German University Professors’ salaries in the 20th Century. A Relative Income Approach

This article presents a new estimate for the income of German university professors in the 20th century, using university archives as its main source. With these figures we reject the decline-perspective that has been predominant in the literature, influenced especially by Fritz K. Ringer’s book. We compare the professors’ salaries to those in leading occupations in private business, as well as state bureaucracy and find that relative income level developed in a similar fashion up to the 1970s. The 1970s were identified as a crucial turning point, as university professors started to fall behind their comparative social groups in alternative job markets. Making use of the literature on relative income, the article suggests the university professors changed their group of comparison in questions of remuneration during the course of the 20th century, so that the decreasing internal income-inequality affected their well-being more than the increasing gap to salaries outside universities.