 11, 1920, limit considerably the rights of owners to dispose of habitable quarters and entrust to the “offices for distribution of lodgings,” extensive rights relative to the renting out of apartments and the terms of lodgings. In particular, according to the law of 1920, if grave inconveniences result from the lack of lodgings, the states may, with the consent of the Minister of the Reich, authorize or constrain the municipalities to take, or themselves take, measures that constitute encroachments on the liberty of settlement and the inviolability of domicile, on condition that these measures be expressly necessary to meet a housing crisis or to combat it. This law specifies, in addition, that decisions taken in the fight against the shortage of houses may be executed by administrative constraint.