BREMEN.
97
Occupations, Wages, and Hours of Labour.
The principal industry on the Weser is shipbuilding, but this industry is
less carried on nowadays at Bremen than at Bremerhaven and Geestemünde,
nearer the sea. At Bremerhaven are the large shipbuilding yards of the
Seebeck and Rickmers companies, at Geestemünde is that of the firm of
Tecklenborg, while nearer Bremen are the Weser yard at Gröpelingen and the
Vulcan yard at Vegesack. These firms employ together more than six thousand
men, and the industry is steadily growing, insomuch that several companies stated
early in 1907 that they could not procure sufficient skilled labour. On the other
hand it is alleged that the progress of the industry is hindered by the frequency
of labour disputes. Shipbuilding belongs to Germany’s younger industries ; on
the Weser it can hardly be said to have got upon its feet as yet, and employers
complain that their workmen have not “ lived into ” the industry, and that
their restlessness discourages enterprise. Next in importance to shipbuilding
are the engineering works, of which there are many, both large and small.
Corn and rice milling employs many hundreds of workpeople, and one of the
largest industrial concerns in the district is the wool combing factory at
Blumenthal, with over 1,200 employees. The following statement shows
the number of establishments ranking as “factories” in the Free State
area, and the number of their workpeople in the principal industries, in
1906. As showing the industrial development of Bremen, Bremerhaven, and
Vegesack during recent years, it may be stated that while at the close of 1879
there were 169 industrial undertakings, with 5,800 workpeople of both sexes,
subject to inspection, there were 898 such undertakings employing 16,562
workpeople in 1899, and 1,007 undertakings with 23,939 workpeople in 1905.
In 1906 1,127 establishments employing 26,173 workpeople (20,596 adult
males, 4,386 adult females, and 1,191 juveniles), were subject to inspection in
the State area. The principal industries were :—
Groups of Trades.
Number
of
Establishments.
Number of Workpeople.
Males
over
16 years.
Females
over
16 years.
JuvenTes
14 to
16 years.
Children
under
14 years.
Total.
Metal working
Machine, implement, and apparatus
making.
Textiles ... ... ... ...
Clothing and cleaning
Printing, lithography, bookbinding,
&c.
Woodworking and carving
Resins, varnishes, oil, soap,
candles, &c.
Stone and earth ... ... ..
Food, drink, and tobacco
Miscellaneous
T otal ... ... ...
74
61
17
305
67
131
21
18
380
53
1,127
2,681
8,587
671
249
888
2,269
1,390
554
2,727
580
13
9
1,329
1,749
346
289
69
7
486
89
20,596
4,386
195
354
92
167
112
143
5
13
56
53
1,190
2,889
8,950
2,093
2,165
1,346
2,701
1,464
574
3,269
722
26,173
Bremen has a large number of seasonal labourers who come in the spring
or early summer, and disappear towards the end of the year. Among them are
brick makers, bricklayers and painters, herring fishers, and many unskilled
labourers, the last named coming from the East of Prussia and dividing
themselves between agriculture and outdoor labour in the streets, docks, and
factories. It is this class of unsettled workers which swells the number of
Bremen’s lodger population.
The working classes of Bremen are well organised, and this fact no doubt
explains the pertinacity with which the labour associations are pressing on
the employers the conclusion of wages agreements. Already most of the
building trades are embraced by these agreements, and the movement also
applies to some extent to industries which rank as. factory and workshop
industries within the meaning of the Imperial Industrial Code. In 1905, no
less than 11*1 per cent, of all the “ industrial ” workpeople of Bremen, as
290* i
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