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MUNICH.
Munich, the capital of Bavaria, is a handsome city with a population at the
Census of December, 1905, of 538,983, showing an increase of 39,051 inhabitants
(equal to 7*8 per cent.) as compared with 1900, with the same municipal area.
The growth of the city during the past thirty years has not been due in any
large measure to the incorporation of adjacent townships, an addition of
36,969 only, out of a total increase since 1875 of 345,959, being attributed to
this cause.
The intercensal increases, both with and without additions to the municipal
area, are shown in the following Table :—
Census year.
1875
1880
1885
1890
1895
1900
1905
Population.
193,024
230.023
261,981
349.024
407,307
499,932
538,983
Increase, including
incorporated districts.
No.
36,999
31,958
87,043
58,283
92,625
39,051
Percentage.
192
13 9
33 2
167
22 7
7-8
Increase, excluding
incorporated districts.
No.
31,194
31,958
63,397
56,713
86.677
39,051
Percentage.
15- 7
]39
222
16- 2
21-0
7-8
The most striking feature of this comparison is the small increase of
population which has fallen to the last intercensal period, and which is mainly
due to three causes. One is a diminishing birth-rate, as to which figures are
given below ; another is the marked decline in immigration from other parts
of Bavaria ; and, finally, an exceptionally large number of workpeople removed
from the town owing to industrial disputes. While, however, the population of
Munich increased by 7*8 per cent, between 1900 and 1905, the increase for the
whole of Bavaria during the same period was only 5 6 per cent., with the result
that Munich’s proportion of the entire population of the kingdom increased from
8T to 8'3 per cent. Of the inhabitants enumerated in 1905, 39*5 per cent, were
born in the city, against 36*1 per cent, in 1900, and 48*9 per cent, (against 5 *.*2
per cent, in 1900) were born in other parts of Bavaria. The fact is significant
that the proportion of female to male inhabitants has for a long time been
increasing. The census of 1905 showed Munich to have 1,122 females to every
1,000 males, whereas the ratio for Bavaria as a whole was 1,041 to 1,000.
The streets: of Munich are well built, wide, and admirably paved and
asphalted, whilst avenues, planted spaces, fountains, and statues beautify every
quarter of the city. Of public works the only one which has not yet come
entirely into municipal hands is the tramway system. The tramways were
originally constructed by a private company in the old days of hòrse traction,
and this company still holds its lease of the streets under an arrangement by
which the town guarantees to it a certain minimum return upon capital, while
claiming any eventual surplus beyond this return, so that the undertaking is
virtually worked on the town’s account, though for the present the town does
not directly manage it. Before long, however, this arrangement will come to
an end, and the tramways will formally be taken over by the municipality.
For public buildings and other buildings of an important kifid, sandstone
and granite,! which come from a distance, are the material employed ; but for
houses generally brick is used, this being as usual faced with stucco work,
according td the fancy of the architect. Where stucco is used the surface is
painted or Washed in colour, for unrelieved white is prohibited. Of ¡late concrete
has been extensively employed. Munich, in fact, rests upon a stratjum of small
gravel, which is suitable for concrete, and this will no doubt more à rid more be
the building material of the future.
The working classes proper are not conspicuous in the leading streets,
•but the more one withdraws from the centre the more industrial becomes
