234 
ESSEN. 
insanitary confusion. They are frequently occupied by small tradespeople, who 
have their shops on the ground floor and live above them. There are also 
a number of small quiet streets (“ Gässchen ’’) with houses of the same type 
but much better maintained, (b) The area, very much greater in extent, of 
new streets ; some of these have large and good shops, others have long lines of 
working-class houses, whilst others are given over to better class residences. 
These streets are always broad and well-made, and the sanitary conditions are 
good, (c) The “ colony ” areas, with workmen’s colonies of various kinds and 
various degrees of merit—the elaborate colonies built by the Krupp firm, the 
much simpler buildings erected by the colliery owners, and the new erections of 
the Building Society. 
The whole of the municipal area is undermined by various coal works, and 
the former lack of care in the making of the mines has caused subsidences in 
a number of places, and these, combined with the natural slope of the ground 
on which the old town is built, give the central districts a very uneven 
appearance. 
The town possesses its own waterworks, gas-works, and a slaughter-house ; 
it has public baths, a small library, and a municipal theatre which was 
founded by a private benefaction ; and there is a town park. The tramway 
service is in the hands of a private company, as the municipal authorities 
recently decided not to purchase. The town has ^ fine new municipal hall, 
and a few old buildings, including one church (the Münster-kirche) of great 
antiquity. There is the usual municipal savings bank, with 52,768 depositors 
in 1905, and deposits of £2,941,616, and the municipality carries on a. pawn 
shop, a labour bureau, and a house agency, which let 1,058 dwellings during 
the year 1904-5. There are no public market-halls, but the markets are held 
in the old squares in the centre of the town almost every diy. It should also 
be noticed that the Association for Mining interests (a great mine-owners’ 
union) has its headquarters at Essen, that there is a very active Chamber of 
Commerce, and that the offices of the local rail way direction are also in the town. 
Occupations, Wages, and Hours of Labour. 
The following is the classification of the industrial workpeople of Essen 
alone those under factory inspection) in 1906 :— 
Group of Trades. 
Number 
of 
Establish 
ments. 
Number of Workpeople. 
Building 
Mining and smelting 
Metal working ... 
Machine, implement and apparatus making 
textiles ... ... ... ... 
Clothing and cleaning 
Printing, lithography, bookbinding, etc. 
Paper ... ... ... ... ... 
Woodworking and carving ... 
Chemicals 
Resins, varnishes, oil, soap, candles, etc. 
Stone and earth 
Food, drink and tobacco 
Leather ... ... .. ... ... 
Other ... ... ... ... ... 
Total 
121 
19 
79 
104 
6 
203 
29 
3 
59 
7 
6 
58 
280 
5 
1 
985 
Male. 
2,272 
6,746 
5,381 
20,910 
40 
179 
947 
6 
1,125 
453 
659 
1,592 
1,089 
141 
1,091 
Female. 
Total. 
8 
37 
1,100 
149 
25 
36 
13 
60 
1 
42,631 
1,429 
2,272 
6,746 
5,381 
20,918 
77 
1,279 
1,096 
31 
1,161 
453 
659 
1,605 
1,149 
142 
1,091 
44,060 
* It is evident at once from this Table that the various iron and steel 
industries and coal-mining have an overwhelming predominance among the 
occupations of the town, and so far as the former group is concerned the great 
Krupp firm is supreme. 
The principal productions of the Krupp firm at its Essen works are war 
material (including cannon and all their accessories, ammunition, rifle barrels, 
and armour), railway, shipbuilding, and engineering materials of all kinds, sheet