234
ESSEN.
insanitary confusion. They are frequently occupied by small tradespeople, who
have their shops on the ground floor and live above them. There are also
a number of small quiet streets (“ Gässchen ’’) with houses of the same type
but much better maintained, (b) The area, very much greater in extent, of
new streets ; some of these have large and good shops, others have long lines of
working-class houses, whilst others are given over to better class residences.
These streets are always broad and well-made, and the sanitary conditions are
good, (c) The “ colony ” areas, with workmen’s colonies of various kinds and
various degrees of merit—the elaborate colonies built by the Krupp firm, the
much simpler buildings erected by the colliery owners, and the new erections of
the Building Society.
The whole of the municipal area is undermined by various coal works, and
the former lack of care in the making of the mines has caused subsidences in
a number of places, and these, combined with the natural slope of the ground
on which the old town is built, give the central districts a very uneven
appearance.
The town possesses its own waterworks, gas-works, and a slaughter-house ;
it has public baths, a small library, and a municipal theatre which was
founded by a private benefaction ; and there is a town park. The tramway
service is in the hands of a private company, as the municipal authorities
recently decided not to purchase. The town has ^ fine new municipal hall,
and a few old buildings, including one church (the Münster-kirche) of great
antiquity. There is the usual municipal savings bank, with 52,768 depositors
in 1905, and deposits of £2,941,616, and the municipality carries on a. pawnshop,
a labour bureau, and a house agency, which let 1,058 dwellings during
the year 1904-5. There are no public market-halls, but the markets are held
in the old squares in the centre of the town almost every diy. It should also
be noticed that the Association for Mining interests (a great mine-owners’
union) has its headquarters at Essen, that there is a very active Chamber of
Commerce, and that the offices of the local rail way direction are also in the town.
Occupations, Wages, and Hours of Labour.
The following is the classification of the industrial workpeople of Essen
alone those under factory inspection) in 1906 :—
Group of Trades.
Number
of
Establishments.
Number of Workpeople.
Building
Mining and smelting
Metal working ...
Machine, implement and apparatus making
textiles ... ... ... ...
Clothing and cleaning
Printing, lithography, bookbinding, etc.
Paper ... ... ... ... ...
Woodworking and carving ...
Chemicals
Resins, varnishes, oil, soap, candles, etc.
Stone and earth
Food, drink and tobacco
Leather ... ... .. ... ...
Other ... ... ... ... ...
Total
121
19
79
104
6
203
29
3
59
7
6
58
280
5
1
985
Male.
2,272
6,746
5,381
20,910
40
179
947
6
1,125
453
659
1,592
1,089
141
1,091
Female.
Total.
8
37
1,100
149
25
36
13
60
1
42,631
1,429
2,272
6,746
5,381
20,918
77
1,279
1,096
31
1,161
453
659
1,605
1,149
142
1,091
44,060
* It is evident at once from this Table that the various iron and steel
industries and coal-mining have an overwhelming predominance among the
occupations of the town, and so far as the former group is concerned the great
Krupp firm is supreme.
The principal productions of the Krupp firm at its Essen works are war
material (including cannon and all their accessories, ammunition, rifle barrels,
and armour), railway, shipbuilding, and engineering materials of all kinds, sheet
