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

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

NUREMBERG. 383 The urea of the entire municipality is now about 16,000 acres, of which 400 acres fall to Nuremberg within the walls, and it is noteworthy that while there are ten inhabited houses (that is, independent blocks of tenement dwellings) to every acre of ground in the old town, there is not one house per acre in the rest of the urban area. Nuremberg, both in its old and new parts, is a well-built town, a fact for which it lias to thank the presence of abundant stores of sandstone at no great distance. Brick is also used to a considerable extent, yet substantial stone walls are the rule, and not uncommonly the fronts are elaborately ornamented, even in working-class dwellings of more recent erection. It is a noticeable fact about the housing arrangements of Nuremberg that the old parts of the town are not given up, as is usually the case in ancient places, to the working classes and the poor. Of hardly any quarter in the old town proper can it be said that it is distinctively an industrial quarter. The very worst of the dwellings and many of the tenements high up beneath the gables are certainly so inhabited, but on the other hand most of the oldest property in even the narrower of the streets and “ Gassen ” is still occupied by middle and lower- middle class families. All that can safely be said is that the working classes are scattered over the meaner streets of the old town ; nowhere do they form distinct colonies. The streets are well paved for the most part, and they are also kept clean. Not much planting has been done, however, even in the new districts, where there is no obstacle in the way of steep and narrow streets, though greater attention appears to be now given to the matter. Some of the overgrown moats and walls make shady promenades ; there is a public park, and open spaces have been reserved in different parts of the town. A sluggish stream, the Pegnitz, intersects the town from east to west. The town owns the gasworks, the waterworks, the electrical power and light station, the tramways, a large cattle market and abattoir, baths, library and reading rooms, a theatre, an art gallery, savings bank, pawnshop, a chemical laboratory for . the special purpose of analysing articles of food, a number of cheap dwellings for municipal employees, and, for the special benefit of the working classes generally, it maintains a labour registry and dining rooms in various parts of the town at which workmen can take their mid-day meals. Few factories are nowadays found within the old town, and those that exist are small ; most of the brush, pencil, and toy factories are in the newer districts, and further out still are the large machinery works. Hence in order to come to close quarters with the working classes it is necessary to visit the environs. Occupations, Wages, and Hours of Labour. From very early times Nuremberg was an important centre of commerce and industry, for its geographical position caused it to be the meeting place of numerous highways and trade routes passing north and south, east and west, and hence it was able to attract to itself enterprise, skill, and wealth from towns less favourably situated. Its reputation for the production of bronze and beaten metal work is ancient and world-wide ; of the former, priceless and imperishable specimens are seen in the form of ecclesiastical monuments and a series of fountains in public places. It is thus no accident that the metal and allied industries should continue to-day, if not in their old forms, to afford to the working classes of Nuremberg one of their principal sources of employment. Of 66,538 persons engaged in factories and workshops (including the handicrafts) in 190o, 38,100 or 57*2 per cent, were occupied in the working of metals in various ways and in the manufacture of machinery and mechanical apparatus. I he metal industries are multifarious and include the manufacture of cycles, scientific instruments and other products of the fine mechanical trades (.Feinmechanik), brass and metal goods, bronze goods and bronze colours, wire and wire goods, gold, silver, and tin beaten ware, gold leaf, aluminium, brocades, and mechanical toys. Other important industries, employing large numbers of persons of both sexes, are the manufacture of lead pencils, brushes of various kinds, wooden and carved goods, the manufacture of margarine and oils, chromo-lithographic work ; and in Fürth, an adjoining town, mirrors. There is little textile industry in the district.

Access restriction

Copyright

fullscreen: Cost of living in German towns

Monograph

Table of contents

Download

Monograph

This page

Image fragment

Citation links

Citation recommendation