Small acts of resistance: runaway apprentices and the hidden history of German apprenticeship (1810–1920)

Historiography of German apprenticeship has been shaped predominantly by institutional perspectives that emphasise the stability and success of the dual system while largely overlooking apprentices as historical actors. Conflict and discontinuity are typically treated as exceptions rather than constitutive elements of apprenticeship relations, and empirical research on apprentices’ lived experience in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries remains limited. This article addresses this gap by examining runaway apprentices in Germany between 1810 and 1920. It adopts a history-from-below approach, combining qualitative analysis of newspaper reports with police, administrative, and court records from multiple regions. Based on seven reconstructed case studies, the analysis interprets running away through the lens of ‘everyday resistance’. The findings show that running away was a recurrent and structurally embedded practice. Apprentices left their masters due to physical abuse, inadequate training, poor material conditions, and the increasing instrumentalisation of their labour. Although rarely organised, these acts functioned as situational responses to domination and triggered negotiation between apprentices, masters, families, and authorities. Rather than indicating breakdown, runaway apprentices reveal the contested nature of apprenticeship. The findings challenge narratives of institutional stability and suggest that continuity depended on ongoing enforcement, negotiation, and managed conflict.