328 
MANNHEIM. 
The following Table gives the birth and death rates and the infantile 
mortality rate for a period of five 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 
43 9 
42 6 
414 
403 
38 7 
23'2 
20-1 
213 
20 6 
19-0 
248 
230 
238 
238 
218 
It is a peculiarity of the older part of the town that its streets are laid out 
in regular squares, so that they present the appearance of a chess-board. These 
squares (Quadrate) bear the letters of the alphabet from A to U, and the 
houses in each block are numbered from 1 forward round the four sides. 
Thus a stranger wishful to make a call is directed to A.8, L.20, or U.35, 
as the case may be. The arrangement suggests a modern origin, yet it has 
been in vogue for 200 years, and there is no disposition to abandon it. When 
the co-ordination of the squares has been learned there is no difficulty in finding 
one’s way about the town, and the street directory is superfluous within the 
area of the squares, for, though many small “ cross-streets ” ( Querstrassen) 
intersect the main thoroughfares, these, too, are numbered. The blocks are 
of unequal frontage, varying from 90 to 180 feet. Outside the old town the 
streets are named in the conventional way, yet even there the block system of 
building is followed. It is in the original area of squares that the oldest and 
worst property is found and the congestion of population is greatest. Many of 
the buildings in the by-streets are let off as workshops and warehouses. Brick 
is the usual building material ; but sandstone, with granite for the lower 
courses, is often used for buildings of a better class. 
During the past generation the economic life of the town has undergone a 
striking change. More and more Mannheim has ceased to be a trading town, 
and industry is now pre-eminent. The transformation has largely altered the 
character of the population. When industry placed its impress more distinctly 
on the town, workpeople were drawn to it from all parts of the Empire by 
abundant facilities for employment at wages higher than could be earned in less 
progressive places. There was a great influx in the years 1885-1890, bringing over 
13,000 strangers to the town, over and above the loss by removals, with the 
result that for every 100 additions to the population by excess of births over 
deaths 276 resulted from immigration. Mannheim’s importance as a trading 
centre for corn, timber, petroleum, tobacco, coal, and colonial produce, which 
come and go by water and rail, continues unimpaired, but it is now the home 
of many and important industries as well. Though situated on the other side of 
the river in Bavarian territory, the extensive works of the Baden Aniline and 
Soda Company, employing 7,000 workpeople in 480 factory buildings, belong by 
origin to Mannheim, though Mannheim now only receives their ill-odours and the 
smoke of their fifty chimneys when the wind is in a particular direction. There are 
many large engineering works, one with 3,000 workmen, at which machinery in 
great variety is produced ; there are gas motor and motor car works, cable 
works, rubber and celluloid factories, paper and paper-pulp factories, large 
plate-glass works, a jute spinning factory ; and on both banks of the river 
are corn mills, oil factories, and extensive timber-yards, which supply many 
saw-mills with their raw material. On every side of the town are evidences 
of industrial expansion. The road to Rheinau is lined for several miles with 
factories and workshops, while the incorporated Waldhof district across the 
Neckar is being developed entirely on industrial lines. How susceptible 
Mannheim is to the fluctuations of industry and trade is illustrated by the 
percentage of empty dwellings at various times. In 1900, when the last wave 
of prosperity was at its highest, only 1'40 per cent, of the dwellings were 
vacant ; in 1901 the percentage was 5T2, in 1902, 6*76, in 1903, 6*61, 
and since then there has been a fall to 4*24 per cent, in 1904, 2 71 in 1905,. 
and 107 in November, 1906. In the years of high percentage the great 
majority of the empty dwellings were such as are tenanted by the working 
classes.