Life Writing as Micropolitics: Prussian CVs at the Dawn of Bureaucratic Meritocracy

ABSTRACT

In the late eighteenth century, European administrations saw the emergence of the Curriculum Vitae (CV) as a medium for job applications. These developments led civil servants who applied for employment to write about the merits of their careers. Focusing on Prussia and drawing on Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s concept of ‘micropolitics’, I argue that the ‘meritocratisation’ of the civil service produced a competitive climate that prompted micropolitical coping strategies. Applicants used diverging ‘lines of writing’ to question the prevailing bureaucratic value system. In doing so, candidates tried to soften meritocratic rules to the maximum and shifted them in their favour. By recounting family hardships, strokes of fate, or undue career advancements of competitors, applicants legitimised the failing of their own careers and demanded professional re-compensation. The life writing exhibited in application letters and CVs was less about constructing an identity or producing meaning rather than strategically affecting the politics of advancement and career progression. The lives that are preserved in personnel files today were brought to writing only because applicants had a material interest in their integration into the bureaucratic apparatus.

KEYWORDS:

• CV
• application letters
• Prussia
• politics
• meritocracy
• bureaucracy

Acknowledgements

I wish to thank the anonymous reviewer for their helpful feedback. In addition, I am very grateful to Jasper Schagerl for his insightful comments, as well as Priyanka Singh for carefully proofreading the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Application letter of construction inspector Meinecke, August 10, 1789. In: Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz (in the following: GStA PK), II. HA Generaldirektorium, Abt. 14, Kurmark, Tit. IX Nr. 8a, fol. 16. Unless otherwise noted, all translations are mine.

2 Curriculum vitae of construction engineer Johann Ernst Wilhelm Runge, July 23, 1805. In: GStA PK, II. HA, Generaldirektorium, Ab. 13, Neumark, Behörden- und Bestallungssachen, Baubediente, Nr. 7, fol. 138–139.

3 Application letter of hydraulic supervisor Kauffmann, April 10, 1835, In: GStA PK, I. HA Rep. 93 B, Nr. 649.

4 Ibid.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid.

7 Ibid.

8 Application letter of teaching candidate Wilhelm Vollmer, GStA PK, I. HA Rep. 76, Vf., Lit. V Nr. 1, fol. 1.

9 Application letter of scribe Theodor Kals, June 26, 1817. In: Landersarchiv Nordrhein-Westfalen (Rheinland) (LAV NRW R), BR 0002 Nr. 1521, fol. 1–2.

10 Application letter of construction engineer Schramm, September 27, 1812. In: Brandenburgisches Landeshauptarchiv (BLHA) Rep. 2 A I Hb. Nr. 5, fol. 204–205.

11 Resolution to the application letter of criminal court actuary Lindhorst, December 26, 1791, GStA PK, II. HA GD, Abt. 14 Kurmark, Tit. CXV, Sect. W Nr. 28, fol. 153.

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Stephan Strunz

Stephan Strunz is a cultural historian with a keen interest in the textuality and materiality of bureaucratic forms of communication. He obtained his PhD from Humboldt Universität zu Berlin in 2021, focusing on the history of the Curriculum Vitae (CV) in the Prussian administration. Since 2021, he has been a scientific coordinator and postdoctoral researcher at the research unit ‘Journalliteratur’ at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. His latest publications include Lebenslauf und Bürokratie: Kleine Formen der preußischen Personalverwaltung, 1770–1848 (Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2022) as well as ‘Organizing Careers for Work: The Curriculum Vitae (CV) in Prussia’s Technical Bureaucracy, 1770–1830,’ Management and Organizational History 15, no. 4 (2020).