Cost of living in German towns

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 866449027

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-93831

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: Cost of living in German towns

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: Stat. Off.

Year of publication:: 1908

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (LXI, 548 Seiten)

Collection:: Economics Books

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BREMEN. 95 While, however, Bremen is seeking its fortunes more and more in industrial undertakings, for the present its reputation rests, as in the past, upon its shipping trade. Several great steamship lines have their head quarters here, the most notable being the North German Lloyd, and Bremen’s mercantile marine numbered in 1905 629 vessels with a registered tonnage of 695,796, including 390 steamships with a tonnage of 517,211, while the entire mercantile marine of the Weser numbered 906 vessels with a tonnage of 762,679, including 491 steamships with a tonnage of 551,931. In that year 4,784 ships carried merchandise seawards from the Weser harbour and 4,335 came in, the outgoing tonnage being 3,456,045, the incoming tonnage 3,350,198. Of the incoming ships 1,909, or 44 per cent, (repre senting 1^ per cent, of the tonnage), were from German ports, and 677, or 15*6 per cent, (representing 12*3 per cent, of the tonnage), were from British ports. The bulk of Bremen’s import trade is restricted to a few articles, but of several of these it handles more than any other Continental port. Its imports of cotton in 1905 had a value of ¿B 19,915,000, of wool £5,699,000, of corn and flour £4,608,000, of tobacco and cigars £2,929,000, of rice £1,383,000, and of timber £972,000 ; other articles largely imported are rice, coffee, cork, indigo, and petroleum. The value of Bremen’s entire imports in 1905 was £67,062,940, and of its exports £63,612,210. Bremen is also the principal emigration port of Germany, and in 1905, no fewer than 186,856 persons—the great majority being foreigners—were conveyed by the several shipping lines engaged in this trade on the Weser. Bremen’s shipping facilities include a large customs- free harbour, 2,166 yards long by 130 yards wide, situated in a customs-free area 225 acres in extent ; timber and factory docks, 1,625 yards long by 87 yards wide ; and a projected industrial and commercial harbour, for the export industry especially, which will be constructed adjacent to the river and as near to the town as possible, will consist of a long basin with five docks from 368 to 1,190 yards long. Among the public services owned and managed by the municipality are the water works, gas works, and electricity works, but the tramways are in private hands. The extensive harbours and docks at Bremen, Vegesack and Bremerhaven belong to the State of Bremen. Bremen gives the impression of a well-toido commercial town. Although there has been much rebuilding during recent years, especially in the centre, the past and its memorials have been respected. The old Merchants’ Guild House (now used by the Chamber of Commerce), the Gewerbehaus or Industrial Hall (originally the Cloth Hall, or home of the Guild of Cloth Merchants), the Rathaus or Town Hall, and the old Corn House are among the monuments of Bremen’s great days as a Hansa City, and other relics of the past are seen in the half-timber-work buildings, primitive in structure and dilapidated within and without, which still stand in busy streets. The aspect of many of the streets, in the " New Town ” especially, is made picturesque by the diversity of their architecture. Old and new houses of various styles and sizes alternate, most of them consisting of one or two stories, and nearly all being roofed with red tiles. At Bremen’s very door one comes across thatched cottages and in the centre of the town windmills are preserved in working order, though more for ornament than utility. Though the town has both an " Old” and a " New down, the areas so described only contain 15 per cent, of the total population, nor does the “New Town” represent modern Bremen, which must rather be sought in the suburbs. The Weser intersects the town, cutting off the “ New Town ” and several other wards from the rest of the municipal area, but the popu lation across the river only forms 23 per cent, of the whole. There are a few factories in the town, but more characteristic of Bremen s commercial position are the “Packhäuser” or warehouses which line the river banks, tall brick buildings rising to a height of five and even seven stories. These warehouses are in part used for cotton, tobacco, wool and rice, but the bulk of Bremen’s merchandise is stored at the various docks. Most of the streets are narrow, save in the suburos, where space has not oeen economised so rigidly, but small parks and (areas either planted with trees or laid out as gardens) are not wanting. The only areas that suggest congestion are the "Gänge” or passages* which are a peculiarity of Bremen, * See infra, " Housing and Rents.”

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