BOCHUM. 
Bochum is one of the largest towns in the Prussian province of Westphalia 
and is a principal seat of the coal and iron industry in North Germany. It is 
one of the many towns whose great expansion has taken place in the last thirty 
years. In 1871 its population but slightly exceeded 20,000 ; since then it has 
nearly quadrupled, and the incorporation in 1904 of several industrial suburbs— 
Hamme, Hofstede, Gramme, and Wiemelhausen—brought the population at the 
census of December, 1905, to 118,464. The incorporation increased the 
municipal area from 1,558 to 6,518 acres. 
Bochum is in the midst of a large number of coal mines, and itself rests 
upon land which has long been worked for minerals at all depths and in 
every direction. There are other industries,—chemical, cement, brewing and 
distilling, hardware, &c.,—but coal and iron dominate every other interest 
and give to the town and district, as to Westphalia generally, a distinctive 
and unmistakable character. For the purposes of the legislation governing 
the inspection of industries and trades the Bochum mining district is divided 
into a northern and a southern section ; the production of coal in North 
Bochum in 1905 was 3,807,337 tons and in South Bochum 2,088,358 tons, 
while the production of coke was 1,012,807 tons and 738,581 tons respec 
tively. The production of the entire Dortmund district, to which Bochum 
belongs, was 65,374,000 tons of coal, 11,277,000 tons of coke, and 2,158,000 tons 
of briquettes. Next in importance are the smelting and iron and steel works, 
the latter multifarious in output, though special attention is given to loco 
motives, machinery of the larger kinds, waggon building, rough and fine plate 
iron, pipes, smaller ordnance, and railway material generally. 
The following Table shows the population at the last seven censuses, and 
also the increase in population in each intercensal period :— 
Census Year. 
1871 
1875 
1880 
1885 
1890 
1895 
1900 
1905 
Population. 
21,193 
28,368 
33,440 
40,767 
47,601 
53,812 
65,551 
118,464 
Intercensal Increase. 
7,175 
5,072 
7,327 
6,834 
6,241 
11,709 
52,913 
Increase per cent. 
33'9 
17-9 
219 
16 8 
13*1 
217 
80-7 
The growth of Bochum during the past fifty years has involved the trans 
formation of an insignificant agricultural town into a busy centre of industry and 
commerce. Just over half a century has passed since the founding (November! 
1854) of the well-known iron and steel works (with which "collieries and 
smelting works are combined) known by the collective name " Bochumer Verein ” 
and the history of this great undertaking is virtually the history of Bochum. 
Ihe pnncipal workshops of the Verein are still in the heart of the town, though, 
indeed, they may be said to form, with the extensive blocks of workmen’s 
dwellings adjacent to them, a distinct industrial settlement. When these works 
were established Bochum was in the main a community of peasants and 
small traders, whose. houses were of the type characteristic of rural West 
phalia to-day—half-timber-work (“ Fachwerk ” ) structures of one or two 
stories, with high roofs and diminutive windows, and rooms few and small. 
lf fy y ears a g° a whole street of such peasants houses stood where trafile 
is now busiest. Scattered throughout the town a hose of them still survive, 
a reminder of the time when Bochum was a rural commune and interested 
chiefiy in agriculture. Many of these old half-timber-work houses, strung 
together by stout oaken beams, stand on the street line, but others are hidden 
away behind modern buildings ; standing back with plenty of open space to spare,