Adventures with Beethoven

Scene Two

Childhood in Germany in the 1700s

What your family life is like has always been dependent on your family’s social status. In the past, it was even more important. If you were born into a noble family, life would be much easier. Education and status were priorities. It was important to attend the best schools, to be seen at the best parties, and to know all the right people. Boys would be expected to achieve high status in the military or government. Girls were brought up to be valued for their marriageability. They were expected to be graceful, beautiful, and virtuous. Most girls would have learned needlepoint, music, and other creative lessons. 

Although in Germany girls and boys were educated by government mandate, girls’ education was often less important. Many noble and upper-class families would employ governesses, nannies, and tutors to raise and educate their children. Sometimes children would spend most of their days in their own quarters and only see their parents for a few hours at night. Children were often expected to be seen and not heard, and to behave as well as adults. 

Middle- and lower-class families had greater access to education, especially in Germany. Children would attend school and at least learn the basics of reading and writing. Many lower-class families apprenticed their boys so that they would learn a valuable skill. As an apprentice, you would live with the master craftsman, a blacksmith, for example, and would spend years learning the trade, sometimes as many as seven. At the end of the apprenticeship, the new master would be able to make a steady wage and be able to support a family. 

Lower-class boys and girls often had to start working early to help their families. If they could not be apprenticed somewhere, they would often work in menial and difficult tasks in factories, mines, or farms. Peasants had very hard lives. In order to make even a meager yearly income, the entire family would have to work hard every day to make the farm profitable. Most peasant families had many children. This was for a couple of reasons. First families needed all the help they could get to make the farm operate. More children meant more hands to work. Second many children did not survive to adulthood, so families often had a lot of children, hoping a majority of them would survive. 

Childhood was much different from today in many ways. However, just like today, family was important and was the basis of everyday life.