At the time of the movement, apprenticeship in Germany was in most ways similar to what it is nowadays, but quite different in specific ways. The first section locates apprenticeship within education and training in Germany at the time, followed in Sect. 2.2 by a comparison of its attributes then and now, which highlights the youthfulness, limited schooling, and vulnerable position of apprentices at the time. Section 2.3 focuses on the heterogeneity of conditions at the workplace. The implications for discontent and collective action are brought together in Sect. 2.4.