We want to see whether we cannot make for the agricultural labourer some better hope than the workhouse in his old age.
There he met Nicolai and Moses Mendelssohn, with whom he formed a close friendship. In 1768 he became preacher or chaplain to the workhouse at Berlin and the neighbouring fishing village of Stralow.
By around 1700, the workhouse movement was under way.
When the economy entered recession, the workhouse conditions had to be worsened more.
A husband who wilfully abandons his wife, leaving her destitute, or who refuses to support her when he is able to do so, may be punished by imprisonment in the state prison not exceeding one year or in the county jail or workhouse not more than six months nor less than fifteen days, and for ten days, in the discretion of the judge, he may be kept on a bread and water diet.