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