This essay looks at the patterns of pawning in Germany in the decades preceding the First World War. It tries to present pawning and thus also the economy of nineteenth-century working-class households in a new light. Contrary to the generally accepted view of social historians, it is unlikely that pawning served to secure the proletarian household in periods of real hardship. There is much evidence that pawning was only considered when it seemed very likely that the borrower would be able to redeem the pledge in due course. It was therefore part of a rather stable economic situation. Insecurity of prospects persuaded people to refrain from pawning. Pawnshops thrived not on working-class destitution, but on the very modest “affluence” proletarian families were able to achieve in the era of industrialization. The striking differences between the patterns of pawning in Germany and in Great Britain therefore point to significant differences in proletarian standards of living between the two societies in question.