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 back 
yard 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.