BREMEN.

yet  if  the  houses  here  stand  thick  on  the  ground  they  seldom  rise  beyond  a
single  story.  Everywhere  the  streets  are  clean  and  wholesome,  though  the
irregular  setts  with  which  they  are  paved  make  rough  going  in  most  parts.
Perhaps  no  German  town  bears  so  close  a  resemblance  to  an  English  town
in  its  general  housing  arrangements  as  Bremen,  for  the  one-family  house  is  here
predominant.  Of  late  years  houses  intended  for  two  and  three  families  have,  it
is  true,  become  common,  yet  at  the  last  census  (December,  1905),  the  average
number  of  households  per  inhabited  building  was  only  1*78,  a  lower  figure  than
is  recorded  by  any  other  large  German  town.  The  terraces  of  houses—each
with  a  small  garden  in  front—in  which  the  middle  classes  live,  and  the  rows  of
one  or  two  story  cottages  occupied  and  often  owned  by  working  people,  are
equally  characteristic  of  the  town,  and  give  to  an  English  visitor  home
suggestions  which  he  will  probably  derive  nowhere  else  in  Germany.
Thanks  to  its  situation,  to  good  administration,  and  possibly  also  to  its
housing  conditions,  Bremen  has  a  favourable  health  record.  Its  death  rate  in
1905  was  16  5  per  1,000  of  the  population.  The  death  rate  from  pulmonary
consumption  in  1905  was  1*8  per  1,000  of  the  population,  and  the  rate  of
mortality  from  tuberculosis  in  general  was  2*5  per  1,000.  The  rate  of  infant
mortality  in  1905  was  179  per  1,000  births.  Like  most  German  towns  Bremen
has  a  declining  birth-rate  ;  the  rate  in  1905  was  29*8  per  1,000  of  the  population
against  31*1  in  1901.
The  following  Table  gives  the  birth  and  death-rates  and  the  infantile
mortality  for  a  series  of  years  :—

Year.

Birth-rate  per  1,000
of  Population.

Death-rate  per  1,000
of  Population.

Infantile  Mortality
per  1,000  Births.

1901
1902
1903
1904
1905

311
309
30-9
30*8
29*8

17*6
16  5
16-3
16  9
16*5

158
144
160
170
179

It  may  be  noted  that  the  Bremen  Association  for  Combating  Consumption
has  established  a  day  sanatorium  upon  a  rural  estate  in  the  neighbourhood,  and
it  is  specially  open  to  members  of  the  General  Local  Sick  Fund.  The  patients
attend  at  9  a.m.  and  remain  at  the  sanatorium  until  7.0  p.m.,  when  they  are  sent
back  to  Bremen  by  tramway  at  the  expense  of  the  Sick  Fund.  Systematic
endeavours  are  also  being  made  to  diminish  infant  mortality  by  an  “  Association
for  the  Protection  of  Mothers  and  Children,”  which  takes  care  of  mothers  during
confinement,  and  maintains  a  home  and  "  kitchens  ”  for  children.  Among  other
notable  institutions  existing  for  the  special  benefit  of  the  working-classes  is  the
Legal  Advice  Agency  conducted  by  the  Citizens’  Association.  In  1905  this
agency  gave  advice  and  information  on  10,166  subjects  to  9,227  inquirers.
During  the  same  year  the  Social  Democratic  Workmen’s  Secretariate  gave  advice
and  information  on  13,000  subjects  to  10,046  applicants.
In  general  the  working  classes  appear  to  enjoy  a  favourable  standard  of
life.  The  one-family  house  system  gives  the  workman  a  convenient  backyard ­
  with  outbuildings,  which  he  can  use  for  pigs  or  fowls,  and  in  this  way
the  household  diet  is  often  made  more  substantial  at  little  extra  cost.  One
working  man  visited  by  the  investigator,  a  carpenter,  who  lived  in  his  own
cottage  and  had  a  stye  at  the  back,  said  that  his  three  pigs  cost  £13  when  fed
up,  and  when  killed  he  had  616  lb.  of  meat,  which  he  used  at  home.  At  the
current  price  of  pork  and  bacon  this  meat  was  worth  10<A  per  lb.  and  it  had
cost  less  than  half  that  sum  to  produce.  So,  too,  for  the  same  practical  reason,
the  workman  is  often  an  allotment  gardener.  Outside  the  town  many  acres  of
land  have  been  parcelled  up  for  use  in  this  way.  Sunday  is  the  chief  gardening
day  of  the  week,  but  employers  sometimes  complain  that  the  men  work  in  their
allotments  early  in  the  morning  and  tire  themselves  before  arriving  at  the  factory.
The  Bremen  w  orkman  lives  well  and  saves  if  he  can,”  is  the  verdict  passed
upon  the  providence  of  the  wage-earner.  However  he  may  live,  the  workman
certainly  saves,  and  this  characteristic  is  particularly  exemplified  by  the  large
number  of  working  class  house  owners,  a  phase  of  Bremen  life  to  which  reference
is  made  in  the  account  of  housing  conditions.  In  addition  a  considerable
amount  of  money  is  deposited  in  the  two  Savings  Banks.