Editing History of Germany (section)

====Industrialization====
{{Main|Industrialization in Germany}}
[[File:Krupp-Werke in Essen 1864.jpeg|thumb|The [[Krupp|Krupp-Works]] in [[Essen]], 1864]]
[[File:Kemna Lokomotiven.jpg|thumb|Many companies, such as steam-machine producer [[Kemna Bau|J. Kemna]], modeled themselves on English industry.]]
In 1800, Germany's social structure was poorly suited to entrepreneurship or economic development. Domination by France during the French Revolution (1790s to 1815), however, produced important institutional reforms, that included the abolition of feudal restrictions on the sale of large landed estates, the reduction of the power of the guilds in the cities, and the introduction of a new, more efficient commercial law. The idea that these reforms were beneficial for Industrialization is a subject of debate among historians.<ref>{{Cite web |first1=Michael |last1=Kopsidis |first2=Daniel W. |last2=Bromley |title=The French Revolution and German industrialization: The new institutional economics rewrites history |url=https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/97701/1/787963348.pdf |access-date=13 April 2019 |publisher=Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies}}</ref>

In the early 19th century the Industrial Revolution was in full swing in Britain, France, and Belgium. The various small federal states in Germany developed only slowly and autonomously as competition was strong. Early investments for the railway network during the 1830s came almost exclusively from private hands. Without a central regulatory agency, construction projects were quickly realized. Actual industrialization only took off after 1850 in the wake of the railroad construction.<ref name="Mitchell2006"/> The textile industry grew rapidly, profiting from the elimination of tariff barriers by the Zollverein.<ref>{{Citation |last=Tilly |first=Richard |title=Banking in the Early Stages of Industrialization: A Study in Comparative Economic History |pages=151–182 |date=1967 |editor-last=Cameron |editor-first=Rondo |chapter=Germany: 1815–1870 |publisher=Oxford University Press}}</ref>{{Sfn|Nipperdey|1996|p=178|ps="On the whole, industrialisation in Germany must be considered to have been positive in its effects. Not only did it change society and the countryside, and finally the world...it created the modern world we live in. It solved the problems of population growth, under-employment and pauperism in a stagnating economy, and abolished dependency on the natural conditions of agriculture, and finally hunger. It created huge improvements in production and both short- and long-term improvements in living standards. However, in terms of social inequality, it can be assumed that it did not change the relative levels of income. Between 1815 and 1873 the statistical distribution of wealth was on the order of 77% to 23% for entrepreneurs and workers respectively. On the other hand, new problems arose, in the form of interrupted growth and new crises, such as urbanisation, "alienation", new underclasses, proletariat and proletarian misery, new injustices and new masters and, eventually, class warfare."}} During the second half of the 19th century German industry grew exponentially and by 1900, Germany was an industrial world leader along with Britain and the United States.{{Sfn|Stolper|2017|loc=ch 1}}