Social class in Germany

privileged social class in the German-speaking area which until 1919 officially enjoyed hereditary privileges distinguishing them from other persons and families

thumb|Representation of the supporting role of the Mittelstand in Walter Woldemar Wilhelm|Walter Wilhelms (Mission of the Mittelstand, 1925)

thumb|The class defined itself more on the basis of education than material possessions and thus great emphasis was laid upon the education of children.

the ruling class of Hamburg, Lübeck and Bremen from the early modern period to the early 20th century

'''' ("Kevinism") is a German term for the practice of giving children trendy, exotic-sounding names as opposed to traditional German ones. It is often considered to be an indicator of low social class. The prototypical example is Kevin, which like most such names came to Germany from Anglo-American culture. Specifically, Kevin McCallister, the protagonist of the 1990 comedy film Home Alone (titled Kevin – Allein zu Haus'' in the German release) is credited with making Kevin the most popular boys' name chosen in Germany in 1991. Kevin Costner's 1990 film Dances with Wolves is often cited as an