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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415 REMSCHEID. The town of Remscheid, in the Rhineland Province of Prussia, is the centre of the German small-iron industry for coarser goods, as its neighbour of immigrants, Dutch refugees from the persecutions of Alva in 1567, and Huguenots from Picardy at the end of the seventeenth century. But the growth the town has been rapid only in the last 35 years ; the following Table gives the population and number of houses since 1870 :— The topography of Remscheid presents several peculiar features. The total area contained within the municipal boundaries amounts to 8,037 acres, which gives an average of only eight persons per acre, and of one house to every 1^ acres. The town consists in reality of a large central group of buildings, and a number of other groups more or less loosely connected with this centre, and radiating far out from it in various directions ; and there are wide stretches of open land. The formation is determined largely by geo graphical conditions. The town lies upon the summits and slopes of three hills, and in the valleys between ; the lowest point of the town being 351 feet and the highest 1,230 feet above sea level. The centre of the town, the old market place, at which the roads connecting the various parts of the town converge, has an altitude of 1,195 feet, and the principal thoroughfare of the town, which leads up to the centre from the railway station and is traversed by all the electric cars, has a rise in the neighbourhood of the market place of 1 in 10*6. The hill-sides are cut in all directions by small streams, and the abundance of water power supplied by their rapid fall, and also by the strong current of the Wupper, was the only geographical advantage which the Remscheid iron industry originally possessed, since it is not very conveniently situated in relation to the iron and coal areas of supply. Remscheid consists then, in the main, of a number of more or less separated groups of houses ; and these houses are curiously mixed. The typical house of the “ Berg Country ” is still largely present, both in the centre part of the town and on the outskirts : it is of half-timber work, i.e., a wooden frame filled in with brick or rubble, and often faced with slates. Frequently it is of only one story, with an attic in the deeply-sloping roof, and sometimes it has also a cellar ; usually its windows are provided with green shutters. Except in the main streets of the town the houses are strewn about in small groups, and in places, therefore, the streets are not so much streets as paths between houses, which’ have not been arranged on any particular plan ; and even in the centre the houses are often completely detached. The new type of house, built of stone or of brick with a stucco coating, and intended for several families, is making its appearance ; but is predominant as yet in only one street, which is occupied by the principal shops. The sanitary system is still very incomplete, but the peculiar topographical conditions place considerable obstacles in the way Solingen is for finer articles. The industry in both places was founded at about the same time, in the second half of the thirteenth century, under the influence and with the active assistance of the local rulers, the Dukes of Berg. In later times its development in Remscheid was stimulated by the influx of two sets Year. Population. Inter-censil Increase per cent. No. of Houses. 1870 . 1875 . 1880 . 1885 . 1890 . 1895 . 1900 . 1905 . 20.382 26,120 30.029 33,994 40,371 47,283 58,103 64,341 28-2 15-0 13-2 18-8 17-1 22-9 10-7 3,982 4,760 5,223

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