This study explores the effects of economic upheaval on water quality in the Hamburg region during the early 1920s. Drawing upon internal memoranda, newspaper reports, and minutes of the Hamburg City Council, this essay demonstrates that economic change and upheaval increased certain kinds of wastewater in the river Elbe, while undermining the ability of municipal experts to shield local water supplies from pollution. It also shows that prevailing definitions of pollution—which focused on the threats of waterborne pathogens—diverted attention from the kinds of industrial and agricultural wastes that made water taste bad, without immediately making people sick. Accordingly, the improvement of drinking water supplies only became a priority in the mid-1920s, when economic and political stability enabled cities in the region to construct new water works. Finally, I suggest that a class-based approach to the German inflation oversimplifies the question of who won and who lost during this chaotic period: almost all residents of the region confronted degraded water in one form or another.
See a summary of debates on the inflation in Niall Ferguson, Paper and Iron: Hamburg Business and German Politics in the Era of Inflation, 1897 to 1927 (Cambridge, 1995), 1-31; and Michael Schneider, “ Deutsche Gesellschaft in Krieg und Währungskrise, 1914-1924: Ein Jahrzehnt Forschungen zur Inflation,” Achiv für Sozialgeschichte16 (1986): 301-19.
2.
Quoted in Ferguson, Paper and Iron, 4.
3.
See overall discussion of this historiography at Ferguson, Paper and Iron, 12-23. For individual arguments cited by Ferguson, see J.M. Keynes, A Revision of the Treaty (London, 1922); H. Potthoff, Gewerkschaften und Politik zwischen Revolution und Inflation ( Düsseldorf, 1979); H.A. Winkler, Von der Revolution zur Stabilisierung: Arbeiter und Arbeiterbewegung in der Weimarer Republik, 1918-1924 (Berlin/Bonn, 1984).
4.
The most influential study of the inflation is Constantino Bresciani-Turroni, The Economics of Inflation: A Study of Currency Depreciation in Post-war Germany, 1914-1923 (London, 1931). Bresciani-Turroni asserted that inflation negatively impacted the health and living standards of many Germans by forcing them to eat less cereal, meat, and eggs; to substitute coarser food for typical fare; and to live in low-quality housing. See Bresciani-Turroni, Inflation , 329. See also Ferguson, Paper and Iron , 3-6. My conclusion that few historians have studied environmental conditions in the context of debates about the inflation is also based on a survey of other key literature in this field and the fact that I found few references to pollution or smoke in a number of well-known works. In addition to the works cited above, I surveyed Peter J. Lyth, Inflation and the Merchant Economy: The Hamburg Mittelstand, 1914-1924 (New York, 1990); Gerald Feldman, Carl Ludwig Holtfrerich, Gerhard Ritter, and Peter Christian Witt , eds., Die Erfahrung der Inflation: Beiträge zur Inflation und Wiederaufbau in Deutschland und Europa, 1914—1924 ( Berlin, 1984); Gerald D. Feldman, The Great Disorder: Politics, Economics, and Society in the German Inflation, 1914-1924 (New York, 1997).
5.
For typical works by environmental historians, see Klaus Georg Wey, Umweltpolitik in Deutschland: Kurze Geschichte des Umweltschutzes in Deutschland seit 1900 (Opladen, 1982), 60-87; Leopold and Roma Schua, Wasser: Lebenselement und Umwelt: Die Geschichte des Gewässerschutzes in ihrem Entwicklungsgang dargestellt und dokumentiert (Freiburg im Breisgau, 1981), 248-49. For a study which does consider the broader effects of inflation on the environment, see Peter Münch, Stadthygiene im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Göttingen, 1993), 58-59, 76-78, 244-63. For evidence that inflationary policies could have beneficial direct and indirect effects, see Franz-Josef Brüggemeier, “ A Nature Fit for Industry: The Environmental History of the Ruhr Basin, 1840-1990 ,” Environmental History Review18 (1994): 35-54.
6.
Ferguson, Paper and Iron,33; Richard Comfort, Revolutionary Hamburg: Labor Politics in the Early Weimar Republic (Palo Alto, CA, 1966), 8-10, 20-25; Eckart Klessmann, Geschichte der Stadt Hamburg (Hamburg, 1994), 532-61; Anthony McElligot, Contested City: Municipal Politics and the Rise of Nazism in Altona, 1917-1937 (Ann Arbor, MI, 1998), 1-18.
7.
For a broad discussion of Hamburg's diversified economy, see Comfort, Revolutionary Hamburg, 20-25; Ferguson, Paper and Iron , 33-43, 101-8, 179-99, 299; McElligot , Contested City, 1-18. For details of the firms which operated in the harbor and some discussion of wastewater treatment requirements, see Richard J. Evans , Death in Hamburg: Society and Politics in the Cholera Years (Oxford, 1987), 142-45, 532; memoranda in the files of Hamburg's Medical Board, in Medizinalkollegium (hereafter MK) II 0 7, Band 3, Staatsarchiv Hamburg (hereafter StaH), nos. 66-69, 112-34; Dirk Renalder, “Die Ölverschmutzung im Hamburger Hafen in den 20er und 30er Jahren,” in Arne Andersen, ed., Umweltgeschichte: Das Beispiel Hamburg (Hamburg, 1990), 186-201.
8.
Renalder, “ Die Ölverschmutzung im Hamburger Hafen,” 186-201; Ferguson, Paper and Iron, 122-26; See various memoranda from years just after World War I in MK II 0 3, Band 7, StaH, nos. 41-44; MK II 0 7, Band 3, StaH, nos. 112-34. Regarding labor shortages in Germany's industrial sector during the war, see Dietrich Orlow, A History of Modern Germany: 1871 to Present (Engelwood Cliffs, NJ , 1987), 97.
9.
The German word “Kali” is translated to English as “potash,” the active ingredient in which is potassium. For a translation of Kali, see W. Scholze-Stubenrecht and J.B. Sykes, eds., The Oxford Duden Dictionary: German-English/English-German (Oxford, 1990), 420. For a concise discussion of the chemical foundations of synthetic fertilizers, see Mark Cioc, The Rhine: An Eco-biography, 1815-2000 (Seattle, 2002), 114. For a discussion of the effects of Kali contamination on water supplies, see William P. Dunbar, Die Abwässer der Kali-Industrie (Munich, 1913), 41-71; William P. Dunbar, Die Versalzung und Verhärtung des Elbwassers (Munich, 1921), 75-82. See also a memorandum in the files of Hamburg's Department for River and Harbor, June 20, 1918; Strom und Hafenbau (hereafter, S&H), Akte 95, StaH, no. 43. For specific measurement of chloride salts in the Elbe, see minutes from the lower house of Hamburg's City Council, the Citizens' Assembly. See in particular “Bericht, . . . des Antrages von Berner und Genossen,” date in 1922 not recorded by author, Protokolle und Ausschußberichte der Bürgerschaft, 1922; Dr. G. Nachtigall, Salzgehalt und Härte des Hamburger Leitungswassers (Berlin, 1931), in MK II B 9, StaH, no. 164. Regarding the production of explosives and demands for nitrogen (an essential fertilizer) see Münch, Stadthygiene im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert , 105. For a discussion of the overall reasons why Kali production increased immediately after World War I, see Thomas Kluge and Engelbert Schramm, Wassernöte: Umwelt und Sozialgeschichte des Trinkwassers (Aachen, 1986), 100. Regarding the Hamburg water supply and waterworks plant, see Alfred Meng , Geschichte der Hamburger Wasserversorgung (Hamburg, 1993), 135-65, 174, 242-72, 335-41.
10.
Werner Hinze, “ Die Cholera von 1892,” in Hermann Hötte , ed., Wasser für Hamburg: Zur Geschichte der Hamburger Wasserversorgung und -entsorgung (Hamburg, 1992), 48-63; Alfred Meng, Geschichte der Hamburger Wasserversorgung, 135-61, 242-44, 253-66. For a discussion of Hamburg's method of sewage disposal and treatment, see Wilfried Voigt, “Geschichtliche Entwicklung der Hamburgischen Stadtentwässerung,” a technical exam thesis published in Hamburg in 1963, and maintained in the files of Hamburg's Staatsarchiv , in Hygienisches Staatsinstitut (hereafter HS), A 457/215, Kapsel 1, StaH, 1-40; see also Umweltbehörde, 150 Jahre Stadtentwässerung (Hamburg, 1993), 1-23.
11.
Ferguson, Paper and Iron, 93-117, 152-71, 180-91; Orlow, History of Modern Germany, 104-27.
12.
Ferguson, Paper and Iron, 180-82, 186-90, 228-38, 299.
13.
Ibid., 180-82, 186-90, 228-38, 299-300.
14.
Ibid., 110-17, 228-43.
15.
Ibid., 178-88; Orlow, History of Modern Germany, 122-27.
16.
Lyth, Inflation and the Merchant Economy, 91-133.
17.
Ferguson, Paper and Iron, 150-51, 179-88. Orlow, History of Modern Germany, 122-28. xviii Quoted in “Verunreinigung des Elbstrandes: der wahre Schuldige,” Hamburger Fremdenblatt, June 14, 1921.
18.
Memorandum in the files of Hamburg's Medical Board entitled, “Hygienisches Institut: Hamburg . . . den 25. März 1926”; MK II 0 3, Band 7, StaH, no. 106; MK II 0 3, Band 7, StaH, nos. 41-44. Regarding complaints about American steamers and increased oil pollution in the early 1920s, see various memoranda in MK II 0 3, Band 7, StaH. For statistics on the origin and destination of ships in the harbor, see Hamburgs Handel und Schiffahrt im Jahre 1926 (Hamburg, 1927), 10. For a discussion of the Hamburg Hygienic Institute, see Evans, Death in Hamburg, 500-530.
19.
Dunbar, a leading expert in Germany on methods of wastewater treatment, followed in the footsteps of other noted public health experts and engineers from abroad who worked in Germany during the late 1800s. For details on Dunbar's life and interests, see Norbert Monkemeier, “Aus der Lebensarbeit des ersten Direktors des Hamburger Hygienischen Instituts Prof. W. P. Dunbar, von 1892—1922,” (PhD diss., University of Hamburg, 1967). Maintained in files of the Hygienisches Institut; A 836/1; StaH, 1-51. For evidence that the city often lacked access to its research vessel, see various memoranda in MK II 0 3, Band 7, StaH, nos. 42-106. See discussion of problems in the City Waterworks Department in Meng, Geschichte der Hamburger Wasserversorgung, 242-44.
20.
Statistisches Jahrbuch für die Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg , 1925 (Hamburg, 1926), 96-97.
21.
Meng, Geschichte der Hamburger Wasserversorgung, 242-44, 253-55. My conclusion that officials in Altona did not treat water in that city because of financial problems is based on general impressions from Meng's discussion of Altona; see especially page 254. For a general discussion of the use of chemicals to treat water supplies see Kluge and Schramm, Wassernöte, 118; Martin V. Melosi, The Sanitary City: Urban Infrastructure in America from Colonial Times to the Present (Baltimore, 2000), 143-45, 223, 303.
22.
Meng, Geschichte der Hamburger Wasserversorgung, 242-44.
23.
Ibid., 253-55. For an in-depth discussion of the concept of “self purification,” see Kluge and Schramm, Wassernöte, 79-83.
24.
Staatsrat Lippmann to City Council, “Abschrift, . . . Drucksache für die Senatssitzung, Verteilt am Januar 1926,” 1926; MK II B 9, StaH, no. 133.
25.
Dunbar, Die Versalzung und Verhärtung des Elbwassers, 3-5; Dunbar, die Abwässer der Kali-Industrie, 7-10; Dr. G. Nachtigall, Salzegehalt und Härte des Hamburger Leitungswassers (Berlin, 1931), 8-9.
26.
Hamburg's experts knew that water polluted with human waste could contain harmful pathogens, and lead to the spread of cholera, typhoid, and other waterborne diseases. They were also increasingly concerned that bad tasting water threatened human health in other ways, presumably because people would drink less water if it tasted bad, or that they would use it less often for washing. See Dr. William Dunbar's comments along those lines in Dunbar, Die Versalzung und Verhärtung, 54-64, 70-85. It is not clear from the sources used in this study if public health experts and other government officials in Hamburg connected disease rates during the inflation to the pollution of Hamburg's water with Kali salts. In the statistical evidence I examined and the correspondence I read from the City Council and other government agencies, I saw no evidence that the city's experts explicitly made this connection. See, for example, correspondence in the files of Hamburg's Medizinal Kollegium in MK II B 9 and MK II 0 3, Band 7.
27.
By the late 1800s, hygienists in Germany began to see the high consumption of water as a sign of good health and cultural progress. See Münch, Stadthygiene , 90-93.
28.
Carl Ludwig Holtfrerich, The German Inflation: 1914-1923 (Berlin and New York, 1986), 262-65. Statistisches Jahrbuch1925, 75, 94.
29.
Apart from the Imperial Health Department's comments on the “weeding out” effect of the early 1920s, Richard Evans reports that well-known public health experts like Max von Pettenkofer frequently argued years earlier that a proper diet could help the population fight off diseases like cholera. See Evans, Death in Hamburg, 241.
Of course there is ample evidence that malnutrition weakens resistance to disease. For evidence of the growing awareness of this fact during the late 1800s in Germany and Hamburg, see Evans , Death in Hamburg, 241, 243, 466.
32.
Quoted in Fritz K. Ringer, ed., The German Inflation of 1923 (New York, 1969), 112-13.
33.
Evans, Death in Hamburg, 189-90.
34.
McElligot, Contested City, 62-63.
35.
Melosi, Sanitary City, 136, 145-46; Kluge and Schramm, Wassernöte, 87-96, 105-13.
36.
Melosi, Sanitary City, 146; Raymond H. Dominick, The Environmental Movement in Germany: Prophets and Pioneers, 1871-1971 (Bloomington, IN, 1992), 14-15.
37.
Kluge and Schramm, Wassernöte, 79-80, 99; “ Meeting of the New England Sewage Works Association,” Water Works and Sewerage81 (1934 ): 225.
38.
Meng, Geschichte der Hamburger Wasserversorgung, 158-61, 253-55.
39.
“Bericht des Antrages von Berner und Genossen,” Protokolle und Ausschußberichte der Bürgerschaft, 1922. For comments by Dr. Neumann of the Hygienic Institute in 1926, see a letter from Neumann to Hygienic Institute, date probably Jan. 1926; MK II B 9, StaH, no. 135.
40.
For a discussion of politics in Hamburg, see Ferguson, Paper and Iron, 150-90. I also reviewed minutes of the City Council from 1920, 1921, and 1922, where available. All of 1919 was missing from the Staatsarchiv Hamburg. See in particular Stenographische Berichte über die Sitzungen der Bürgerschaft zu Hamburg (Hamburg, various years).
41.
“Hamburgs Erforschung mit Leitungswasser,” Hamburger Fremdenblatt, Feb. 5, 1926.
42.
Meng, Geschichte der Hamburger Wasserversorgung, 263.
43.
Hendrik Seeger, “The History of German Waste Water Treatment,” European Water Management2 (1999): 51-56; Wey, Umweltpolitik in Deutschland, 64-101; “ Zu VI. 15980 . . ., Abschrift; Vermerk.,” May 25, 1925 ; R 86, Band 2417; Bundesarchiv, Lichterfelde.
44.
Ursula Büttner , Politische Gerechtigkeit und Sozialer Geist: Hamburg zur Zeit der Weimarer Republik (Hamburg, 1985), 152-69, 201-3; Orlow, History of Modern Germany, 144-45, 163-67; Ferguson, Paper and Iron, 434-37.
45.
Ferguson, Paper and Iron, 436; Meng, Geschichte der Hamburger Wasserversorgung, 242-72; various articles in MK II B 9, StaH, nos. 135-37.
46.
Büttner, Politische Gerechtigkeit, 47-59, 189-91, 201-3; Ferguson , Paper and Iron, 435-39; Meng, Geschichte der Hamburger Wasserversorgung , 257-59, 260-72.
47.
Quoted in Meng, Geschichte der Hamburger Wasserversorgung, 254, rest of discussion of this issue at 253-76.
48.
Methods of assessing water quality have changed over the last one hundred years. In general, bacteriological methods focus upon detecting the presence of pathogens like the germs that cause cholera or typhoid fever. Other techniques, variously described as chemical and biological methods, generally focus upon detecting the presence of various pollutants such as raw sewage, chloride salts, and other materials that tend to diminish levels of dissolved oxygen in water. For an in-depth discussion, see Cioc, The Rhine, 146-47; Melosi, Sanitary City, 136, 145-48, 162, 228, 256, 311, 391-92. For a discussion of policies in Altona, see Meng, Geschichte der Hamburger Wasserversorgung, 253-76.
49.
Meng, Geschichte der Hamburger Wasserversorgung, 254-76.
50.
Both sources quoted in ibid., 265.
51.
Ibid., 263-81, 316-19.
52.
Renalder, “ Ölverschmutzung im Hamburger Hafen,” 186-98. For individual newspaper headlines, see “Großes Fischsterben im Hamburger Hafen,” Hamburger Echo, Sept. 22, 1928; “Elbefischerei in Not!” Hamburger Anzeiger, Feb. 3, 1928; and “Die Elbefischerei ist tot,” Hamburger Correspondent, June 25, 1932.” For evidence that other industrial chemicals were ruining fisheries elsewhere in Germany, see Kluge and Schramm, Wassernöte, 101-4.
53.
Renalder, “ Ölverschmutzung im Hamburger Hafen,” 186-96. See also various memoranda from early 1920s in MK II 0 3, Band 7, StaH, nos. 42-44, 104, 106.
54.
Quoted in Memorandum, no title recorded, Mar. 25, 1926; MK II 0 3, Band 7, StaH, no. 110, and see full discussion by city on this issue at nos. 106-10.
55.
Renalder, “ Ölverschmutzung im Hamburger Hafen,” 189.
56.
Undated memorandum in files of the Hamburg Hygienic Institute, Signatur 238, StaH, nos. 15-21.
57.
See memoranda in various files of the Medical Board, MK II 0 3, Band 7; StaH, 106-88.
58.
Büttner, Politische Gerechtigkeit, 233-49, 252.
59.
McElligot, Contested City , 205.
60.
Büttner, Politische Gerechtigkeit, 260-61.
61.
See various minutes from the Stenographische Berichte über die Sitzungen der Bürgerschaft zu Hamburg (Hamburg, 1928 to 1931).
62.
Arne Andersen , “`Das hat sehr, sehr bestialisch gestunken!' Die Norddeutsche Affinerie” in Arne Andersen, ed., Umweltgeschichte: Das Beispiel Hamburg (Hamburg, 1990), 218-25.
63.
I arrived at this conclusion by, among other things, surveying available minutes in the City Council and Senate, and by reading key chapters from Büttner, Politische Gerechtigkeit, 237-77.
64.
For evidence that some residents of German cities were drinking mineral water, see Kluge and Schramm, Wassernöte, 105-25.
65.
Franz-Josef Brüggemeier, “The Concept of Zoning in Germany ,” in Friedrich Lenger, ed., Towards an Urban Nation (Oxford, 2002 ), 115-18.
