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Child labour was quite normal in the 19th century. Children were recruited in droves from the poorhouses and send to factories as cheap workers. It was not uncommon for them to toil for 14 to 16 hours a day. They were frequently beaten by overseers. The measures taken by the state against child labour and abuse were half-hearted and timid. In 1824 the Prussian government drew up an official report about the catastrophic conditions and effects of child labour. In 1859 youth employment protection regulations came into force, which for example ensured that during a ten-hour day there was a midday break, when young workers could move about in the fresh air. Children under nine years were no longer allowed to be employed.

In 1903 the law for the protection of children reduced working hours. This also applied to parents who raised their children to work at home in cottage industries. In the Rhineland child labour was widespread well into the 20th century.

In 1845 Friedrich Engels reported on child labour in coal mines:
"In the coal and iron mines children of 4, 5, 7 years are at work; however, most of them are 8 years old…The transport of coal and iron ore…is very heavy work, as this material must be moved across the uneven floor of the tunnels in large tubs without wheels, often dragged over damp clay or through water, up steep inclines, through passages so narrow that workers must crawl on their hands and knees. For this exhausting work…older children and adolescent girls are used."
(Auszug aus: Engels, Friedrich: Die Lage der arbeitenden Klasse in England. Nach eigner Anschauung und authentischen Quellen, Leipzig 1845.)

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