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 respectively.
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 locomotives,
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 transformation
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 Westphalia
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,
