XVI 
Numerous efforts have been made in Germany for the improvement of the 
housing conditions of the working classes, and some account of them will be 
found in the separate town reports. They fall into three main groups :— 
(i) Municipal Action.—So far as the actual supply of housing accommo 
dation is concerned the German municipal authorities, where they have done 
anything at all, have as a rule, limited their action to the provision of dwellings 
for some of their officials and workpeople, though at Mülhausen and Elberfeld 
they have gone further than this. In a number of cases, as at Stuttgart 
and Mannheim, they have made advances at rates of interest lower than the 
market rates, to societies formed for the erection of improved working-class 
dwellings ; and it may be remarked here that advances to such societies are 
frequently made from the funds of the compulsory schemes for insurance against 
old age and invalidity. Other forms of municipal action in regard to housing 
are improvement schemes (as at Hamburg) ; the acquisition of land (the « 
municipalities of Breslau, Stettin, Aachen, Dortmund, Leipzig and Mannheim, 
for example, are large landowners) for the systematic planning of town 
development in the interest of slum prevention and transit facilities, and the 
subsequent sale of part thereof for building purposes, subject to conditions 
imposed by the municipality ; the organisation (as, for instance, in Hamburg, 
Stuttgart, Nuremberg, Mannheim, Solingen, Düsseldorf, Essen and Dortmund) 
of a systematic inspection of dwellings ; the enactment of more or> less stringent 
building byelaws and housing regulations ; and the enforcement of regulations 
as to lodgers, particularly where, as in the great Rhineland-Westphalia coal and 
iron area, the recent rapid industrial development has brought a large influx of 
unmarried workmen from other parts of Germany. Examples of these various 
activities are described in the reports on the separate towns. 
(ii) Housing by Employers.—In a large number of instances employers 
have thought it necessary or desirable to provide housing accommodation for 
their workpeople. This has been so particularly in the Rhineland-Westphalia 
district, where the very rapid growth of the industrial population in recent years 
has put a great strain upon the supply of housing, but it has also been the case 
elsewhere. The most conspicuous example of this kind of housing enterprise is 
furnished by the large workmen’s colonies established by the Krupp firm in 
Essen, but much has also been done by colliery proprietors in and around Essen, 
Bochum and Dortmund, and at Königshütte and Zwickau ; by the proprietors 
of iron and steel works at the same three western towns and in Aachen and 
Düsseldorf ; and by various firms elsewhere, for instance in the suburbs of 
Berlin, at Mülhausen, Mannheim, and Stassfurt. At Munich and Nuremberg 
the Bavarian State Railway Administration has provided housing for some of 
its employees ; the Baden State Railways have done the same at Mannheim ; 
employees of the Prussian State Salt Mines are housed at Stassfurt, and, as 
already mentioned, some of the municipal authorities have taken similar action. 
(hi) Housing by Building Societies and Semi-Philanthropic Enterprise.—In 
a large number of the towns efforts towards the improvement of the conditions 
under which the working classes have to live have taken the form of building 
societies, formed to erect dwellings to be let to persons belonging to the 
industrial classes on moderate terms—generally on condition that the tenants 
must be shareholders in the society or must be acquiring 1 their tenements. 
Examples of such action are to be found in Berlin, Nuremberg, Düsseldorf, 
Dortmund, Mannheim, Remscheid, Magdeburg, Aachen, Bremen and 
Mülhausen—to name only a few examples. In other cases dwellings have been 
erected by semi-philanthropic societies contenting themselves with a limited 
rate of profit, as at Berlin, Munich, Düsseldorf, and Stuttgart ; or by purely 
philanthropic effort, as at Leipzig, Dantzig and Bremen. In many instances 
capital has been obtained by the various building societies, of both types, on 
loan from the State Insurance Funds ; the Rhineland Provincial Insurance 
Board alone had by the end of 1904 lent over £2,200,000 for the erection of 
working-class dwellings. 
Local Taxation in Germany.—It has already been stated that the rents 
quoted in this Report do not include any payments in respect of local taxes 
and it appears desirable to give in this place some account of municipal 
taxation in Germany, in so far as it affects the working classes. Inasmuch as