Denying the right to work. German trade regulation and anti-Gypsy policy 1871–1914

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the role that a discriminatory application of the German Trade Code (Gewerbeordnung) played in the ‘Gypsy’ policy of the German Second Empire. It argues that the Code became central to the legalistic and bureaucratic form that their persecution assumed in this period, serving to criminalise the itinerant lifestyle of the Sinti and Roma and contributing greatly to their social and economic marginalisation.