2
BERLIN.
give their names to districts of the city, but to them have come in course of time
24 others. Greater Berlin is an area of indefinite limits, though it is generally
held to comprise a group of 29 suburbs, of which the largest are Charlottenburg,
Rixdorf, and Schöneberg, with populations in 1905 of 239,559, 153,513, and
140,010 respectively. The population of all the suburbs was 953,293, making
the population of Greater Berlin 2,993,441, against 2,544,427 in 1900, or an
increase of 17*65 per cent.
It is noteworthy, however, that the growth of Berlin proper, as
distinguished from the extra-metropolitan area, is rapidly reaching the inexorable '
limits imposed by the municipal boundaries on the one hand and the sanitary
regulations as to housing accommodation on the other. In the west, south, and
south-east the town has already advanced to the confines of adjacent suburbs,
and it is only in the north and the north-east that any considerable expansion
is yet possible. Not only so, but the purely business parts of the Centre are
slowly but surely being depleted, as warehouse and shop more and more take the
place of dwelling houses. The last census showed a decrease of population in
a number of districts in or near to the Centre, and the time will undoubtedly
come when Berlin will have its “ City,” a very busy area on the working days
of the week, yet uninhabited and half deserted when business is temporarily
at a standstill.
Within 28 of the administrative “districts” (Bezirke), into which the
wards are divided, the decrease between 1900 and 1905 amounted to from 10 to
20 per cent., and in 130 “districts” it was between 5 and 10 per cent. On the
other hand, in 75“ districts ” the population increased more than 10 per cent.,
m 33 more than 50 per cent., and in 22 more than 100 per cent.
While, however, owing to purely physical reasons, Berlin is quickly
exhausting its capacity for expansion, the adjoining towns and suburbs, some
of which still rank administratively as “ villages,” are growing with extra
ordinary rapidity. This will be seen from the following table :—
Berlin ...
Charlottenburg
Schöneberg
Rixdorf
Lichtenberg
Reinickendorf
Gross Lichterfelde
Wilmersdorf
Rummelsburg
Pankow
Tegel ...
Zehlendorf
Oberschönweide
Population.
1875.
966,858
25,847
7,467
15,323
12.379
4,976
2,051
2.367
2,712
3,937
1,267
2,246
155
1885.
1,315,287
42,371
15,872
22,775
15,847
7,219
5,899
3,616
5,618
5,061
1,652
2,719
1895.
1,677,304
132,377
62,695
59,945
30,314
10,677
15,960
14,351
16,427
11,932
2,710
6,031
625
1900.
1,888,848
189,305
95,998
90,422
43,371
14,779
23,168
30,671
16,884
21,524
7,140
8,837
5,850
1905.
2,040,148
239,559
141,010
153.513
55,391
22,445
34,331
63,568
32,989
29,077
12,223
12,024
14,101
Increase
per cent,
during
period
1900-1905.
8-01
26 55
46-89
69-77
27-71
5187
" 48-18
107-26
95-39
3509
71-19
36 06
14104
In some cases the growth of the suburbs is due to their popularity for
residential purposes, but in others—Rummelsburg, Oberschön weide, and Te^el
are examples—it is specially due to the multiplication of their industries and
the consequent immigration of labour.
Like most large towns Berlin has developed on the lines of class
segregation. The official, professional, and leisured classes have their special
residential districts, whilst in other districts the population is overwhelmingly
of the working-class order. The former have appropriated the west and
south, and the latter claim the north and east, while the classes and masses
come into close contact in the north-west, on the fringe of one of the busiest
•industrial areas in Berlin. Speaking generally, the working-class element is
densest in the Wedding, Moabit, Prenzlauer and Schönhauser Allee districts of
the North, in Reinickendorf, also lying to the North, in Weissensee in the
North East, in the districts converging on the main arteries running East and
in Rixdorf in the South East ; though lying outside to the Easf are towns
like Rummelsburg and the two Schönweides, with a large labouring population!
