According to Bloomberg News, those affected include workers who’ve been “without a job for more than a year as well as people such as single mothers and low-wage earners who…did not have to register at job centers. All those on the new benefit who can work at least three hours a day are counted as jobseekers and face benefits cuts if they reject job offers.” Nearly half of the increase of 573,000 unemployed workers on the jobless rolls in January are a result of the Hartz IV “reforms.” Those that had been receiving long-term unemployment benefits are now, for the first time, included in the official jobless figure.

As many as 1.5 million additional workers could be counted as unemployed—bringing the total to 6.5 million in a country of 82 million—if those in government-subsidized jobs are included in the figures, said the economics and labor minister in the Social Democratic Party-led government. Unemployment in the eastern part of the country stands at 20.5 percent, and 9.9 percent in the west.

Unemployment compensation in Germany had been among the highest in Europe, paying 60 percent of previous earnings for the first 32 months out of work, and about 55 percent thereafter. Hartz IV reduces payments to a single 12-month period. After one year workers will receive payments of 345 euros per month in the west, and 331 euros plus rent and heating subsidies in the east. These benefits will only be available for those who can prove they are looking for a job. A worker’s application may be rejected if their spouse is working or they are found to have “assets” over 13,000 euros.

The 20-page application for this miserly sum intrudes into workers’ lives, demanding bank account numbers, information on any savings, and the wage and other finances of an applicant’s spouse.

Once approved for this secondary level of benefits, workers are required to accept any job offer.

An extreme example of the draconian consequences for working people under Hartz IV was reported in the January 30 London Telegraph. “Any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job—including in the sex industry—or lose her unemployment benefit,” said the UK daily. The German government legalized prostitution in 2002, and it is not uncommon for brothels to post “job notices” in state employment centers.

An unemployed woman in Berlin, the Telegraph reported, “received a letter from the job centre telling her that an employer was interested in her ‘profile’ and that she should ring them. Only on doing so did the woman…realise that she was calling a brothel.” When she looked into suing the employment office, she found out that its actions were within the law.

Those unable to find work are required to accept a “one-euro” job in order to continue receiving unemployment compensation. These make-work jobs—such as trash collection in parks and churches—pay one euro per hour.

“Unemployment has grown steadily over the last three decades and then reunification came on top of that,” Bert Ruerup, head of Schröder’s council of economic advisors, told Deutschlandradio February 2. “There is no silver bullet for the reduction of unemployment and if anybody claims this can be done quickly then that’s simply false.”

Berlin has been compelled to pour a net $1.5 trillion into eastern Germany since reunification in 1990 in an effort to spend its way out of a showdown with workers and farmers in the east. Three-quarters of these funds have gone to cover the costs of pensions, unemployment benefits, make-work projects, and other social programs. Only 25 percent of these funds have been spent on roads, railways, telecommunications, and other infrastructure.

Rather than ushering in a period of greater power for the German bourgeoisie, the reunification of the country has resulted in its relative weakening in relation to its rivals within capitalist Europe. Flat economic growth, skyrocketing government debt, and persistent high levels of unemployment have been the reality, not the “flourishing landscapes” promised by former chancellor Helmut Kohl at the time of reunification.

Protests last summer against Hartz IV had been largest in the east, where tens of thousands marched on several Monday actions across the country. Since that time Berlin has been able to implement its attacks on unemployment benefits with limited resistance. When the new measures came into effect January 1 the size of the demonstrations fell into the hundreds.

Thousands of students and others took to the streets in Germany the first week of February, however, to protest a January 26 court ruling that permits state universities to charge tuition fees. Authorities in five states indicated they would charge about 500 euros per semester. In Hamburg 10,000 students turned out in the largest action, the Deutsche Welle news service reported. Another 8,000 protested in Leipzig, 4,000 in Mannheim, and 1,000 each in Essen and Berlin.  
 
 
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